Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Non-fiction. This one is a must read! I read it for the March 2015 meeting of my library's non-fiction book club. It was a perfect fit for a book club, there was much to discuss, we all enjoyed it, and we have kept bringing it up in our meetings and when we see each other outside of book club. The college where I teach originally selected this for a campus-wide read in 2013-2014, but I was so busy in my first year as full-time that I put off reading it. As I told the book club, sometimes I feel like we do not read certain books until it is the right time for us, for some other reason than logic can explain, and I think if I had read it then, back in 2013, it would not have been the right time. When we read this for book club in 2015 I was ready, and it is an amazing and appalling story.

Medical science and ethics are a fuzzy area, as this book proves, especially back when they took her cells without her knowledge the 1950s. Most people who took any biology classes at all have heard of HeLa cells, the basis for cell research in the US and around the world, but most (like me) do not know they were named after a person He(nrietta) La(cks). Most people (like me) also probably do not know that the Hippocratic oath is a sort of suggestion and is not held up as law, or that its actual wording is not really followed at all. Try looking it up, I did, fascinating stuff. Most people (like me) probably do not know that pieces of their genetic material could be in use, right now, for experiments around the globe or are being kept in freezers, because when we agree to have pieces of us removed during surgery they are medical waste, garbage, and therefore we threw them away and anybody has a right to grab them and use them.

If you are even remotely interested in medical ethics, how modern medicine and the study of genetics is completely in-debt to this woman, and/or have ever wondered "what happened to my appendix when they took it out?" then this book is for you. I am not a scientist, a doctor, or involved in the medical industry and I found the book highly readable and compelling. It is much more fascinating than the book description on the jacket, I cannot recommend it enough!

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Book Review: Dog Days: A Year in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile by Dave Ihlenfeld

Read for non-fiction book club at CLPL (Real World Reads) January 2015.  The style is memoir.  This is a summer job plus coming of age story, but in an unusual car.  It is a fun lighthearted read that will give you a nice dose of nostalgia, you'll learn a bit about the history of Oscar Meyer (and if you live near Chicago it is a little hometown interest as well), and you'll see the joy and challenges they had driving these crazy cars.  I learned that you always take "weenie whistles" with you when going to Walmart because everybody will stop you for one, how outdated these cars still are, and if I know a young person looking for something fun to do the summer after they finish college, I know where to tell them to apply.  Although we read this in January, I would recommend this more as a summer read, since it is a bubbly travel journal of a young man with a playful attitude.

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Book Review: The Price of Justice by Laurence Leamer

Narrative non-fiction.  I read this for my local library's non-fiction book club (October 2014).  This is an excellent book and very heartbreaking too.  My best friend's stepfather died in a coal mining accident in the 1990s, but to my knowledge I do not think it had anything to do with Don Blankenship (or Massey) or the evils he has done to people.  I know most of the bigger cities and some of the smaller towns mentioned in this work, I have been to many of them, and as I said I am friends with the daughter of a coal miner, so it was very easy for me to picture these places and the people discussed in the book.  Regardless, even if you are not familiar with any of that, I do believe it would be an interesting book for those who want to know what people go through in coal mining, what it is like for the little businesses going against big operations, and also for anybody interested in law cases, the courts, and corruption.  Apparently a John Grisham book called The Appeal was based off of the real life events explained in this non-fiction work.  If you remember the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, these are the people and events leading up to that event (it is also discussed), through a fight of over 15 years, one which led all the way to the Supreme Court due to corruption in electing judges in the state supreme court of West Virginia.  I highly recommend this one, definitely a good read!

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Book Review: Gulp by Mary Roach

Non-fiction.  I read this for the non-fiction book club at my local library (July 2014).  Really interesting book, though I may have found it more so than the average person because I have GI issues.  Our bodies are really interesting machines.  The author has a good sense of humor and goes to some funny places that do some unusual experiments.  Mary Roach visited people who are professional taste testers (e.g. olive oil), some people who explain why only smell is important to dogs when choosing their food but that cats only really care about texture so you can call their food whatever you like and it makes a difference only to the owners, scientists who determine the smell factors and components of flatulence, she enthusiastically gets a colonoscopy, and other bizarre, funny, and informative adventures.  Boy the history of medicine has been quite bizarre at times.  I enthusiastically recommend this one.  It really helped me learn quite a bit about my own GI issues in an entertaining way and about some of the new research being done about bacteria and its importance to our digestive and overall health.  I look forward to reading some of her other books, if they are half as interesting as this they will be worth the read.

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Book Review: The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch

Memoir, non-fiction.  I read this for the non-fiction book club at my local library (August 2014).  Interesting account of a man who learns he has Asperger Syndrome at age 30, and a local author for me, he lives in this area of north of Chicago.  Insightful information about what the journey was/is like for him, and very funny in parts too.  We all thought his wife was very patient and many thought she was a saint.  I found it very helpful with trying to understand how a person with Asperber Syndrome functions and behaves in a world of "neurotypicals."  To me, knowledge breeds understanding, understanding breeds patience, and I think the ideas here will help me with my interactions with others, with extending compassion to all.  I highly recommend this book, it funny, informative, and a real eye-opener.

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Book Review: West with the Night by Beryl Markham

     I read this for the "Real World Reads" non-fiction book club at the library for January 2014.  The only thing this book accomplishes is trying to use every adjective in the English language.  I absolutely hated it.  The only positive thing I have to say is that I finished it and that I never have to read another word of it ever again.  I would never recommend it to anybody...ever.

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Book Review: Burying the Typewriter by Carmen Bugan

Read for CLPL "Real World Reads" non-fiction book club for July 2013.  I read it early because July might be a very busy month.

I really enjoyed this book!  It is a memoir by Carmen Bugan about her time growing up as a child in Romania during the Ceausescu regime.  If you did not know that she wrote poetry, you could guess it once you start reading the book.  She does not really write as an adult looking back with mature observations, but writes the memoir in a way that makes you feel the same emotions and sensations she did as a child.  The thoughts and observations grow up as she does in the memoir.  It takes place primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in Romania, and ends with her immediate family's arrival in the U.S. (Michigan), with an afterward written in the early 2000s.

Although her father was a political activist, you do not find out too much about this until later, because she did not know about it until later, so you have a kind of sweet and naive veil over your eyes while reading the book, the same that she did as a child.  It is written with such beautiful descriptions that it really makes you long for those simpler times, with pure enjoyment of flowers, making bread, canning vegetables and fruits, small village life, the kindness of grandparents, and so on.  And as she becomes more and more repressed and goes through more and more hardships because of the government and her father's rebellious actions, you see the tragedies but do not feel depressed because of her lyrical writing.

I would definitely recommend this book!  It is wonderfully written, a quick read (I read it in two sittings), and looks at what could be a depressing and horrible time with the simple and joyful eyes of a child, surrounded by her loving grandparents, and enjoying every moment of life.

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Book Review: Fordlandia by Greg Grandin

Read for the fiction book club "Bookies" at CLPL for June 2013, but this is a non-fiction selection.

Although the actual events of what happened in the Amazonian jungle with Henry Ford creating "Fordlandia" was interesting, I did not like the book.  It was dry, extremely repetitive, and could have been accomplished in fewer pages.  It made for an O.K. discussion, with us talking about how inept the Ford men in the jungle were, the arrogance of imposing "Americanism" on different cultures, and why people blame Henry Ford for making America into a fast-paced consumer culture.

The beginning of the book is kind to Henry Ford and praises his inventiveness and determination to pay his workers good wages, but probably only as a means to sucker people into reading the rest of it (that is what one woman in our book club thought, and I probably have to agree with her).  The middle is terribly repetitive and dry, with the author rarely telling you what year it is while simultaneously jumping around in time.  This makes it confusing to know what happened in what order, since it is not chronological at all, and also makes it seem like they were in the Amazon for decades when they were only there a handful of years.  The end concentrates on the author blaming Henry Ford for everything bad that has ever happened with consumer culture for the last eighty years because of his interest in trees, soybeans, and assembly-line production.

My advice would be to look up this information somewhere else and save yourself about sixteen hours of reading severely dry and repetitive text.  I really had to force myself to finish this one, I was tempted many times to put it down and walk away from it forever.  I only finished it because it was for book club and that is saying quite a bit, I always finish books I have started, no matter what.

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Book Review: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Read for CLPL Real World Reads Non-Fiction Book Club for June 2013.  

     This was a funny book about trying to "thru-hike" the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Georgia to Maine.  It slows down a little bit about halfway through the book when the author has to take a break because of other previous obligations, but picks back up toward the end.  When he tries to just section hike small bits and pieces of the trail on day-hikes by himself it is not as steady a pace or as funny as when he is sincerely hiking it with his friend in earlier portions of the book.  It was a nice summer read and was absolutely hilarious in the beginning, filled with factoids about the AT and the environment throughout, and it was also a pretty quick read.
     Some of the funniest moments are with his old friend and hiking partner Katz, who tends to whip things off the cliff when he gets frustrated with the weight of his pack, including seemingly weightless items like coffee filters just for the sheer joy of watching them flutter in the wind because he is so frustrated.  The author also has some pretty choice things to say about bears, maintaining the trails, and young hikers wearing suede boots and only wanting to party.  At times Bryson paints a pretty bleak picture of conservation efforts, including a few crazy things like a town in PA burning for decades because of a spark set to some anthracite coal.  I definitely recommend it as a good laugh and as informative at the same time!

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Book Review: Argo by Antonio J. Mendez (and Matt Baglio)

     I read this for the CLPL Real World Reads Book Club (non-fiction club) for May 2013.  It was a really easy read and since I did not see the movie or any trailers for it I was not sullied by it before reading.  I plan on getting the movie from the library now that I have read it to see if it is any good compared to the book.  Apparently they are very different, as the actual rescue does not happen until the last 20 pages of the book, and I was told that the rescue itself is what the entire movie focuses on, so the film must be quite different in feel from the book.
     The book's author had a really nice writer's voice, it was not tense or scary, it was informative and fun, a pretty light read actually compared to other non-fiction books I have read.  It was a quick read too, you kind of blink and you are halfway through the book.  It was interesting to find out how makeup artists helped the CIA improve their disguise tactics over the years, and little details like making sure you have the right staple on a fake passport because a certain country uses cheap ones that rust on purpose.  We also never find out the real name of the makeup artist who worked with the CIA for so many years, so I am curious if anybody has put all the little fact crumbs the author gives the reader together and has figured out who the makeup artist really was/is...
     I am still a little up in the air about how I feel about the government spending $10,000 in the late 1970s (must be an enormous amount in today's terms) to rescue only 6 people who were pretty safe in a nice mansion and hosted by the Canadian ambassador.  They spent their time tanning, enjoying a few beverages, and playing scrabble, so the amount of money spent seems a bit excessive for people not in any kind of serious and immediate danger.  I also could not believe how the rescue of the rest of the people held hostage in the U.S. embassy for 444 days went so terribly wrong and that the head honchos of the government agencies  were not smart enough to try and use the cover story again in some way.  Since I was extremely young when all this happened, it helped put the time period into context for me, and also why the U.S. tried to keep up diplomatic relations with Iran, how it overlapped with the USSR making their way into Afghanistan, and why this helped motivate many people to not re-elect Jimmy Carter.  Pretty slick timing on the part of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
     Definitely worth a read, it is interesting, informative, and a fairly light book considering it is a pretty heavy political topic and shares some working methods of the CIA.  Their ability to find people who can look like multiple ethnicities, speak multiple languages, and go unnoticed as an average Joe makes me wonder how many times we have actually seen them in airports and just do not know it...

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Book Review: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

     Read for Bookies fiction book club CLPL for May 2013.  I finished the book the night before and then promptly missed going to book club because I was grading finals.  This double angered me because I did not like the book at all, and since I missed book club I basically read it for no benefit whatsoever.

     Different characters narrate each chapter, rotating between a few of them.  I do not feel like the writer captured the voices of each person very well, and much less successfully than other recent books that have done the same thing (like The Help).  It was a farm, life was hard, and people were terribly racist.  Not a big shocker for 1940s Mississippi and definitely a cliche in the book and film worlds.  I would not recommend wasting your time reading this one, I definitely want those hours of my life back.  It was boring and not thought-provoking at all.

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Book Review: The Little Book by Selden Edwards

Read for the fiction Crystal Lake Public Library book club for March 2013.  This cover is the large print cover which I read.

This is the regular size print cover which some of the other people had, also nice, but I like the large print cover better.

     We had a Skype session with the author who was interesting, friendly, and answered our questions well, even when we picked on him a bit for being so Freudian in the book!  We liked the book and thought the characters were o.k. but we thought he gilded the lily and over did it when he threw in Mark Twain for a moment too.  That made more sense to us though when we talked to him, because he shared a story where a friend said "hey, did you know Mark Twain was there at that time in Vienna too?"  And he decided he better put it in so if people asked why he did not include Mark Twain he would not have to answer that by putting him in there.  I was convinced that they were all dead about a quarter of the way into the book, sort of as a "people you will meet in heaven" or God help me "Lost" sort of thing, and I asked him about that during the Skype session.  He did say that many native American groups and tribes do believe you live these moments out at the moment of death and then just sort of sweetly smiled and eluded me a bit.  Smart guy :)  He did say there is a follow-up book (kind of fast since this one took 17 years to write) and that it opens with a whopper on the first page.  I will not put it down here in case that would be a spoiler.  I am considering reading the next one but with my crazy schedule it is tough to get in the two books a month for my book clubs as is, so I will have to see, maybe over the summer months...I also wanted to mention he showed us a wooden Frisbee his wife had made for him as a present, which I thought was fun and sweet, and very nice of him to share it with us!  It was a total pleasure to speak with him over Skype for our group, great guy!

The author, a very nice and friendly guy!

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Book Review: Third World America by Arianna Huffington

Read for "Real World Reads" non-fiction book club at Crystal Lake Public Library for March 2013.

     The woman is a genius, I am ready to elect her right now!   A lot of what is in this book I have been saying for years, and I was very surprised.  I thought this was one of this years book club reads that I was not going to like when I read the title.  I do not know much about her, but I will start paying attention to her now and I will start looking at The Huffington Post online (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/).  I thought she was spot-on about the issues, how they arose, and had some very smart ideas on how to fix the mess.  I found her willing to poke at people on both sides of the aisle in Washington, but more importantly, she looked at the root causes of the issues and not just the symptoms.  She did not spend all of her time blaming politicians but looked at the key figures, organizations, banks, and other factors that are the real causes.  I think every politician needs to read this book and every voter as well: we elect them, they should speak for us and act in our interests, not in the interests of lobbyists and corporations.  I am excited for the book club discussion coming up this Tuesday.  This should make for a great jumping-off point for some discourse on these serious issues.

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Book Review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Read for the library's non-fiction book club (February 2013 - Crystal Lake Public Library).

     I liked it because it read like a novel and not just a list of facts, and also because it helps you see what life is like by those who live it everyday in the slums of India, right next to the burgeoning wealthier class.  I felt it was a truthful account that tried to lay out how things work and why for some of the poorest people in the world.  It makes you appreciate when you have your water shut off or heat shut off because of lack of money.  This happens to those of us who are underpaid in the U.S. at least a few times a year, but it is a normal part of their lives to never even have it to begin with, so despite our struggles in the U.S., we should definitely appreciate what we have no matter what the circumstances.  I definitely would recommend this book to those interested in contemporary life in India and those who want to appreciate what they have and the meaning of working smart in dire situations.

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Book Review: Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok

For February 2013 Bookies (Fiction Book Club) at Crystal Lake Public Library.

     I thought the writing was fine but the book was rather cliche.  The first half was fine but once she had the pregnancy and was off to college I thought the "twists" were quite typical and I lost interest.  I did not hate it, but I would not recommend it much to anybody, except if you cannot see plot twists coming from a mile away.  The author apparently based much of the first half on real life events and people, especially her brother, although the protagonist is a girl, Kimberly.  I think that is why the ending becomes cliche and dies, she no longer had real life to reference for those parts.  When she was referencing life in the first 1/2 to 3/4 of the book it was better written and flowed more smoothly.

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Book Review: Crashing Through by Robert Kurson

A CLPL Book Club read, for the fiction club but this is one of their non-fiction selections, based on the life of Mike May, one I had to catch up on because I had to teach when they met for this read.  I thought it was interesting but at times a bit too campy or cheesy.  I thought Mike May was a little too obsessed with seeing women (and their body parts) when he gained his sight; but, it is a somewhat hopeful and uplifting book, just not enough to make it truly memorable.

The author (Robert Kurson)

Mike May and his family (2006)

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