The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

“But I tell you one thing, I don't want to be immortal if it mean living forever, cause then everybody else just die and get old in front of you while you stay the same, and that's just sad.” 

In general, the only non-fiction I read includes biographies and histories. Most non-fiction just doesn't appeal to me. However, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a combination of things I'm used to...and not. While it definitely is part biography and part history, it also includes a lot of science and investigative jargon that was a bit outside my element. But I read it anyway, after hearing lots of praise for the book.

This is a book that's hard to describe, mainly because it does so much more than it sets out to.

Henrietta Lacks, also known as HeLa to scientists the world over, was a woman who died from a very aggressive form of cancer in 1951. Shortly before she passed away, doctors took samples of her cells (as was pretty common back then) without her consent. These cells, the HeLa cells, went on to grow and regenerate. They soon became a staple in all laboratories and became the focus of scientific experimentation and progress.

This book not only manages to explore all of the details of Henrietta's life and the immortal life of her cells, but takes it further to the legal and ethical issues surrounding those cells and the lives of Henrietta's children. Much of the book focuses on whether the scientific community had the right to the HeLa cells when they were taken without consent and whether the children of Henrietta Lacks, who help Skloot learn more about their mother, are entitled to some kind of compensation from the success of the scientific community in conjunction with research with HeLa cells.

It's an interesting balance for a book-combining family and personal histories with the advancements of science. It also puts a lot of questions "out there" for the reader to ponder:

• Did the doctors who took samples of Lacks' cells have the right to do so?
• Do scientists have the right to sell and distribute cells for scientific research?
• Who should earn the profit made off of cells like HeLa?
• How would this situation been different if Lacks hadn't been a poor black woman?

I personally don't have answers for any of those questions. Instead, I'm left pondering the meaning of the book and of where science has brought us.None of us can deny that researching the way cancer works is important! And knowing that HeLa cells have helped scientists understand the workings of cancer (and so many other things) can almost justify what was done to poor Lacks and her family. It's an interesting conundrum, and one that I still don't think I have a handle on.

For me, however, the biggest issues to stand out were those of race and class. How would things have been different if Henrietta had been white? More educated? Made more money? I don't know, but as Skloot reveals, perhaps Lacks was taken advantage of because of who she was. That says a lot about research!

In all, I found The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be one of the best books I read in 2013. It's a book that I wish more people in my life have read, so I can talk their ear off. It's also opened my eyes to reading more non-fiction in my future, including subjects that are out of my comfort zone. How else do we learn but by pushing ourselves?

“She's the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?”

Weekly Wrap-up for January 12, 2014: A "Snowy" Week and Getting in the Groove.

How is everyone doing this fine Sunday morning? I'm typing this up quickly before packing up and heading to the library to get some work done! I find that I get a lot more done when I step away from the distractions of cuddly kittens, books, and a comfy couch.

This week was supposed to be our first week back at school, but we were hit with that nasty weather that plagued the Midwest starting on Sunday. We ended up having three snow days! It was a bit crazy, but I was glad for the first couple. I came down with another case of walking pneumonia (which I think I mentioned last week), so I would have been home Monday anyway). Having some extra time off allowed me to rest and relax a bit more from the safety and warmth of our apartment.

The weather was definitely COLD. It read negative 35 here at points, and the snow was crazy. The roads were still horrible when I finally left the house on Wednesday to escape to my mom's for a few hours. Thursday morning also was a bit of a harrowing drive, since there was still a lot of ice! But, I got a lot done in those 3 days, and it was nice to only have 2 days back before this weekend. :)

The kids were happy to be back, but with finals coming up in just another week, we're all feeling a bit pressured to get things done and get to review. I'm also excited to get to second semester content in my American lit class because I have a lot of fun things planned for them. I've been working all year to revamp some lessons and pull in some fun activities, and the kids are truly enjoying the class. AP U.S. is getting closer to their exam and my co-teacher is nearing her due date. She'll be leaving me in early April, so the last month before the exam will be spent with a sub!

In any case, I still have a lot of school work to get done before the semester ends and not enough time to do it. I'm only slightly regretting my super relaxing Christmas break, but I really did need that time off to recharge. My work will get done when it gets done. :)

In terms of reading, I finished A Game of Thrones yesterday morning. There is a post scheduled to go up on Wednesday. It's the first book I finished for the year, and it was a doozy. I also moved on and started A Moveable Feast by Hemingway last night, inspired by my reading of The Paris Wife. I'm not far into it, but I'm enjoying it.

Anyway, I best get to the library to get a good table. I hope you had a wonderful week with great reading!

Room by Emma Donoghue.

“People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.”

I was living under a rock when this novel came out and people told me to read it. Generally speaking, I avoid books that come out with a bang (example: The Hunger Games. I refused to read it when it first came out and started getting press). You would think I would learn my lesson. It's my inner book snob.

In any case, I was wandering the shelves in the media center before I left for our Winter Break when this one jumped out at me-it was mishelved. I grabbed it to put it away, but read the back cover and decided to bring it home with me, just in case.

So, over break, I happened to finish another book (Champion by Marie Lu) and wasn't quite tired yet. After reaching into the bag filled with books from school, this one found it's way into my hand. And I started reading...

3 hours later, I finished it. That should say something. I mean, you know when people say that they couldn't put a book down, and you're like, "No, you probably did put it down to go to the bathroom." Nope, I waited until I finished it. It drove my husband nuts.

As for the actual content of the book....it sucked me right in. 5 year old Jack has always lived in Room, along with Bed, Wall, Egg Snake, and a host of other objects and locations in the small room he shares with his mother. It is the only place he has ever known-he was born in the room and has never left, or seen the outside (there is only Skylight in Room).

The narrative starts on Jack's birthday and tells the story of how Jack and his mother decide to escape after a series of events, their rescue, and their rehabilitation into society. And while I certainly enjoyed Jack's description of Room and his life there, it was the second half of the novel that really grabbed me.

Because once out of Room, Jack has to come to terms with the fact that everything he has been taught his entire life wasn't completely true. He has to learn how to interact with people who aren't his mother, understand their emotions, and how things work in the real world. There was a scene where he was at a bookstore and saw HIS book-Dylan the Digger-and decided to keep it without understanding that there could be more than one. It was that kind of scene that really grabbed me.

I think Donoghue really excelled at capturing that kind of confusion and loss. Repeatedly Jack asks to go back to Room-not because he necessarily loved it there, but because it was what he knew, it was what he knew to be safe.

“The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.” 

The result is a book that sucks you in-you have to know how Jack will handle the world around him. And how his mother will adjust to being back in the world after being gone so long.

It was a beautiful and haunting book that I really want to read again and soon. And if you brushed it off like I did, you should really give it a chance.

“In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit....”

Revising Old and New Reading Projects.

One of the things that prevented me from returning to the blog for weeks at a time was that I felt very stilted in my reading project (my list of 250 classics). I was struggling to keep going since the original purpose was so far removed from me, and the project was too big to begin with. That's not to say I won't ever read those books in the future, but more that there were other reading projects calling for my time and attention. And I was sick of feeling guilty for picking a book to read off a list other than the 250 list.

My first venture out was my list for the Classics Club. I should have thrown that 250 list out the window then, but I held on to it. And the Classics Club has been great in regards to opening my eyes up to more and more classic work to read...at some point in my life. I don't feel as much urgency to complete that real long list of books...mainly because I consider it to be a lifelong goal.

However, I needed to officially break away from my 250 list of books, and I think I've finally done it. That list is now buried in draft on my blogger dashboard. And while I will probably read from the list and finish it, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm sure I will check it from time to time so I can see what's left, but I'm no longer focusing on it. And that's a HUGE relief.

Instead, I'm focusing on reading freely-classics, YA, some science-fiction and fantasy, non-fiction, etc. I want to be free to grab what I'm interested in at any time and not feel like I am cheating on my poor book list. That being said, there are some author studies I've been longing to do, as well as some other projects.

Over the course of the last week, I've been revising the pages on my blog. If you look at the lovely bar across the top, you'll see quite a few new projects. The first is my link to my Classics Club list, which needs a bit of maintenance and revision (folding my remaining 250 books into my larger list). The Classics Club will remain a focus for me. Because while I am reading a little more diversely, I still have mad love for the classics.

I also have a link to my progress for my Willa Cather Project, which I abandoned last winter when guilt from my other commitments stepped in. I've already made a lot of progress for that project, so I'm hoping to pick it up again in the very near future. I think it's perfectly doable to pick up one Cather title/month, since most of her work is on the slim side. This is a project I'm very excited to get back into, so look forward to lots of Cather posts in the future!

Now, on to the new projects!

Back in January 2012, I hosted a Shakespeare Reading Month, and it remains as one of my favorite reading events (A Victorian Celebration is a very close 2nd-look for a reboot coming in a few months!!). I have been thinking about launching into a Shakespeare focus ever since that event took place, and I've finally taken the plunge.

Similar to my Willa Cather Project, my Shakespeare Project is a way for me to dive into an author study by completing his/her complete works. In the case of Shakespeare, I want to finish reading all of his plays and poetry. On the page linked above, I've listed everything known to be written by the bard, as well as links to posts I've written about each piece. For now, I'm going to work towards reading and writing about the pieces that don't already have a dedicated post (even though I've read more of the plays than it seems). After I've completed that, I'm sure I will reread a few (especially from my early days of blogging). I'd also like to make it a point to read more information about the Bard himself, so links to biographies, etc will also be forthcoming. I've also added links to some of my Shakespeare focused posts on that page as well! Some of those posts remain my most popular blog posts!

The second new project I'm launching focuses on Charles Dickens' Major Works. This is something I've been toying with for quite some time (I was initially going to do this last year as opposed to Willa Cather).

For this project, I'm looking to read (and reread) the 16 major works of Charles Dickens. I've read about half of his work, but some of it was very early on in blogging and some begs for another reread (hello David Copperfield, how I LOVE you!). So, unlike Cather and Shakespeare, I will be setting out to reread initially. I'm not sure if I'm going to read in publication order, but that is something I'm toying with.

I'm also hoping to read a little more about Dickens. I already have the Tomalin biography on my shelf, as well as the lovely Dickens Bicentenary that I referenced while reading his work before. I imagine I'll add to those two as I move forward in this project, so if you have a title to suggest, please do!

Lastly, I'm hoping to add a lot more rereading to my life with my Rereading Project.This was very much inspired by o at Behold the Stars, so all credit goes to her genius!

I think that as bloggers, we always feel pressured to read things that are new to us, but like many of you (I'm sure), rereading was a huge part of my reading persona prior to blogging. I miss rereading, so this just serves as a way to bring that back into my reading appetite.

This project requires that I try and reread 15 books/year, which isn't an overwhelming amount. Considering that I read 65 books last year (and 80+) in the years before, that doesn't even come close to have my reading diet. I also think it'll be interesting to see how books stick out in my memory from my early days of blogging (or, alas, pre-blogging years!). And while I've made a tentative list of 15 books (which happen to all be books from that 250 list) to get me started, I'm not holding myself to any list for this! This is my chance to stare at my shelves and reread as I want-classic or not! I really think this is a great way to bring me back to a sense of normalcy in my reading...and help me remember that reading is for pleasure, not work.


There you have-some revisions to old projects and quite a few new ones! I still have some ideas for other things to tackle-further author studies, time period studies, etc, but for now, these are enough to keep me entertained and busy. I'm hoping that working with open-ended goals provides me the intellectual stimulation I crave and the ability to abandon at will. :)

How do you feel about reading projects? Do you have any of your own?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Goals and Resolutions for 2014.

It's Tuesday, and that means it's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I can't remember the last time I did one of these, but this week's topic is too perfect and I'm excited to share this list with you all!

My list is a combination of bookish and non-bookish, so I've kept it divided for you.

The Bookish Goals:

1. Read 75 books this year. I used to read 100/year easily, but in 2013, I only read 65. I'm okay with that, but I think 75 is a comfortable number for me!
2. Blog regularly. I don't really know what that means....but I think it means more than once a week.
3. Complete my challenges. I only signed up for 2 reading challenges this year, but I think both are perfectly doable!
4. Finish my Penguin clothbound collection. Those pesky people at Penguin keep releasing titles....and since I own almost all of them, I should just own ALL of them, know what I mean?
5. Continue to read without boundaries. Deciding to break away from my strict list has been a good decision. I'm going to continue reading a variety.
6. Book Purge. Okay, SAD, but I need to have another go at the books in boxes in our spare closet.

The Non-Bookish Goals:

1. Buy a house. We just celebrated our 4-year anniversary after Christmas and have decided it's time we need more space (for puppies! Okay...and maybe babies). This is the year we're going to buy a house (probably late summer/early fall).
2. Take Sewing classes. I got a sewing machine for Christmas, so learning how to sew is high up there! I've always wanted to learn, so I'm going to do it!
3. Clean out our storage unit. While I deep-cleaned much of our actual apartment over the summer, I didn't touch our storage unit in the basement (SPIDERS). There is stuff down there that needs to be tossed. We haven't used it since we got married....it goes.
4. Stay healthy! This is something I've been really working on with my doctor. I've been lucky to not have had a full flare in months, and I think that's because I'm making it a point to really take care of myself. That will continue!

What goals do you have for this coming year?