The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

2012 Book 14: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (1/27/2012)

Wow, this was an awesome book! It discusses the life of Henrietta Lacks, the donor of the tumor that was used to develop the immortalized cell line HeLa. The narrative alternates between the story of Henrietta’s family and a scientific discussion of the HeLa’s huge contribution to modern medicine. This is by far the most human story of science/medicine I’ve ever read. Everyone should read it! Additionally, the audiobook won the Audie Award because of its excellent performance. 5/5 stars.

The Chair, by James L. Rubart

2012 Book 13: The Chair, by James L. Rubart (1/26/2012)

Corin Roscoe, depressed thrill-seeker and owner of an economically-challenged antique shop, is confused and mildly annoyed when an old lady unexpectedly dumps an antique chair on him—a chair made by the “best carpenter to ever live.” His life dissolves into turmoil as he explores the meaning of the chair. Meanwhile, naughty people seek the power of the chair. This is a suspense novel in the Christian Fiction genre; however, I was never in very much suspense. Critiqued as a suspense novel, there’s not much to it. Critiqued as contemporary Christian Fiction, however, I think it was pretty good. It had an excellent message without much preaching, and it had realistic characters. I would recommend "The Chair" to people who enjoy Christian fiction, but don’t mind a small amount of violence or imperfect characters (i.e. those who drink alcohol and swear (as in “Corin swore,” not actual swear words)). My star rating is based on a Christian Fiction critique, but it loses points for a few typos in the digital version—I think it’s disrespectful to readers to not carefully proof-read before publication. 3.5/5 stars

The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee

2012 Book 12: The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (1/25/2012).

The Emperor of All Maladies is a sweeping “biography” of cancer covering archeological/ancient history to present-day. It is very well-informed, well written, and thorough. Definitely worth a read for anyone who is interested in the history of cancer or medicine. Well-deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won in 2011. I think it was written with the popular reader in mind (he DOES tell us what DNA is at the beginning of the book), but the book quickly delves into terminology and topics that I suspect would be very heavy to someone who doesn’t already know a little about biology/medicine. This is especially true in the second half of the book. Mukherjee also is SO thorough that the book becomes extremely long, which is difficult for those of us with a short attention span. Also, I got great amusement out of his formulaically inserted personal patient pieces. It was good that he had them (they broke up the difficult scientific passages) but I could tell that they were written by a scientist and not a journalist (i.e. they were comprised of literal rather than emotive descriptions). Being a scientist myself, this made me chuckle (alas! an emotion). However, I think the personal patient pieces were interesting and elicited enough emotion to engage the readers. They worked for me, anyway. 4/5 stars.

The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester

2012 Book 11: The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester (1/24/2012).

The Professor and the Madman is about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the “dangerous lunatic” that was a major contributor of entries to the dictionary. It was a fascinating narrative—well told with an interesting and educational topic. I think there were parts where Winchester waxed a bit dramatic or put in theories based upon conjecture rather than fact…but that is what journalists do, after all. :) Quite worth the read. 4.5/5 stars.

The Great Fortune, by Olivia Manning

2012 Book 10: The Great Fortune, by Olivia Manning (1/19/2012)

The Great Fortune is the story of Harriet, a young British woman who must learn to know her new husband while thrown into the strange setting of WWII Romania. The characterization on this novel was fantastic—I really felt like I knew all of the characters intimately. However, I can’t really say what the plot was about. It was a very character/setting-centric novel. The writing is superb, but I tend to prefer a little more plot development; therefore, this book gets only 3/5 stars.

A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2012 Book 9: A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1/18/2012)

A Little Princess is a classic story of a rich little girl who is put under the care of a bitter, selfish schoolhouse matron. At first, the girl is treated as a star pupil; but when her father dies a ruined man, she is cruelly forced to become a servant of the schoolhouse—but her sweet, vibrant nature keeps her alive during these hard times. I have seen quite a few movie adaptations, but the book is much better than the movies. This is a good book for people of all ages to read. 4/5 stars.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

2012 Book 8: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (1/14/2012)

The Help was a well-written novel with an engaging (and endearing) story. Skeeter, a young Southern belle just returned home from college decides to cross racial boundaries and write a controversial book about how difficult it is being an African American maid in a white household in Mississippi. She doesn’t realize when she starts just how dangerous such a book could be. I think this book has an excellent theme (anti-racism and the pettiness of Southern White women in the 1960’s). However, it is very difficult to write a book about racism without making the defining feature of every character his or her race. This problem leads to excessive racial stereotyping—which is a pretty serious issue in this book. (The racial stereotyping applies to both whites and African Americans in this situation). Despite this problem, however, I think the book is worth reading for the sake of the story. 4/5 stars