I am reading a new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It is phenomenal so far. However, I am finding myself struggling to read it because it is heartbreaking in so many ways. I have to put it down because I get so emotional. I don’t know how much to describe it, other than to say that HeLa cells were the first human cells to ever be kept a live in a lab – and actually multiply. They are the very foundation to many discoveries in modern medicine. Those cells were taken without the patient’s permission. She was black and poor and lived during pre-civil rights era. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. This book is the story of who she was, and not just about her cells. It’s a discussion about informed consent and ethics in medicine. I cannot believe that I continue to be surprised at how absolutely awful human beings can be to other human beings.
I think this book will become one of my favorites. Some of my other favorites include (I re-read these books at least once a year):
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Young girl grows up poor, with alcoholic father and school/education is her escape. It’s the book that is most similar to my own life. Genre: Classic
East of Eden – A story about family, love, struggling for acceptance, guilt, freedom. Sometimes it’s all over the place in terms of the characters and plot, but it is an incredibly well written story – I feel like I have re-read it all the time just so I can see something new in it. Genre: Classic
Fahrenheit 451 – Books are outlawed. Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian, Classic
1984 – Big Brother is watching. Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian, Classic
Xenogenesis Trilogy (aka Lilith’s Brood) – End of the world happens, humans mate/genetic engineered with aliens. Defining humanity. It’s the first time I ever hard a hard time imagining what the aliens looked like and was also disturbed about humans mating with a different species. Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Parable Series – End of the world, back to slavery. Discussion of new religion. Genre: Dystopian
And then there are a large number of books that I LOVE and would gladly re-read, but if I did I would never get the chance to read new books. Some of those include: Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Jane Eyre, Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Life of Pi, Power of One, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love and so many more.
Books that are on my ‘To Read’ list (I tend to rotate serious non-fiction, with easy to read and/or dystopian series):
White Space (of the Dark Passages series)
Available Darkness
Touching the Void
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
Into Thin Air
Call the Midwife
In the Garden of Beasts
Wheel of Time Series
Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds
A Piece of Cake – Memoir
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
The Center of Everything
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
This Child Will be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Under the Banner of Heaven
The 19th Wife
Stolen Innocence
Escape
Keep Sweet
Happiness Project
Under the Dome
The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
Many Lives, Many Masters
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
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