The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This is a book I never would have chosen to read on my own.  As  most of my books these days are book club selections rather than my own, this book got read.  But then again that is why I joined a book club, to read books I normally wouldn’t pick up and read on my own.  I went in to this reading tentatively, I hadn’t voted for this book and I really didn’t think that I would like it, but I did.  It wasn’t a can’t put’er down book, but when I choose to sit down and read it, it kept me interested and I didn’t give up.

The book itself is about Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line, known as the HeLa, that was collected in 1951 from her cervical cancer cells.  These cells have been used in multiple research projects and helped lead to the vaccine for polio.  They have been one of the greatest contributions to medical advancement, yet they were essentially stolen from Henrietta and used without her permission.  The book not only finally shares the life of this woman, whose legacy was never imagined in her wildest dreams. It also explores the ethical questions surrounding taking tissue samples used in research with out the patient’s consent and just how much consent needs to be given.  

When I started the book I was outraged that the Lacks family had seen no benefits from the sale of Henrietta’s cells, that her children couldn’t afford health care and her were so poor.  They had limited education and were taken advantage of multiple time, until Ms. Skloot came along to write her novel, no one even bothered to tell them what was really happening with their mother’s cells.  They were in the dark, hearing only tabloid type stories, and no one even tried to reach out to them.  I was so angry, but by the end of the book I could see the scientific communities point of view and their concerns over being able to advance medicine.  I still don’t think the Lacks family was treated well or fairly, but I wasn’t as angry.  

The writing was good, Ms. Skloot tried to tell the facts without being so technical the reader gets lost, she also tried to tell the Lacks story in their own words.  The result is a wonderful humanistic scientific piece.  I'm not sure that is even a real phrase, but that is what it is.  Some of the sections are in the family members own words and were a little harder to read, but all in all Ms. Skloot did an amazing thing bringing Henrietta's story into the light where she could be recognized for her contribution and her family could finally know the truth of what her cells were and what they were doing.

(Read 10/28/13-11/12/13)

Dune by Frank Herbert

Whew..finally some time to write.  This is a BOTM selection. I really like Dune, this is not my first reading and I have seen the movie a couple of times so I know what's going on. Saying that, I think this is the best book in the series, the other never really held me like this one does. And man does it feel good to be back to a genre I love with a story line that holds me and makes me not want to put the book down.

This is the story of Paul Atreides, a young duke, and his rise to power as a religious messiah for the natives of Arrakis.  His Father is betrayed and murdered and he finds his way amongst a savage civilization. This is a power struggle for the whole universe, but as all power struggles start is just between two people, it grows to engulf two families and grows until the entire universe is drawn in. We just come into the story near the end. This was written between 1959 and 1965, and to me it has a lot of the themes of the time, religion, politics, evolution, philosophy. Herbert asks a lot of big questions in a digestible way, mainly where are we going as a whole and how do we want to be when we get there.  It still feels current to me with all the technological  advances we have made and the ethical questions that revolve around our scientific advances.  it gives me food for thought on our entire society, I guess the same questions have been being asked for 50 years now, and we still are unsure.

I think Herbert does a great job setting up the motivations and the characters, Paul is so young and smart and the world's events are about to take him over and change him so. Jessica is using her whole person and all her skills to protect her family, and the Duke, well the duke is noble and tragic and if he had just been a little less proud thing would have gone different, but then he wouldn't have inspired the loyalty he does. And the Harkoneans are diabolical and cruel as all bad guys should be.

I was sad Leto died and pissed that the Baron had a lucky escape at the end of book I. But I guess you can't kill the main villain in the first part. I think Leto died valiantly and I'm always glad that he didn't die a cowering mess or tortured to death, he went on his own terms thanks to Dr Yeul. And strangely I don't hate Dr. Yeul, his hand was forced and his betrayal was awful but at least he saved Paul and Jessica and allowed Leto a chance to take out the Baron. What kills me is how much time is skipped between the end of book one and the start of book three. Paul has a kid and is a true Freman...my favorite part is where he rides the worm. But just so much is skipped.

The ending was good, it did leave some things open ended, but not so much that if you don’t want to read the rest in the series you feel that it is incomplete.  It is obviously part of a series, but at the same time it has the ability to be a standalone book as well. (Read 9/16/13-10/27/13)

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

It seemed appropriate to be reading practical magic in October, it is about witches after all.  This was a nice light and easy read, nothing too mind bending.  However this will probably be one of the few times I will say this, I enjoyed the movie better.
This is about the Owen's sisters Frances and Jet, Sally and Gillian, Antonia and Kylie.  The aunts (Frances and Jet) take in Sally and Gillian after their parents die and raise the girls.  However Sally and Gillian are most unappreciative of Aunts, and get out as soon as they can.  Gillian much quicker than Sally.  Sally has a two girls Antonia and Kylie who she takes away from the aunts home and attempts to raise them as normal girls.  Then one stormy night Gillian shows up with a dead boyfriend and the aunts are called back when things get to rough.  At the end all the generations are getting along and it is one big happy family.
Can we say bleh.  The characters in this book just seemed a little flat to me, the aunts were barely developed, and there was way more focus on the Antonia and Kylie's relationship that I was expecting.  And it seemed the characters didn't stay in character, for example Sally agreeing to bury Jimmy in her backyard for Gillian.  Sally is supposed to be this uber responsible person and she doesn't bat an eye at burying a dead guy...I don't think so.  Gillian is a selfish brat and she does stay that way pretty well through the book so that is good.  Sally's girls were much older than in the movie and so had a chance to much more developed, but I think that cost the Aunts.  The Aunts were the characters I really wanted to know about and they seemed to just be after thoughts.  There was way too much sibling rivalry and even generational rivalry.  It didn't seem as magical to me.  I mean there were moments and elements, but it just seemed more practical I guess, hence the name.  
Don't get me wrong, I liked but the movie is one of my favorites and I guess I just had higher expectations.

A Prince in Camelot by Courtway Jones (July 2013)

This is a selection from my BOTM club, series edition. This is the third in a trilogy about King Arthur.  This installment follows the life of Mordred, Arthur's bastard son.  Although in this series he is the son of Morgause (Arthur’s aunt) not Morgan (Arthur’s half sister).  This was the most boring of the three. It took me forever to read it because the story didn’t move a long, Mordred came to Camelot was hurt that Arthur didn’t acknowledge him and spent a lot of time being a Knight and blah blah blah.  There was no movement, the story got facts from the previous books wrong, the timelines were all screwy!  I couldn’t wait to get this one over with.

Witch of the North by Courtway Jones (June 2013)

This is a selection from my BOTM club, series edition. This is the second in a trilogy about King Arthur.  This installment follows the life of Morgan l Fey, Arthur’s half sister.  For some reason I didn't find Morgan as enthralling as Pelleas (In the Shadow of the Oak King). Her story really reminded me of Irene Radford's series which is from the point of view of Merlin's daughter. Don't get me wrong I still thought it was good, but I like the first book better.

Jones has Morgan’s love interest being her cousin Gawain, and they never seem to get their timing right, unlike Pelleas and Nithe.  I actually wish Morgan and Gawain had gotten together, I think Morgan would have had a happier life. Gawain would have been more understanding and a better knight.  

As a side note I was pleasantly surprised that Morgan kept mentioning Queen Boudicca. I actually have a book about her in my to read pile, she has moved up higher on that pile.

Tthe third part of the book is a quick read but nothing worth writing home about.  Besides everybody dies and most in a stupid pointless way. There weren't even enough events besides death to help me with the timelines. I have no idea when things happened in the third part. Not so happy with this part, hoping the third book takes me back to my happy place of the first.

In the Shadow of the Oak King by Courtway Jones (May 2013)

This is a selection from my BOTM club, series edition.  This is the first in a trilogy about King Arthur.  

I LOVED this read and flew through it. It started in the introduction as Jones was talking about how much research he did, changing some of the facts from the original story to be more historically correct. Even going so far as to making up the 5th century romano-celtic calligraphy font the book is written in for a more authentic feel. It may not pass the muster of some, but to me it spike of how much Jones loved his story and his subject. The introduction I thought did a good job of explaining the tribes, but maybe that is because I took so many history classes in college about this era. 

I have read a ton of Arthurian legends, I love the ones from other points of view. Although I admit I have started Mists of Avalon three times and never been able to finish it. In fact, a previous post discusses the Arthurian series by Irene Radcliff. There were some similarities to her series that I noticed when reading this section I think this book came first, but I'm not sure. I made some notes that in both series Merlin head a wolfhound familiar and could mind speak. Irene had more magic, while Jones uses cleverness. 

All of the Arthurian books I have read always have Merlin as a mysterious figure, even when the book is from Merlin's point of view. This allows me to make my own assumptions and let my imagination fill in the back or side story, sometimes later on in a book I'm proved wrong but that is half the fun.

This book is told from the point of view of a companion that I had never heard of Pelleas.  The story starts out with how Pelleas meets Myrddin (Merlin) and how they come to raise Arthur on Ector’s Isle.  Myrddin is a master smith and teaches Pelleas the trade.  Myrddin is also raising Nithe, his neice who is the daughter of the Lady of Lake.

Some comments were made in my book club discussion that there were no strong women characters.  I disagree.  I think this has more strong women in it than just Nithe. In the beginning Jones talked about how Pelleas's mother owned the property. Thanks to my women history class I know this was the way because the only true parentage that could be confirmed at the time was the mother, can't deny a baby popping out as not yours. This all changed because then catholic church was so anti-women, but that is a whole nother lecture. Anyways back to my point, the women in the story are not helpless sops, they may not be picking up the swords themselves, but they are not spineless either. Pelleas's mother had a lot of power over her husband, not as much as we are used to being equals now-a-days, but she wasn't helpless.

I love wolves and I have since high school so the portion where Pelleas saved the wolf and they protected him later really grabbed me. 

Pelleas is Uther’s son and he is to be sacrificed to the Oak King so the Urther may continue his reign and Myrddin saves Pelleas.  As usual, Urther is a weak willed selfish bastard. Sacrificing his own children though takes him to a new low in this series. Also as usual, Myrddin is always stuck cleaning up Urther's mess and caring for his children. Although I did think that the King needing to sacrifice himself to the Oak King was a way toput a term limit on a monarch’s reign, and like all politicians Urther found the loop hole to stays in office longer.

The second section has a lot more action, the story really moves along at a nice pace too.  This is the part where the characters return from Ector’s Isle and Arthru becomes king by pulling the sword from the stone, which by the way is a very clever trick from Myrddin.  It seem Pelleas and Nithe may have a chance to get together if they would both just stop being so difficult. It takes Pelleas forever to figure out that Nithe is an option. I swear when he realized it I could picture the lightbulb over his head switching on, but the idiot never said a word to her, he expects her to do everything. Typical! Then he buys her for a year and walks away, thank goodness she had more brains than him.  Although, when he does make her an offer she is torn between him and Lancelot, and walks away like a foo.

I found it really interesting how popular Arthur is with the common people. The Bishop dismisses the common people, because they don't make kings. Yet when Arthur won the fight at the tournament, they are the ones that rushed in and insisted he become king. The Bishop was very wrong, then common people did elect him essentially. 

Pelleas fights for the King with his Wolfhound companions then is betrayed by Saxon’s and his relationship with Arthur breaks down.  Pelleas leaves on his own revenge mission and suceeds by becoming a King in his own right.  He finally gets Nithe in the final chapter and it was quite the sigh of relief on my part, for a while there I thought they were both going to be completely stupid and miss out on each other.

Now that I have read all three books in the series this is by far the best.  And if you only read this one and skip the others, it’s not really that much of a loss.

Oops - Long time no post.

So I know I haven't been posting much lately, that doesn't mean I haven't been reading.  I just haven't had time to write up my comments until now, be prepared for a slew of reviews.  :)