Two Recommendations

These are a couple recommendations from d'Arcy, in case you were wondering what you might want to read this month!

Also, two of my favorite books of all time are stories of survival:   The Color of Water by James McBride  and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells!!!  Both are incredible!!!!!

 

March Book Club

Thanks for a great discussion of books at our meeting!  We got two more positive reviews of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," three thumbs up votes for "Sing You Home" and one thumbs down for "Death Comes to Pemberley" (too much rehash of the original Pride and Prejudice).  Some books not yet on the blog include "In the Garden of Beasts," about the rise of Hitler from the perspective of the US Ambassador to Germany and "Unbroken," which led to the idea for our theme for March. 

This month's theme:  Stories of Survival

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I just finished reading this book.  It's not the kind of book you can absorb in a short amount of time.  I've been working on this post for three days!

On a basic level, the book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cancerous cells were able to survive in a manufactured cell culture for an indefinite period of time.  This ability is extremely rare and scientists now use her cells in labs around the world to do every kind of research you could possibly imagine.  Her cells are labeled "HeLa" based on the first two letters of each of her names and they are much more famous than she is...until now.

On a deeper level, this book is about inequality.  It deals a lot with race inequality and the treatment of black patients in the 50s and beyond.  But it also addresses the issue of knowledge inequality, specifically between doctors and their patients.  As a science teacher, it sort of stuns me how easily science is misinterpreted by society in general, partly because of a lack of content knowledge, but in large part due to scientists' inability to communicate their work in layman's terms. 

On top of that, add in a healthy discussion of medical ethics, domestic abuse, spiritual viewpoints on life and death, and patients' legal rights.  Whew!  What do you want to talk about first?!

This book is currently #3 on the New York Times Paperback Fiction Bestseller List.

Eragon

My childhood/young adult love for fantasy books hasn't gone away...I've just expanded my horizons.  The Inheritance series, written by Christopher Paolini was a new take on an old story between the partnership between dragon and man.  The fascinating thing about these books wasn't necessarily the story, but the fact that it was written by a 17-year-old!  The series is now four books long and begins with Eragon, a boy who saves a dragon egg and becomes the only dragon rider not controlled by the evil king Galbatorix.  Love, betrayal, and rebellion commence and while Paolini's story stagnates at times, it's still a fun and imaginative tale!

Inheritance is currently #3 on the New York Times Children's Series Bestseller List.

True Colors

I'm cheating a little bit, because True Colors isn't currently on the NYT BSL, but Night Road, by the same author, Kristin Hannah, is #10 on the Paperback Trade Fiction list.  I haven't read Night Road, but if it's as gripping as True Colors, I can't wait!  I read True Colors last summer in one sitting.  Literally could not put it down, which hasn't happened to me in a while.  I'd never read a Kristin Hannah book, but she's written about 20 and since True Colors, I've read five and not yet been disappointed.  Hannah writes characters in a way that is truly heart wrenching.  You get so emotionally tied up, it's hard to believe the people aren't real or that you don't actually know them personally. 

Sing You Home

 I've seen Jodi Picoult books everywhere, but this one was my first.  I was originally interested because the main character (Zoe) is a music therapist, a career I was contemplating in college.  Jodi Picoult and a friend of hers actually wrote a bunch of songs for a CD you're supposed to listen to while you read the book.  It's supposed to set the mood and enhance the emotional connection with the characters in each chapter.  The general direction of the book was predictable, but there were some surprising twists that dramatically increased my interest level.  Without giving too much away, the book deals with issues of fertility, homosexuality, religious fanaticism, and forgiveness.

The one thing that disappointed me was that the music therapy part takes a back seat after the first couple chapters.  I use music to relieve stress and I would have thought that Zoe would have turned to her music to deal with everything going on in her life.  I was also pretty annoyed with the storyline involving the child Zoe was helping in therapy.  That whole issue needed to be dealt with in more detail.  In the author interview at the back of the book, Picoult says she meant to leave the story unresolved.  Cop-out!

This book is currently #33 on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction Bestseller List

The Next Always

I love Nora Roberts!!!  I can't even call her my guilty pleasure, cuz I don't feel guilty about it at all.  :)  My friend Marcy got me stuck on her when she introduced me to the "In Death" mystery series (she writes those under another name - J.D. Robb).  Her books are not complicated and after reading over fifty of them, they're pretty predictable, but I still love them.  Her characters talk the way I imagine real conversations happening.  Usually the protagonists have some hobby or career that I find fascinating (archaeologist, arson investigator, glass sculptor, etc) and Roberts really sounds like an expert in the topic when she describes it.

Her latest series is the Boonsboro Inn trilogy and "The Next Always" is the first in the series.  Since I just finished remodeling my house, I really connected with the construction aspect of the story.  There's a ghost involved (a trend with Roberts trilogies) and minor conflict in the plot (stalker bad guy in this book), but it's really just standard Nora Roberts fare.  I wouldn't consider this her best book, but it's comfortable reading! 

What's even cooler about Roberts and this book is that she actually owns an inn in Boonsboro, MD (about an hour from my house) that this book is based on.  I'm going to go visit this summer.  Or sooner.  :)  Roberts graduated from the school I teach at and I am just waiting for the day our senior class asks her to speak at our graduation!  I would freak!

This book is currently #11 on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction Bestseller List.