Best of 2010 and Looking Forward

So it's time to look back at what I read this past year and name my faves. I had a goal of reading 50 books this year and I came really close. The holiday madness seemed to get in the way. I finished book 48 (The Queen of Palmyra) as our neighbors fired off annoying fireworks last night! I will make the goal this year to read 50. I am also a writer and am working on a YA novel and will spen most of my time this coming year reading other YA novels similar to what I want to write. I will also read aduly fiction also.

TOP TEN OF 2010:

Mudbound by Jordan (probably my go to recommendation for friends. I actually read this book twice this year!)

The Sky Unwashed by Zabytko

All the Broken Pieces by Burg

Carry Me Home by Kring

The Other Wes Moore by Moore

The Help by Stockett (This was my top fave last year. I read it again this year for a book club)

Chains by Anderson

The Immortal Like of Henrietta Lacks by Skloot

The Sweet By and By by Johnson

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Franklin

LOOKING FORWARD TO READING:

Unbroken by Hillenbrand

State of Wonder by Patchett (I haven't read a thing about this book but love her other work!)

To Have Not by Lefkowitz (Love the cover of this book!)

Lord of Misrule by Gordon

Half a Life by Strauss

What will you be reading in 2011? Happy Reading!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is one of the most talked about non-fiction books of the year. It is a good mixture of narrative about Henrietta and her family and textbook knowledge about cells, research and scientists.

In the early 1950s, when African Americans had few rights and were segregated in hospital wards and many other public places, a young woman named Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed and dying from what doctors eventually diagnosed as cervical cancer. While doctors were operating on her tumor they took a sample of the cancer cells without her consent. Her husband did consent to an autopsy after being told that the information gained could assist his family in medical issues in the future. Doctors had spent years trying to grow cells in test tubes and had before then been unsuccessful. With Henrietta's cells, named HeLa cells, they found cells that multiplied constantly. These cells changed the ways doctors researched everything- cancer, polio, leukemia, etc. The only practice in question is that Henrietta's family was never informed of the discovery or the fact that money was being made from HeLa cells.

The book follows Henrietta's family as they learn about the cells and struggle to learn about the mother that most of her children were too young to remember when she died. The family deals with a lot of anger about being mislead and kept in the dark. One troubling fact is that their mother's cells helped so many advances in medicine be possible while most of Henrietta's family lived without medical insurance.

In the afterword Skloot suggests that the two main issues at hand are consent and money. Should doctors have to get patient consent before taking and using cells and tissue for research? and if money is made from the cells, tissue or research should the original "owner" of the tissue get compensated? Throughout the book I thought of how I feel about these two issues. I think that yes, patient consent should be sought before doctors take and use them. However, I would hate that new discoveries, etc could be stalled because some patients don't consent to their tissue and cells being used. I'm pretty sure if asked I would give consent but I would like the chance to say yes or no. It would be very hard to track exactly how much profict was gained from one person's tissue to compensate them. Maybe if compensation is considered patients are just compensated one time for their contribution.

It's an interesting topic and a very interesting book. I enjoyed the book, especially the story of Henrietta and her family. I thought the book got a little bogged down in the technical information even though it was necessary to understand the book. What are your thoughts? Have you read the book? Want to read it? How do you feel about the issues at hand?

Happy Reading!

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

"There is no room for pity on a farm."

This is the second time I have read Mudbound in the past year (once because it sounded like a great book and twice because my book club is going to discuss it next weekend). I would read it again and plan to recommend it to everyone I know. What a read! Hillary Jordan is a very skilled writer and I look forward to more from her.

The title comes from the name given to the farm the McAllan family lives on. Henry McAllan moves his family to the farm he has always dreamed of with the promise that they will live a more civilized life in town. This idea falls through and the family ends up living in a run-down house on the always muddy farm.

The story is told from the point of view of all of the players in this story- Laura, Henry, Jamie (Henry's brother who has returned from WWII), Florence (the sharecropper's wife who live son the land and helps Laura with daily life), Hap (Florence's husband), Ronsel (the sharecropper's son who has also returned from the war). Another player in this story, Pappy (the matriarch) doesn't help tell the story but is a large part of it.

In the time that the book takes place race relations were still strained. However, the sharecroppers and the McAllan family get along just fine. When both sons return from the war and begin to find solace in their shared experiences people begin to talk and tensions rise to a climax that left me tense as you read on to the outcome.

Jordan is skilled at ending chapters with hints of what's to come and sprinkles in details that catch your attention and make you start piecing the story together. Every character in the story was guilty of one thing or another but also needed and wanted something true in their hearts. I think that is what made all of them so believable.

Have you read Mudbound? What did you think? Will you be adding it to your to-read list? Happy Reading!

Carry Me Home

My book club recently read and discussed Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring. A few years ago we read The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra so we were sure we would enjoy Carry Me Home also. I really enjoyed the book. The narrator, Earwig, is a simpleton whose older brother goes off to war during WWII. Kring did a great job not over doing the way Earwig misuses words or misunderstands things. He was quite funny and crude! This story is a glimpse into a small town whose sons went off to war. Everyone holds everyone else up and helps them through the long days of absence. Our group decided that the title was exemplified in each person helping another in need and "carrying" them. A quote from the book:

"You just walk through your days, Floyd," Jimmy says, and he's got teary eyes too. "And when you feel like you're going to fall on your ass again, you just grab tight to the first person that's nearby and you hold on until you steady yourself enough to take another step."

I felt Kring did a great job inserting historical facts without weighing down the story. I learned many new facts about the war and the treatment of soldiers when they came back. If you haven't read Sandra Kring yet, what are you waiting for?

Next on our book club list is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Bradley.

Happy Reading!

Where Have I Been?

WOW! I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged about my reading. Don't really have a good excuse. I did read 11 books between now and then- some of the great, some not so much!

I just finished reading One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. I heard about it through a blog that introduces titles that could be possible Newbery Medal winners. I completely disagree about this book. I didn't care for it at all. Three sisters travel across the country to stay with the mother that abandoned them. She is involved with The Black Panthers. Much of the story deals with The Black Panthers and events around that time period. I thought it was very vague and scattered. In the end I didn't think there was enough that happened in the book or enough change in the characters.

Here are links to the other books I have read since my absence with stars next to my faves:

A Long Way Gone

Umbrella Summer **

The Leanin' Dog **

Worlds Afire **

Outcasts United **

The Circus Fire

A Reliable Wife

Leaving Gee's Bend

The Scent of Rain and Lightning **

The Sweet By and By **

Now for what is on the to read list:

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Comfort by Ann Hood

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Bonobo Handshake by Vanessa Woods

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

I'm not sure which one to read first. I'm leaning towards Bonobo Handshake or The Other Wes Moore. They both sounds fascinating. Since it won't stop raining here in Texas maybe I'll get all of them read soon. I promise not to be gone too long this time!

What are you reading?

Happy Reading

Brave and Broken

This holiday weekend has afforded me the chance to get a jump start on my poetry reading.

I have finished both Home of the Brave and All the Broken Pieces.

They were both beautiful and very well written.

I want to talk about both first and then speak to each individually.

Both stories weave together the stories or people who on the surface seem very different but the more you look, the more similar their circumstances.

In both stories the narrators are young boys who have come to America to escape war- from Vietnam and Sudan.

Kek is the narrator of Home of the Brave. Most of his family was killed in the violence familiar to Sudan.

He is brought to live with his extended family in Minneapolis.

The author does a wonderful job of allowing the reader to see the world through the eyes of Kek, who is experiencing so much for the first time- snow, airplanes, escalators.

Kek befriends Hannah, a foster child who lives in his apartment building

and an older lady who is also in transition.

I don't want to give too much away.

I loved the poeticness (might have invented a word there but you know what I mean!).

The words paint a lovely picture even though the story is at times bleak.

The night Ganwar lost his hand

was the night I lost

my father and brother

the night of men in the sky with guns

the night the earth opened up like a black pit

and swallowed my old life whole.

Here is an interview with the author, Katherine Applegate.

I must confess that I started reading the second half of All the Broken Pieces this morning thinking that it wasn't as strong of a story as Home of the Brave.
Well, I cried through the last 20 pages and changed me mind!
I do think that Home of the Brave is more poetic but the story of Matt in All the Broken Pieces really got me.
Matt was airlifted out of Vietnam and adopted by a family.
The story takes place a couple years after the Vietnam war and tensions are still high.
The story follows Matt as he tries out for the baseball team and learns to play the piano.
I know that doesn't sound like much but he encounters people who are also broken and they are each able to help one another.
I think in some ways we are all broken and if we looked deep enough we would find similarities and be able to help each other.
The connection to the cover photograph of a torn baseball is beautiful in this story.

Both books have led me to further reading: The Things They Carried, July, July, and A Long Way Gone.

Happy Reading!

Poetry Pile

April is National Poetry Month and I {heart} poetry. So why not a month of poetry reading? I teach at an elementary school so most of the books in my pile could be used with elementary students but they can also be enjoyed by adults. Poetry is amazing to me- with so few words you can say so much. It's definitely an art. I will be reading some novels in verse and some poetry collections.

Novels in Verse:

Poetry Collections:

Do you enjoy poetry? What is your favorite collection? Happy Reading!