The Reluctant Reader

Months ago I started to hear buzz about the nonfiction bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  It was a strong contender for our community's "One Book" choice for the year.  Friends mentioned the book and how much it moved them.  Reviews were glowing.  So I downloaded the sample onto my Kindle and started reading.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a nonfiction account of an African American woman in the 1950s whose cancer cells were taken, without her permission, and found to be extraordinary. They were the first cells, in fact, that were able to reproduce in a test tube environment.The book begins with a lot of very technical and scientific information, and while people had told me that it "reads like fiction" I was not getting that at all.  And it was about cancer. 

You see, like most of us, I have personal experience with cancer.  Many years ago, my dear friend's husband died of cancer, leaving her a widow with two preschoolers.  My cousin died of Hodgkin's Disease in his 30s. The list goes on and on, and as I get older, the number of friends and relatives touched by cancer rises exponentially. 

So reading a book about a woman who died from cancer, even one whose cells helped pave the way for future treatment and cures, was not appealing.  I sighed and I grumbled.   The teenager inside of me whined, "I don't want to....."  I made excuses and told friends that it was "on my list to read" (which is code for, 'When I am totally desperate I might pick it up again.').

But there is my Achilles Heel: my book club.  When Henrietta Lacks was chosen as this month's book club pick, I had no choice but to knuckle down and read. It turns out all those friends and blogs and reviewers were right.  Henrietta Lacks is an amazing story, equal parts science and heartbreaking family history. It's a story that needed to be told. Henrietta's legacy of cell immortality and the back story of the impoverished Lacks' family would make a great foundation for any book club discussion.

What is the moral of this story of reluctance? Read everything you can, even when you don't feel like it. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a reminder that some books, even if you don't WANT to read them, need to be read.

Happy New Year 2012

I love the holiday season, I really do, but this year I was even more keenly aware of the books that sat on my nightstand, my Kindle, and at the library waiting to be read.  It seems each year is busier than the one before, and this year, my reading really took a back seat to shopping, baking, and the overall craziness of life.

But with 2011 behind us, it is time to look forward to all I have to read and talk about this coming year.  I just finished V is for Vendetta, Sue Grafton's latest alphabet mystery, and next up is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, my book club's choice this month. Waiting in reserve is a great nonfiction about a guy who buys and tries to run a Korean deli in New York, as well as the newest Flavia de Luce novel.

What would the new year be without resolutions? I resolve to be more faithful to this blog, to write even just a few paragraphs when I don't have a whole review to post.  It's been more than a year since I started "Turn of the Page," and sharing my love of reading has never been more enjoyable.

Happy New Year!

Turn of Mind

How do you solve a crime, when the main suspect is literally losing her mind? Alice LaPlante's book Turn of Mind does just that, in one of the most unique and intricately crafted thrillers this year.

Jennifer White is a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon who is going through a very bad patch.  She has been forced to leave her prestigious position at a hospital, she is suffering from early-onset dementia, and her best friend Amanda has been murdered.  And Jennifer herself is the prime suspect.

The clues to the crime are locked away inside Jennifer's fractured mind, where clarity comes only in bits and pieces.  Jennifer's friend Amanda has been found dead from a blow to the head, but a crucial piece of evidence points to Jennifer as the murderer: the fingers of Amanda's right hand have been removed with skillful precision.

Writing the book from the point of view of someone suffering from Alzheimers is a delicate task.  LaPlante tells the story through interactions with Jennifer's family, her caregivers, and the police.  This enables the reader to infer details about the crime, the various motives, and Jennifer's own state of mind, all through Jennifer's altered perceptions.

More than just a murder mystery, Turn of Mind provides a brilliant glimpse into the world of those suffering from Alzheimers.  Jennifer rediscovers her own divorce, her best friend's death, and her lack of career on an almost daily basis, each time with the grief as painful as it was the first time she heard it.  Mixed in with this sorrow is the brief awareness of the rapid decline of her disease, which is perhaps one of the most heartbreaking parts of the book.

Turn of Mind ties all the loose ends in a neat bow, but there is no satisfaction in it.  For someone suffering from Alzheimers, there can be no happy ending. There is only a slow descent into madness, and eventually, no memory at all.

Have Books, Will Travel

One of my great joys in life is to sit on the beach and read.  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would rather watch paint dry than to spend the day alternating between staring at the ocean and delving into a  good book.  But for me, that is a little slice of heaven.

With vacation nearly here, I have several books waiting for their turn. I still haven't finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, I have a couple of chick-lit books on the Kindle, and my fingers are triple crossed that my holds will come in from the library. Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, J.D. Robb's futuristic thriller New York to Dallas, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor are at the top of my "To Read" list.  My bags are packed, my Kindle is charged, and I am hounding the library like a lovesick teenager. 

All  too soon, winter will be upon us, and with that comes the chance to snuggle under a blanket with a cup of coffee and a good book.  But until that point, I will be soaking up all the sunshine I can, whether it's at the beach or in my lovely red hammock!

Then Came You

I admit it - I'm a sucker for any story where it takes a village to raise a child.  Families that don't fit the mold fascinate me, and when a story combines women, pregnancy, surrogacy, and a unique family, I am hooked from the first page.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner fits that bill perfectly.  This latest from the bestselling author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes tells the story of egg donors, surrogates, and parents desperate for a family, all mixed together with drama, personal growth, and lots of fun twists and turns in the plot.

In Weiner's latest, we meet Jules, who is the perfect candidate for egg donation.  As a college student eager to have enough money to send her father to a rehab facility, it seems a quick and relatively painless way to come up the necessary funds. Across the state, Annie is a mom of two young boys who dreams of going back to college and finding herself, and the thing she is best at is being pregnant.  And in the heart of New York City, India and her husband want a second chance at parenthood, but are unable to carry a baby to term.  These three groups of people will come together to discover heartache, love, and the true meaning of being a family.

This is a book that could be cloying and filled with stereotypes, but under Weiner's skillful writing we get glimpses of humanity and genuinely feel for the chararcters as they stumble, fall, and eventually redeem themselves.  The ethical issues surrounding both donation and surrogacy are handled gently; the pain and regret felt by both Jules and Annie is clear, but so is the knowledge that they are helping to create a family.  The ending is tidy (as Weiner's books usually are) and made me sigh as I finished the final page - particularly satisfying was the epilogue, where we get to see several years into the future at what life for this little baby holds.  This book is the ideal beach read, or (now that it's Fall) for an afternoon of relaxing on the couch.