Thank you Heather Otte for such a wonderful evening on the lake. The weather was perfect and our discussion was great. We all agreed The Chinese Ginger Jars was a wonderful book to read. The writing was good and the story of her missionary experiences were eye-opening to read. How grateful we are for the freedoms we enjoy and the luxuries we take for granted every day. The sequel to this book ( Richer by India) is worth reading as well. We missed all who could not attend. A special welcome to Courtney Jones as the newest member of our book club. She meet Heather through school. We are very glad to know you.
Our next book club meeting will be hosted by Margaret Vidmar on Wednesday August 3rd at 7pm. Her book pick is:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010: From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley
A goodreads reader says: This is a phenomenal book. If it doesn't win every non-fiction award for 2010 than whoever votes for non-fiction awards should have their library cards taken away from them*.
The author, Rebecca Skloot, does a masterful job of seamlessly weaving in the scientific story of Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells and the effect they have had on medicine and medical ethics with a real human interest story about Henrietta and the struggles of her family. Skloot does this without coming across as maudlin, preachy, overly technical, guilt ridden, condescending, or just plain boring.
She deftly weaves two legs of one story together, darting in and out with ease and keeping the reader interested in learning the science and caring about the people. She does this all while doing her best to avoid passing judgment or creating villains. Like a good journalist, she simply reports the facts of a fantastically and seemingly thoroughly researched book and lets the reader interpret them as they will.
In all, this is not only a terrific science book that is not afraid to tackle gray areas of ethics and leave them unanswered without getting preachy, not only a gripping human interest story with more than one human we are interested in, but also a socioeconomic look at the educational opportunities and struggles of poor, disadvantaged people across several generations of our country. Most of all though, this is a uniquely American story.
Enjoy reading and see you next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment