Life After Yes

I wanted to LOVE this book.  I've been following the author on her blog for some time now, and I find her witty and fun.  Someone I'd love to meet for coffee or a drink somewhere, and just chat...  I wanted to love it for all the hard work I know goes into writing a book, and this is her first novel..  She always dreamt of being an author (me too), and decided to just DO IT (like me) and I can only hope to be able to follow her path with my own book.

I loved the idea of the book - what happens AFTER you say yes to your future.  I didn't realize before reading it that the YES in question is the time between the proposal and the wedding; I expected it to be after the marriage vows were said and the guests all went home.

I wanted to love it, because I was so excited to read it.  But, I couldn't love it.  I liked it well enough, but the protagonist and I didn't jibe.  I could not understand her, or her choices.  I found her shallow, and I found the other men far more intriguing than her betrothed.  Now, all that said, I did cry at the end, and very much liked the ending, but I never felt particularly taken by any of the characters.  Maybe I am too old, maybe I am not from Manhattan, maybe engagement is too far a distant memory for me to relate to this, but I just could not buy her choices, while overall I loved the premise of the novel.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I am still processing this book, 10 hours after I finished it.

This book, written by Rebecca Skloot, chronicles the story of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who went to Johns Hopkins in the early 1950s to be treated for cervical cancer and ended up influencing the medical world in a grand way.

Henrietta was the source for the HeLa cells which are still today used in all parts of cell experimentation. HeLa cells are responsible for a large amount of cancer treatments used today and for medications used to treat conditions such as herpes and epilepsy. HeLa cells were used to test the Salk polio vaccine, and have also been used for gene-mapping.

One problem: Henrietta didn't give consent for her cells to be taken. She died of cancer in 1951, and her family didn't know that part of their wife, mother, sister and friend still existed in multiple petri dishes in laboratories throughout the world.

Skloot explains the importance of HeLa, and also tells the story of Henrietta's life and that of her family. The story is heartbreaking -- Henrietta's cells have provided valuable information to science, but her family members lived most of their lives without health insurance, waiting until an emergency situation occurred to seek medical help. Labs make money off of selling HeLa cells, but the Lacks family lives in poverty. The family tried at various times to sue Johns Hopkins and the lab where the cells were initially grown, but with their lack of education and funds, nothing ever happened.

Also included in the novel is a side story about Elsie, Henrietta's oldest daughter. Elsie was an epileptic and had some neuro-deafness. Henrietta and her husband, Day, were first cousins, and Day, a womanizer, brought syphilis home to Henrietta more than once; these two things probably contributed to Elsie's health issues. In the 1940s and 50s, epileptics were considered mentally retarded and they were committed. Elsie lived and died in the Crownville Negro Hospital for the Insane. She likely died due to neglect and being subjected to dangerous medical procedures. The chapter where Deborah, Henrietta's youngest daughter, finds out what happened to her sister had me in tears.

The story is sad enough, but the afterword caught me off-guard. Even after all the legislation and HIPAA , when you go to the hospital, any tissue removed from your body is the property of the hospital.

My daughter had her adenoids removed when she was 5. I assumed that her doctor examined them for abnormalities and then the hospital incinerated them. And in all honestly, that is likely what happened.

But what IF? What if the hospital sold or donated my daughter's adenoids to a lab? What if experimentation on those cells has resulted in a scientific discovery? I would want to know, absolutely, but according to current laws, the hospital or lab has no obligation to tell me. I always thought that if it came from my body or if it came from my children's body, it essentially belonged to me.

I guess not.

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls tells a tale in this book that is hard to fathom being true, but you can tell from the matter-of-fact way she tells her story that it is, in fact, very true. Her parents, one an alcoholic and one an amazingly selfish and codependent person, brought their children up in abject poverty which could have easily been avoided. The children grew up quickly because they soon learned they would have to fend for themselves if they were to survive. What makes this book so amazing to read is the way Walls tells her story. She doesn't emotionalize what she is telling, much as you would imagine a child reacting to the conditions and situations she is conveying. The story manages to be uplifting as the children survive and even thrive in spite of the lack of almost every material thing, including the basics needed to survive. And, through it all, is an underlying theme of love and acceptance.

True Blood and Philosophy: We Want to Think Bad Things With You

I'm slightly obsessed with the HBO series, "True Blood." It doesn't follow the books by Charlaine Harris exactly, but I like the changes the series creator Alan Ball makes. It's racy and graphic, and most of the people in the novel seem to come out of my hometown (I live near the Texas-Louisiana border).

I took a Literary Criticism class last summer, and for my final paper, I did a Freudian analysis on "True Blood." I discussed how the vampires represent Freud's Id, Sookie represents the Superego, and Vampire Bill, ironically enough, represents the Ego. I got an A on the paper, and an A in the class.

So I thought this book would be interesting, and it was to a certain point. But there was really no middle ground in this book. The essays were either so deep that it was difficult to get through, or they were so simplistic that I wondered why the author wrote them at all.

I should have known better from the cheesy subtitle of the book. I have only myself to blame. I do not recommend this book.

This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cyberarians Can Save Us All

Small confession: Libraries and I do not mix. Kind of an odd revelation, considering how much I love books. I don't like that the number of books a patron can check out is limited. I don't like knowing that others have touched the books. I don't like the whole due date thing.

In short, I am a librarian's worst nightmare.

At the same time, I love libraries. I love research. At the university where I attended undergrad and graduate school, I LOVED walking through the stacks, just browsing. I'd go in for books on one subject (H.P. Lovecraft) and come out with six books on something else (Blind lesbian mystery poetry, anyone?).

"The Book is Overdue," by Marilyn Johnson, is a really great read. She discusses the different types of librarians. She discusses the different types of libraries. She talks about how libraries and librarians have adapted in the age of Google and economic downturn.

The part that I found most fascinating, however, is the story of how a group of librarians fought the government's request that they turn over their patrons' electronic card catalog searches. It was all very cloak and dagger, and I'd love to read an entire book about the event. It made me swell with pride to think that there are people in the world who still stand up for civil liberties.

Dead in the Family

I am a HUGE Sookie Stackhouse fan. I actually "discovered" the books before the brilliant HBO series came out, and I quickly read all the books (being in the middle of a hurricane helped). So I not-so-patiently wait every year for Charlaine Harris to come out with a new Sookie book.

The most recent installment was so-so. There were pages and pages of build-up, and then in the last 10 pages, everything was resolved. I hate that. In a class I took a year ago, we read "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" by John LeCarre, and he did the same thing.

I put off starting the newest Sookie book as long as I could, because I wanted it to last. So I'm reading and reading and reading, and then I realized that there were relatively few pages left and I thought there should be a lot more story left. I'll still read the Sookie books, but the recent ones aren't as good as the ones that came before. I'm a lot more excited about the beginning of the new season of the TV show these days.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

I am fascinated by hoarders. I don't watch the television shows about them because I believe it's exploitation of people who have problems they cannot control. I know they get help, too, but I think that's to manipulate the audience into thinking that the directors and producers of the show are doing this for humanitarian reasons.

But this book, by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee passes my smell test. The authors are Ph.D.s who are researching the hows and whys of hoarders and how they can get "better."

The book uses case studies of hoarders to find the connection between OCD and hoarding (it's there). They talk about children of hoarders, and children who are hoarders. It is very interesting reading without seeming exploitative or manipulative. I saw some of myself in some of the hoarders -- I keep books and magazines and articles because I might want to read them someday or I might need them someday -- but somehow, my brain chemistry keeps it under control, while the true hoarders are unable to control their urges.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

So, about three seconds after I finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," I downloaded "The Girl Who Played with Fire" on my Kindle.

And I dove into it.

While I eventually loved "The Girl Who...," it also moved very slowly. I'm wondering if this is: a) an author issue; b) a Swedish issue; or  c) a translating-from-Swedish-to-English issue. I am not well-traveled, but in my imagination, life in Sweden moves a lot slower than it does here in the U.S. I don't know what makes me think that -- maybe all the snow?

Anyway, insights into my weird psyche aside, "The Girl Who..." was fascinating. It again involves Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, but also introduces a whole new list of characters, each with an amazing past, present and future (for some).

I was not satisfied with the ending of this book, because there was no resolution. I know it's coming in "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," due out on May 25, but do I have to wait that long?