A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

Lives In Ruins is Marilyn Johnson's third book.  It was initially the book that first caught my interest, but since my library had a copy of This Book Is Overdue , I read that one first.  Then we got a copy of The Dead Beat , which I also read.  In the hierarchy of Marilyn Johnson books, Lives In Ruins is at the top with This Book Is Overdue , and The Dead Beat is at the bottom.  For some reason, The Dead Beat just never caught fire for me like the other two did.  In Lives In Ruins (I love the title!), Johnson turns her sights on the field of archaeology and the passionate professionals who work in it.  It is a field about which you have to be passionate to work in it because it is not an easy life, you will never have career stability, and you won't get rich working as an archaeologist (far from it in fact). The book begins at the beginning: at field school where archaeology students go for practical experience in the field on an actual dig. ...

This is the aforementioned review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks .  This is probably one of the best non fiction books I've ever read, both for subject matter and readability.  It was very popular when it first came out, and I heard great things about it from those who read it.  It wasn't until it was recently returned to the library that I thought I'd give it a try. Through massive research, investigation and reporting, it tells the story of the woman, Henrietta Lacks, whose cells spawned countless cell lines that still live today over half a century since her death.  Her cells led to the development of countless research and scientific breakthroughs: from vaccines to genome mapping and everything in between. Skloot relates the story of Henrietta by framing it within the larger tale of her decade long journey to unearth the facts of the case and find answers for Henrietta's family and descendants.  It is a story that takes many, sometimes bizarre...

For someone who doesn't read non fiction, I've been reading an awful lot of it lately.  For whatever reason, it seems non fiction has been capturing and holding my attention better than fiction has been.  I can't remember if I read this before or after The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (to be reviewed in an upcoming post), but it's getting its post first. Fanny and Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a very long title.  An aside: as a longtime 'name nerd,' I have to say that I love the name Frances Caroline. Joshua Chamberlain was a seminary graduate and professor who felt called to serve his country during her hour(s) of greatest need: the American Civil War.  His military service was distinguished.  Some say that he single-handedly changed the tide of the war at the Battle of Gettysburg where he led his Maine regiment in a brave and dangerous charge against a Confederate regiment as it threatened ...

Herstory: Women Who Changed The World edited by Ruth Ashby and Deborah Gore Ohrn is copyrighted 1995, which makes me wonder who would be included in an updated volume. Ever since high school I've identified myself as a feminist, and women's history and women's rights are near and dear to me. The marginalization, objectification, discrimination, and second class citizenship of women throughout history are ideas that still outrage and horrify me when I read about the obstacles, injustices and perils that my female forebears have had to overcome and survive to get to where we are today. I may not have personally experienced these struggles--I have come of age in the title IX era where equality or near equality is the only thing I've known--but I am acutely aware of the fairly recent period in history in which women had few or no rights and how fragile those rights remain with the current Republican president and the addition of two conservative justices to the U.S. Supre...