The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.


I picked this up in the library almost a month ago, and still hadn't read it. After renewing it once, I finally picked it up, and I couldn't be more glad. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman whose cells were harvested by doctors during the course of her treatment for cervical cancer. After Henrietta's death, those cells multiplied prolifically and have been used in a multitude of laboratories around the world. Skloot follows Henrietta's life, death, and her family's journey through their discovery of what Henrietta's cells meant to the scientific world.

While I enjoy nonfiction, I don't read nearly as much of it as I do fiction because it's generally more difficult for me to find nonfiction that I can thoroughly enjoy. However, this was not at all a problem with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. On the back of the book, a Booklist starred review is quoted as saying that Skloot writes with "a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter." This short quote just about sums up my experience with Skloot's writing. This book captivated me and kept me reading just as much as a good novel, while still remaining journalistic and clearly nonfiction. Rebecca Skloot manages to strike a perfect balance between style and substance. This balance, however, is not the main reason I enjoyed the book - Henrietta Lacks' story is simply fascinating, and I'm stunned that it has never been written about in such detail before. Again, a quote from the back of the book (this time from Ted Conover) says it perfectly: "This is exactly the sort of story that books were made to tell - thorough, detailed, quietly passionate, and full of revelation." I couldn't describe it better.

Everything Is Going to Be Great - Rachel Shukert

When she lands a coveted nonpaying, nonspeaking role in a play going on a European tour, Rachel Shukert - with a brand-new degree in acting from NYU and no money - finally scores her big break. And, after a fluke at customs in Vienna, she gets her golden ticket: an unstamped passport, giving her free rein to "find herself" on a grand tour of Europe. Traveling from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, Rachel bounces through complicated relationships, drunken mishaps, miscommunication, and the reality-adjusting shock that every twentysomething faces when sent off to negotiate "the real world" - whatever that may be.

I received Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour from the publisher as a Goodreads First Read giveaway prize in August, and started it immediately. And then I got sidetracked. And sidetracked again. And again. And...well, you get the point. This wasn't because I didn't like the book, because I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it. I'm not actually sure why it took me so long to finish, but at any rate, I am finished (finally), and here's my review.

I was initially attracted to this book simply because it's about travel, and I am generally fond of travel books - in fact, a proportionally large amount of my favorite books involve travel of some kind. Also, I loved the cover, which affects my reading choices more than I might like to admit. Fortunately, I was not at all disappointed by Shukert's memoir. Her writing is hilarious and very tongue-in-cheek from the very first page: "There are many wonderful ways to use this book. For example, if you are removing a hot casserole dish from the oven and have misplaced all your trivets, you could use this book instead." While her style has the potential to come off as contrived, I didn't find it to be so; on the contrary, the book felt very honestly written. Though I did have to cringe at Rachel during several parts of the book (she makes some very stupid decisions over the course of the memoir), it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the book. On the whole, I definitely recommend Everything Is Going to Be Great.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake - Sloane Crosley

I first read I Was Told There'd Be Cake in January, and I have no idea why I didn't review it then. I must have been busy or lazy or both, because I absolutely love this book, which contains fifteen essays by Sloane Crosley on the subject of various things in her personal life.

The first essay in I Was Told There'd Be Cake, which also happens to be one of my favorites, is "The Pony Problem," wherein Crosley describes her fear of what would happen should she suddenly die and her parents clean out her apartment, finding her stash of toy ponies. Sloane describes her relationship with real and toy ponies by writing, "It's like those movies with animated insects. Sure, the baby cockroach seems cute with CGI eyelashes, but how would you feel about fifty of her real-life counterparts living in your oven?" Another of the essays, "The Ursula Cookie," describes Crosley's experience with the boss from hell (whose name is Ursula), and in "You On a Stick," Sloane is called upon by a long, long, long-lost high school friend, Francine, to be the maid of honor in her wedding.

While I do have a few favorites in I Was Told There'd Be Cake, I loved--not liked, loved--every essay in the book. They're funny, they're witty, and they're somehow utterly relatable despite the fact that I have never owned a single toy pony or volunteered at a butterfly exhibit. I would highly recommend this book to almost anyone; in fact, I can't think of a single person I know who wouldn't enjoy it. I suppose that could be because I know all the same kind of people, but I'm willing to risk it and recommend I Was Told There'd Be Cake anyway.