Monday, April 17, 2017

Read-Alike Monday: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A lot of people have been talking about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks again, since the movie starring Oprah is set to come out soon. Since we loved this book and we know many of you did, we're offering some suggestions on what to read next if you liked this book.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.


READ-ALIKES:

The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Cost of Defeating Disease by Meredith Wadman  The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the conquest of rubella and other devastating diseases. 

Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of American children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant; there was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated fetuses. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia, using tissue extracted from an aborted fetus from Sweden, produced safe, clean cells that allowed the creation of vaccines against rubella and other common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a devastating German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day wipe out homegrown rubella. The rubella vaccine and others made with those fetal cells have protected more than 150 million people in the United States, the vast majority of them preschoolers. The new cells and the method of making them also led to vaccines that have protected billions of people around the world from polio, rabies, chicken pox, measles, hepatitis A, shingles and adenovirus. 

Meredith Wadman's masterful account recovers not only the science of this urgent race, but also the political roadblocks that nearly stopped the scientists. She describes the terrible dilemmas of pregnant women exposed to German measles and recounts testing on infants, prisoners, orphans, and the intellectually disabled, which was common in the era. These events take place at the dawn of the battle over using human fetal tissue in research, during the arrival of big commerce in campus labs, and as huge changes take place in the laws and practices governing who "owns" research cells and the profits made from biological inventions. It is also the story of yet one more unrecognized woman whose cells have been used to save countless lives. 

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington  The first comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between Africans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the way both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without a hint of informed consent--a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and a view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. New details about the government's Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, and private institutions. This book reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit.

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande  In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge. Complications lays bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is--uncertain, perplexing, and profoundly human. Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.












The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee  Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. 

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” 

The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease. 

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

New and Noteworthy Middle Grade Fiction


 by Pseudonymous Bosch



We’re being showered this April with great debut novels, the latest in popular series, along with the newest from favorite authors.

 Bad News . Book 3 in the Bad Books series (Bad Magic, Bad Luck) Thirteen-year-old Clay, a boy who no longer believes in magic, tags graffiti on his classroom wall and, as punishment, is sent to a camp for wayward kids located on a volcanic island, where eccentric campmates abound, a ghost walks among the abandoned ruins of a mansion, and a dangerous force threatens to erupt with bad magic.   In the latest entry, Clay and the Secret Series Allies confront the white-gloved members of the mysterious Midnight Sun cabal.




 
   Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly.  In conjunction with the new Disney live action Beauty & the Beast, an original story taking place during Belle’s time at the Beast’s castle.  Smart, bookish Belle, a captive in the Beast's castle, has become accustomed to her new home and has befriended its inhabitants. When she comes upon Nevermore, an enchanted book unlike anything else she has seen in the castle, Belle finds herself pulled into its pages and transported to a world of glamour and intrigue. But what about her friends in the Beast's castle? Can Belle trust her new companions inside the pages of Nevermore? Belle must uncover the truth about the book, before she loses herself in it forever.

 by Sarah Beth Durst 
 Journey Across the Hidden Islands   Award-winning fantasy writer Durst has created an action packed story with an Eastern flavor.  When twin princesses Seika and Ji- Lin travel to pay respects to their kingdom's dragon guardian, unexpected monsters appear, and tremors shake the earth. The Hidden Islands face unprecedented threats, and the old rituals are failing. With only their strength, ingenuity, and flying lion to rely on, can the sisters find a new way to keep their people safe?




 by Jessica Day George
 

Saturdays at Sea   Finishes up the series starring the ever changing Castle Glower and Princess Celie that began with Tuesdays at the Castle.  After traveling to the seaside kingdom of Lilah's betrothed prince, Lulath, Celie and her companions are busy training griffins, enjoying wedding festivities, and finishing construction of a grand ship built from parts of the Castle. But on their maiden voyage, the Ship steers them far off course into uncharted waters.



 by Tim Green and Derek Jeter
 
Baseball Genius  and Fair Ball by Derek Jeter & Paul Mantell.  Derek Jeter may not be out on the diamond but he is putting his experience to work in several novels about baseball, co-authoring with veteran children’s sports novelists.  In Baseball Genius, an average kid with an above average talent for predicting baseball pitches tries to help his favorite player out of a slump.  In Fair Ball, Jeter continues with a series containing a fictionalized version of himself as a youngster living and loving baseball.




 by Andy Griffiths


  65-Story Treehouse
   How’s your division?  This hilarious, goofy series uses multiples of 13 for each title, beginning with The 13-Story Treehouse.  So we’re at number…5!  A treehouse like no other provides the setting for outrageous antics.






 by Scott Westerfeld
   

Horizon   Debut middle grade series with a companion online game by popular teen writer Westerfeld (Uglies).  When Aero Horizon 16 crashes in the Arctic, eight children emerge from the wreckage to find themselves alone and surrounded, not by ice, but by a mysterious and deadly jungle full of carnivorous plants and predatory birds--the other five hundred people from the plane are gone, not necessarily dead, but taken by something that lives in the jungle.



 by Carol Weston
 
Speed of Life  This debut novel by real life advice columnist Weston garnered 4 starred reviews.  Sofia lost her mother eight months ago, and her friends were 100% there for her. Now it’s a new year, and they’re ready for Sofia to move on.  Problem is, Sofia can’t bounce back, can’t recharge like a cell phone. She decides to write Dear Kate, an advice columnist for Fifteen Magazine, and is surprised to receive a fast reply. Soon, the two are exchanging emails, and Sofia opens up and spills all, including a few worries that are totally embarrassing. Turns out even advice columnists don’t have all the answers, and one day, Sofia learns a secret that flips her world upside down.