Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Book Description

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen Miss Chablis; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

My Review
Without a doubt, when I think of this book, I smile and wish I could find more non-fiction/murder-mystery/hilarious drag-queen/voodoo priestess/Georgia-admiring book like it; I absolutely loved it.  I consistently had to keep reminding myself that the book was a true story; the main plot line was believable, but  the people whose lives the Author captured on paper had me shaking my head in disbelief that they were real-life.
My mom of all people recommended this book to me (I say "of all people" because Mom does not read; recently always saying that she has no idea where my book-loving gene came from).  I remember her having it at the house I grew up in in the bottom part of her nightstand (ridiculous sometimes the little silly things I remember), and she's told me for many many years I needed to read it, but I didn't actually give it a try until this year.  This may be the only book my Mom has read; don't hold me to that but her list is certainly not long.  Sidenote: When I was younger, we went on a roadtrip to the south and purposefully spent a day in Savannah, driving by the houses discussed in the book and seeing the statues and squares mentioned.  I don't remember it vividly, but I did remember a sense of feeling like we had gone back in time.  Everything was beautifully maintained, and there was a very slow, southern way about the people.
I can see where this type of book may not be well-suited for everyone. Having been to Savannah now a few times, its very easy to appreciate this book, where I could see someone who has never been may not be as drawn.  Take this tidbit of my advice: While the author has several lead characters, by far and without any doubt, his primary character is Savannah, Georgia itself.....and he makes you fall in love.  If you do decide to try the book out, if by the time you meet Lady Chablis you are not a fan, you may as well put that book down and move along.  Lady Chablis is hilarious, reminds me of a guy I went to college with, and has a fire-cracker attitude I would kill for. Another sidenote: In the movie, Lady Chablis is the real actress for her own character.  Just thought that was cool since that does not happen very often in movies.
Speaking of the movie: unfortunately a major disappointment.  Granted I am only 26, so maybe I do not have the appreciation that a more mature audience member may have for films from the 1990's (when explaining one day how bad the movie was to Allison, Terry got all uptight with, "what's wrong with the 90's?! Some of the best movies of ALL TIMES are from the 90's!!" .... I love that boy!).  Kevin Spacey was a good pick for the role he played, but it just didn't hold true to the feeling I got from the book.  Savannah was a supporting actress and it changed the entire vibe from the transition from book to film.
I just shipped the book off to Allison, but if anyone has interest to borrow it next, let me know and I can have her send it to you next.

Books Tab soon to be back

Beyond irritated this morning as I was updating my Books Tab with my most recent reviews, I saved it as a draft, and then POOF, it disappeared into the eternal internet abyss.  It reverted my page back to when I very first started my tab of books, over a year ago.  It will be updated over the next few weeks, meanwhile I will still be crossing my fingers it magically reappears irritated. 

The Glass Castle

Book Description

People are apt to generalize why people live the way they do, especially when it is below the acceptable level deemed civilized. Jeannette Walls, in an autobiographical account, draws a picture of the way she grew up with her siblings in constantly changing locations that ranged from living in cars to a shack considered low life and dilapidated, even in the hills of W. Virginia. The children had little to no food much of the time learning to fend for themselves. Their parents were hooked on adventure and put them on "the skedaddle" when they couldn't/wouldn't pay their bills, were wanted by the police or possibly child welfare. The parents possessed intelligent minds attempting to raise their children with values. Unfortunately, their views of the world may have started well but then became skewed. Mom would relinquish the well being of the children for the needs of the alcoholic father. Was the mother mentally ill? Would the children have been better off in the foster care system? Or is this a look as to why the court system attempts to keep families together? Even when it is hard to understand why!
Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them — despite their overwhelming self-absorption — resonates from cover to cover.


My Review
I found this clip online, and I think it does a far better job explaining the book and the truth behind it. 



I liked the book, but it was personally a hard book for me to read.  Not with the way it was written, but the subject being written about.  I did love her way of recounting her past, never in a sorrowful or a sympathy-driven explanation, but as very matter of fact and how she grew from it. If you are needing a change from a light-hearted or funny surface-level book, this is your next pick up. 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Book Description
  Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the colors yellow and brown. As a fifteen-year-old boy with Autism / Asperger's Syndrome, he lives with his father and was told that mother died two years ago. He discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbor's dog, speared by a garden fork. Mrs Shears, Wellington's owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion.
  He decides to investigate the dog's death, despite his father's orders to stay out of other people's business. However, he is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in a book: a "murder mystery novel". During his investigation, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs Alexander, who informs Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr Shears and had been with him for a long time.
  This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years. Mark Haddon make this an excellent book for children and adults alike. It's as if you're seeing the world through Christopher's eyes.

My Review
In my geeky, science, math-loving way, I thoroughly loved this book's story as well as the way it was written.  I would suggest this book to anyone who wants a very personal portrait of the life of an autistic boy processing detective work to solve a crime, that ends up with a very unexpecting twist.

I do not have Autism nor have, to my knowledge, ever known anyone Autistic.  I do however work with many Doctors at the hospital, at times I do truly believe my boss is included in this category on the very mild end, who have Aspergers.  I'm always mesmerized trying to decipher how their minds work in that they are so brilliant, true geniuses, yet they have difficulty looking me in the eyes, or even keeping a coherent conversation going.  They memorize books in full, and can perform surgeries (literally) with their eyes closed, but they don't comprehend chewing with their mouths closed or that it is inappropriate to tell someone that they are obese in public.  Where many, understandably, feel sympathy or empathy for the plight of those with these syndromes, I sit fascinated by it, and I think that is what drew me to this book even more.  There are certainly times where I feel awful for Christopher, but for so much of this book, I admired his strength in keeping after his detective work and never giving up, even when it is far more difficult for him than it is for most of society.  I also very much admired Christophers father in this book.  It must be a very challenging and at times daunting task to raise a child with emotional impairments, but clearly as you read through the pages, it is shining so brightly how much his father loves him, regardless of it all. 

I really enjoyed the pace of the book as well as the path the reader got to follow with Christophers thought-process and action. The only part that at times wore on me was how many tangents Christopher took in his explanations.  It was less grinding however when I realized that there are many people in our society that go through this mental process on a daily basis.  I enjoyed the book very much.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Book Description:
This story was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

My Review
I admittedly do not have an overwhelming retained knowledge of World War II and everything that happened leading up to the fall of Hitler.  History and I have never been friends.  That being said, and it being acknowledged this this book is a work of fiction, it was very enlightening, very moving, and left my heart aching in thinking of the reality that the book is addressing. 

Right from the start, it was a very easy book to jump into.  It seems to always be a struggle of mine in getting through the first 50 pages of back story until the plot thickens, but that was in no way the case here.  From page one, you're off with Bruno on his experience. 
I consistently found myself annoyed with Bruno and then backing up to it with feeling so bad for him.  He was plopped into a life of luxury...maybe not of luxury by todays standards, but for their time, they were in the elite class.  Yet, he always seemed miserable.  Whether it be that his Dad paid him no attention yet Bruno idolized the ground he walked on, the life he had to leave in Berlin, his older sister (that I actually found quite entertaining even through all her bullying and brattiness), or his secret friendship with his friend Shmuel on the other side of the fence, he never seemed to find any happiness from his world. 

The book read very quickly , as most of the dialogue and concepts were from the perspective of a 9-year old boy (I think I finished it in 4 days and that was at a slow pace).  With his naivety and temperament, I envisioned him so much younger however than 9. Regardless of how sheltered a life he may have had, it's hard to believe he would not be asking more questions or with all of his enjoyment of exploring....finding more answers for himself. 

What broke my heart throughout the book, was how much Bruno and Shmuel were so alike, so innocent, and yet they were so very sadly different.

There were little mentions in the book that I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know what was being referred to (The Fury: Hitler; Bruno called the new place he lived "Out-With", which he was meaning Auschwitz where the Nazi Concentration Camps was).  Regardless of my ignorance, it did make me curious for numbers. And what I didn't know before, but what I'll always remember now is this: At least 960,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma (Gypsies), and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war; and 10,000-15,000 members of other nationalities.  Over a million people.  While the book was made of fiction, it made me go out and find out some astonishing facts.

Maybe that's one of the points of fiction; spark and interest in the reader and see how long the flame burns.

There is a movie out, but I have not yet seen it.  I need to find some time in this crazy life right now to pause and absorb.  I look forward to watching it.  

Book Week : Beware!!

For those of you who check through the Book Tab, it's clear to see that the books I'm reading are updating, but my posting of my reviews of the books are not.  If there's one post I procrastinate writing, it's a book review post.  They take the longest = clearly I put them off. :-)

In advance, the rest of this week is going to be reviews. I need to catch up and stop putting it off, so the best way for me to mentally do that is to brain-dump all at one time.  There are a few I'm dying to tell people about (i.e. they need to go buy and read them immediately), as well as a few others that I'm happy I read but not a lot to rave over. 

My book girls out there....what are you reading right now??  Any I should buy immediately??  I'm reading The Help right now and CANNOT put it down!!!!

My First Summer Read

I've got an awesome best friend.  Allison just mailed me my next book, Room, and I can't wait to start it!!  The little monster came along for the trip to St Louis so the book didn't have to travel alone.  (That's not a true story, but I like to think it is.)

I haven't really figured out yet when I'm going to find time to read it between Microbiology this summer along with adding on 4 new summer students to my lab for the next 9 weeks, but I'll find a way.  From everything that she said about the book, I want to start it right this minute!!

Anyone else read it yet?  Thoughts?

Mockingjay

The review for the third and final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy is here.  I admit that I have been dawdling on writing my review of this book.  I finished it over a month ago, and actually have read another book since...and am half way through my current book, but I've been dragging my feet.  Mainly, the burying the feet underground firmly feet dragging is because I gushe and loved and thoroughly enjoyed book 1 and book 2 of this trilogy, and I sadly can't say the same for this final book of the series.  

This horrific drawing of my enjoyment level through the trilogy should be rather indicative of my feelings towards this finale.

Without giving away any of the plot (Alexa I know you still haven't read it...so no spoilers!), I was just very much in the action mindset that Catching Fire ended with and you could cut the suspense with a knife.  They had just escaped the Hunger Games, Peeta had been captured by the Capitol, and my reading adrenaline was at an all-time high.  Then right from the start of this book, it turned from action and adventure to a psychological mind-game.  I found myself begging through the entire book for the storyline to pick up and my interest to be re-piqued, but it unfortunately stayed bottomed out for me.  They had two or three events where the intensity picked up, but within 30 pages it was right back to the psychological warfare and conspiracy theories. 

The ending of the book felt like the author didn't get the time she needed to adequately explain the choices Katniss made and the effects of all her decisions. Most specifically, you don't find out who Katniss finally chooses to be with between Peeta and Gale until the Epilogue which is the last 10 pages of the book.  The author has had her reader on the edge of their seats for almost 1,000 pages to find out who Katniss chooses, and she allots 10 pages (and it really wasn't even 10 pages because they Katniss talks about her life 20 years later) to it!  There's a little piece of me that is curious if she got a hard deadline from her editors and publishers for a release date, and while she could have used an extra few months to end the trilogy well, she instead stuck to their deadlines and ended it as best she could, but VERY abruptly.

(I'm harping, I know, sorry. I'm just trying to put into words what it was that made this book the least appealing and why in comparison to the others). The colors and the visual worlds through these books is another way of explaining why Mockingjay fell short.  The first book, while gray and dismal at the beginning as they are explaining the world they live in, turned vibrant and full of colors as they entered the Games.  The second book, again a bit dreary and muted at the beginning, became full of color, high energy and dramatic visuals from half way in through the end.  This third book was gray the whole way through....maybe slight variations in tone, but gray the whole way. 

Enough of being a Debbie Downer and probably turning all of you away from Mockingjay.  I think you could definitely love this book with the pre-understanding that it turns very deep and inward for the characters and that it is a very different feel from what you've read up to this point.  I would still recommend reading Mockingjay, and hopefully with this previous knowledge, you can have a better experience with it than I did.  I will still actively rave to anyone and everyone who is looking for a new books series to read that this HAS to be their top choice, but solely from my opinion, Catching Fire was the best from the trilogy. 

Catching Fire (The book, not us....don't worry!)

The second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy.  On my last trip home, I gave Alexa back her first book, and she lent me Catching Fire to catch up to her (she's currently on the third book...unless she's finished it since last I checked). 

Without going into the plot line and strictly giving my opinion of the book, I would urge every single person reading this post to go and read this book!  Mind you, there's the issue of having to read the first book to know who the characters are and what is going on, but besides that, this is the best book that I have read in a long time.  The author so vividly describes the scenes and makes you feel so connected to each and every one of the characters. 

The book's suspense just builds and builds and builds, and I kept looking at how many pages I had left thinking, How in the world is the author going to wrap this up so quickly??  Sure enough...it ends very abruptly and still at a peak of suspense before you find out you have to go to the third book to find out what happens. 

Which leads me to the question, How do people wait for the next book in a series to be released?!?! After finishing this book, there would have been no way I could have waited a year for the third book in this series.  Luckily for me, the third book has already been released (and I started and finished it in 4 days...but that's another post), but I would have gone crazy having to wait.  I hope I never have to deal with that, and for the record to all my reader friends, please only suggest book series to me after all the books have been published :-). 

Now for my few questions/interests from the book  Don't read any further if you haven't read the book!!!!  Possible Spoilers!!!

Again though, to end my post, if you haven't read it......GO BUY IT!  Loved this book!

The Full Scoop >>

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

This book secretly snuck it's way in to being read.  I finished up My life in France and was wanting a completely different vibe.  I wasn't quite ready to jump into the second book in the Hunger Games Series since I had just finished the first book previous to Life in France.  I also tried hopping back into Steig Larson's series with The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest (2nd book in that series), but about 10 pages in and I knew it was not the right fit right now. 

My mom knows my love of books that are also movies, so one of her gifts (that incidentally she didn't give to me for Christmas, but she left in our garage accidentally for me to come across) were the books and movies of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  I picked up the first book to see if it'd be a good easy read right now, and before I knew it I was 40 pages in.  Needless to say, it was super fast read as well as a super easy read (I'm sure the target age for this book is somewhere from 12 or 13 yrs old up to about 20....but who cares...I don't).

In a super quick synopsis, the book centers around four girls that have been friends since they were born.  Their mothers were all friends as the girls were born within two weeks apart of each other.  This will be the first summer in their whole lives that they will be apart; one going to Greece, one to soccer camp, one to visit her Dad, and the other staying home to save up money for a car.  The last night before the girls are set to separate for the summer, they are all together and a pair of jeans becomes the center of conversation.  Each girl tries them on, only to realize they are the most stunning pants they've ever worn.  They decide that amongst their letters to one another to keep updates (I guess this was before email, although I'm not sure exactly when these books were written), they will also send around the pants to bring each other good luck and provide confidence that all the other girls are there too even though they are in different parts of the world.  

There's lots of drama, lots of funny and quirky moments, and it overall is a feel-good story-line.  At the beginning, I had trouble keeping tabs of who was who between the four of them, but about a quarter way in, I had them in line.  The characters are all easy to like, and while they may not fit the mold of anyone specific, they are all very relatable. 

My favorite quote from the book:  "Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, sweeping circumstances, about having everything in your life in place. Maybe it was about stringing together a bunch of small pleasures.” ~Tibby

Between each section of the book (they weren't really chapters, and the sections weren't even distinct segregations from the previous section), there were random quotes.  I say random in a good way, because evening though they only pseudo-fit what was going on in one of the girls lives in that timepoint, bottom-line is that I just really liked all the quotes that they chose.  Silly, I know, but I'm a quote-lover.  Anyways, here they are (highlighted ones I really liked)

Prologue “Not all who wander are lost.” -J. R. R. Tolkien

1."Luck never gives: it only lends.” -Ancient Chinese Proverb
2.“Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.” -Anonymous
3.“Can you make yourself love? Can you make yourself be loved?”-Lena Kaligaris
4.“There is no such thing as fun for the whole family.”-Jerry Seinfeld
5.“Love is like war: easy to begin, hard to end.”-Proverb
6.“Rule #1: The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is wrong, refer to rule #1.”-Duncan Howe
7.“When life hands you a lemon, say, ‘Oh yeah. I like lemons. What else ya got?’”-Henry Rollins
8.“I have seen the future and it’s like the present, only longer.”-Dan Quisenberry
9.“Sometimes you’re the windshield: sometimes you’re the bug.”-Mark Knopfler
10.“If you feel like you’re under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”-Mario Andretti
11.“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Got that?”-Coach Brevin
12.“If you don’t find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalog.”-Sears, Roebuck catalog
13.“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.”-Frieda Norris
14."Time tells the truth.”-Fortune cookie
15."Of the thirty-six ways of avoiding disaster, running away is best." - Anonymous
16."Life is so... whatever." -Kelly Marquette aka Skeletor
17.“You make all kinds of mistakes: but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.”-Winston Churchill
18.“Wish for what you want. Work for what you need.”-Carmen’s grandmother
19.“My karma ran over my dogma.”-Bumper sticker
20.“You can take a road that gets you to the stars. I can take a road that will see me through.”-Nick Drake
21.“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
22.“All Moanday. Tearday. Wailsday. Thumpsday. Frightday. Shatterday.”-James Joyce
23.“Is there world enough for me?”-Jane Frances
24.“In your eyes I am complete.”-Peter Gabriel
Epilogue “We will go. Nowhere we know. We don’t have to talk at all."-Beck

If you are looking for a SUPER easy read....and you are a chick....this is your book.  Unfortunately (and by all means prove me wrong), I cannot see this book being a big draw for the guys.  It's about four girls and their drama; enough said.  :-) 

I still haven't watched the movie, but I plan to either this weekend or next.  I'll update with if I liked the movie or book better. 

Happy Reading!

My Life In France and Julia's Kitchen

It's been 2 months since I started the book, but I officially finished reading My Life in France.  The book was a beautiful memoir of Julias journey to loving France, Food, and her Cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I can't help but be enamored in Julia and her husband Paul's love and life together.  They traveled the world together, and in her 40's she decided she wanted to leave working for the government to take on cooking.  Paul stood by her and encouraged her the entire way and she made herself to the star we all know her as now by following something that she truly loved.  You can tell from this book that Julia was very fiesty, which makes me like her all the more. 

My favorite quote (well...paragraph) from the book was during a hectic time in their lives between finishing the cookbook and going on book tours and starting to film The French Chef TV Series: "But then we looked at each other and repeated our favorite phrase, "No one's more important than people", In other words, friendship is the most important thing, not career or housework or one's fatigue- and it needs to be tended and nurtured."

During the day trip over to DC with Mom while I was back home 2 weeks ago, we stopped into the Smithsonian Museum of American History to see Julia's Kitchen from her home in Boston.  It was fascinating and beautiful and a great way to wrap up this time I've spent getting to know Julia Child. 

This made me smile, it's quite the perfect mantra.

The Hunger Games

My niece, Alexa, suggested that I read this book on my last visit home. She offered to let me borrow it (she's the best). I had heard great things about it, but I had put it a bit back on my cue list in trying to get through the books that are very VERY rapidly piling up to read at the house.  I took a sneak peak at the first chapter on my flight back to St Louis, and I got hooked.  And I mean, I got hooked HARD!!  I finished the book in just over a month, but it took that long because school work and readings got in my way.  If I had no other responsibilities, I would have finished it in a week. 
So the basic plot-line follows a girl named Katniss Everdeen.  She lives in a future time after North America has been destroyed, in a nation called Panem.  There is a Capitol running all of Panem, and then it is broken into 12 different districts.  Every year, the Capitol enforces a national tournament between the 12 districts where they must each send two tributes to compete against each other in a fight to the death.  The entire competition is televised throughout the entire nation and as tributes are daring or wise or show bravery, their supporters can send in needed supplies to aid them in winning.  The final winner brings much money to their district, which all are struggling and just getting by with food rations.  The tournament was originally devised after many districts were rebelling against the Capitol, so the "Games" are the Capitol's way of reminding the districts who is in supreme control as well as the price they must not pay for the previous rebellions.
Katniss becomes very close with the boy tribute from her district, Peeta Melark, as well as another girl tribute, Rue, who is younger and reminds Katniss of her sister back home.  The plot follows through the entire hunger games, all the struggles and fears and strategies are quite intriguing.  You become attached to the characters and I found myself cheering for them to succeed.  There are few action-packed, intense moments that I don't want to give away, but just make me look back and appreciate the book even more.
The author does an amazing job of gripping you into the book and then not allowing you to let go.  Her explanations are so vivid, it's as though you are a part of their world and right there in the action with Katniss.  This is the first of three books in the series, and I cannnot wait until this semester of school is over so that I can start in on the next one.  I also can't wait for the movies to start rolling out!!  It's going to be great in the theater!

GONE WITH THE WIND IS FINISHED!!!!

Oh sweet heavens I finally finished it!  I figured if I didn't get it done before my class started that it wasn't going to be finished until this winter, so I sucked it up and put in the last big push to get through it.  It's been such an easy read, it's just that it is so long and to find the time this summer has been very few and far between with all of our running around and working on the house.

So my opinion of it:  It deserves every bit of it's recognition in being one of the greatest books ever written.  It was so well-crafted, so intricately detailed and the growth of each character so genuinely expressed that you felt like you were there with them re-living the entire story.  The love story between Scarlett and Rhett is so genius that it just captivates you even further through your reading.  He's always there to save the day, put her in her place, and cause a stir.  I think that's possibly why Rhett ended up being my favorite character. 

While Mom was visiting before Labor day, she brought the DVD with her and we watched it during one of my sick days that the weather wasn't that wonderful.  Usually it's clear cut as to whether I like the book or the movie better, but there is positively no way that I could choose my favorite.  As far as character portrayals from the book to the big screen, I thought they were spot on with both Rhett and Scarlett.  I liked Mammy so much more in the movie, but I think a lot of that had to do with it being difficult to read her dialogue in the book, so in my head she talked really slow.  Just the opposite in the movie, and she was funny!  I like Melanie a lot more in the movie as well, but that's because she was the character in the book that annoyed me most.  The movie displayed Melanie in a way that didn't annoy me, as it showed her less timid and feeble than how the book always made her out to be.

I know that 1448 pages sounds daunting, that you could read 4-5 books in the time it would take you to read this one, but I'm telling you that it is worth the time and the energy.  You're drawn in in the first 10 pages and it's really hard at times to pull yourself away.  The last 200 or so pages are just nail-biter after nail-biter and makes me wish that there was a follow-up novel because there are so many loose ends.

Wonder what to read next......

Gone With The Wind....breaking page 1,000!!

Sweet goodness I am really liking this book, but it just needs to be OVER WITH!  I just crossed over page 1,000 last night which was a small victory, but there are still 448 pages left, which when you say (read) it like that....well lets just be honest about it.....thats AWFUL! 

On Saturday, I picked up the book to read in the morning, and it tore in two right down the binding.  So now I have Gone with the Wind: Part I, which is the first 557 pages, and Gone with the Wind Part II that I'm just about half way through. :-)

Has anyone else read this monstrosity? 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

My coworker Stephen initially suggested for me to read this book because, well, we're both science nerds and it was getting all kinds of rave reviews in the media. Mom got it for me and sent it in my Easter Basket. As of this point in my life, this book is the quickest read I have had, from start to finish it took 5 days. I literally could not put the book down. There was a lot of science involved in the book, but I found it so interesting learning the background of this womans life, how her cells have changed the advancement of modern science as we know it, and how her living family (children and grandchildren) are handling it.

I can get all sorts of in-depth about the science interest of this book, but I'll water it down so it's easier to fully understand. HeLa cells are named after a woman named Henrietta Lacks. She was an African American woman who had a severe case of cervical cancer and before she passed away in 1951, a biopsy of her cervix was taken without her permission to see if researchers and scientists could continue to grow these cells out of her body. They were working to make the first line of human "immortal" cells, which means that the cells were able to replicate with no lifetime expiration. For decades, scientists had been trying to immortalize almost every type of cell in our body, but after a certain amount of replications, the cells would die. This is because of Telomeres in our body. (they are the red caps in this picture)

So basically, in all of our "normal" cells, telomeres are what cause the aging process, essentially what makes us eventually grow old. In cancer cells however, like Henrietta's cells, telomeres are protected by an enzyme called Telomerase that replaces the part of the telomere that was shortening.  So from the picture above, the red part will never shorten to lead to the cells death, it will continuously be able to grow and replicate.  Henrietta's cells grew like wildfire. "Henrietta Lacks's cells multiplied like nothing anyone had seen. They latched to the sides of test tubes, consumed the medium around them, and within days, the thin film of cells grew thicker and thicker."

Millions upon millions of labs across the world use HeLa cells daily. When I worked at Lonza in Maryland, the Cell Culture group worked with HeLa cells almost every day. "Researchers welcomed the gifts, allowing HeLa to grow. They used the cells to search for a leukemia cure and the cause of cancer, to study viral growth, protein synthesis, genetic control mechanisms, and the unknown effects of drugs and radiation. And though Henrietta never traveled farther than from Virginia to Baltimore, her cells sat in nuclear test sites from America to Japan and multiplied in a space shuttle far above the Earth." Most noteably, Jonas Salk used HeLa to find his polio vaccine.

The book goes into extensive details of Henriettas life, and it goes into great depths on the ethical dilemma faced by her family. Until 1975, 24 years after Henrietta's death, her family had no idea that her cells even existed. It discusses the anguish the family faced upon the news of how their mother had been treated, because for them, if her cells were still alive, that was a part of their mother being abused and tested and tortured. Their mother had advanced nearly every avenue of science, yet her immediate family did not have health insurance nor the means to pay for medicine when needed.

This is the first book that I have read that does not have a movie out for me to follow-up with. What is strange at the same time though, is how in-touch I felt with this book moreso than any other as I was reading it; I think that's why I read it so quickly. Hopefully in the years to come, more lobbying is done to promote Henrietta in our history books. I wish I had known about her when I was learning about Rosalind Franklin and Florence Nightingale and Barbara McClintock and Sally Ride. Henrietta may have not been directly involved with her cells, but understanding how much her cells have done for science and for medicine is fascinating and very easy to understand and easy to feel inspired through. This book is definitely a read that anyone can appreciate. It's broken down into 3 sections: Life, Death, and Immortality. I liked Life the most, getting to understand her background, and so many references to Virginia and Maryland.


Recommendation: Get the book!!

My Sisters Keeper and a Julie and Julia Follow-up

During Allison's visit this past weekend, we ended up renting a few movies on Sunday because she got horrifically sick. We rented My Sisters Keeper and Julie and Julia (in case you hadn't figured that out yet from the Blog Title) :-).

I REALLY wanted to see My Sisters Keeper because I was absolutely in love with the book. I finished it about 3 months ago but I read it in only a few days. Just could not put the book down it was so moving. I bawled when I finished the book and I gushed over it to anyone that would listen. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for a weekend that I could rent it and watch it where Terry was busy so that I wouldn't have to put him through having to watch it too (not his thing). Allison being sick was the perfect opportunity.

Now I'm not going to give a lot away about the movie for those of you who haven't seen it yet. The premise of the story is about a family's struggle with one of the children having acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. There are three children; the oldest son Jesse, the middle daughter Kate (who is the one with cancer), and the youngest Anna. Anna was an engineered child, meaning she was genetically created to be a perfect match as a donor for Kate when they found out that Kate had Leukemia and Jesse was not a match. Since Anna was born, she has been giving her blood and her bone marrow to Kate. Kate's kidneys have started malfunctioning and the parents are wanting Anna to give one of her kidneys to Kate to keep her alive. The main development in the story comes when Anna hires a lawyer to claim medical emanicipation from her parents so that she can have control over her body and no longer be Kates donor. Each chapter in the book is from a different person in the family's perspective of the situation while still moving the timeline forward. It is a powerful book that pulls you in so many directions all while having you on the verge of tears through every flip of the page. Even though it is a fiction novel, it feels like it is a true story that could happen to anyone at anytime. My review of the book..... IF YOU ARE CAPABLE OF READING, BUY THIS BOOK!!!

Now onto my review of the movie.....If you have read the book (which you should be purchasing on Amazon.com right now if you have not), you will want to throw things at your TV at the end of the movie so make sure no heavy objects are in close proximity. I cursed a lot of the end of it, after I picked my jaw up off the floor. The ending in the book and the ending in the movie are complete opposites. But the thing that gets me is that the ending in the book is MADE for a movie. It adds so much complexity that it just makes no sense that they would even have the notion of changing it. It's the part of the book that I was most looking forward to seeing in the movie. I'm still bitter a bit, so sorry for the instantaneous rant.

As for the characters in the film, the casting director did a phenomenal job. I was a little skeptical of Cameron Diaz as the mother, but she did an excellent job in that role. Abigail Breslin was incredible as well in her role as Anna, but by far the best actor in the movie was the girl who played Kate, Sofia Vassilieva. I read up on her a little bit yesterday because I didn't know if she had been in anything else before this movie. In the article I read, she shaved her her bald as well as shaved her eyebrows off for the role as Kate and said it was the least she could do to come close to what Kate was going through in the movie.

After I had calmed down a bit after screaming at the TV and the writers and the producers and the novelist who allowed her book's ending to be changed (this took a little time), we watched Julie and Julia starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.

From my post a few weeks ago, I was completely accurate with my hypothesis that the movie would be better than the book. I absolutely loved it! I think that Amy Adams is one of my new favorite actresses. She is so captivating to watch, and all of her little quirks make me laugh. Meryl Streeps voice as Julia Child annoyed Allison, but I'd seen and heard Julia on cooking shows before, so I thought it was quite endearing. I got a lot of really good laughs in, and overall I would definitely recommend people to watch the movie over reading the book. I am, however, now going to read My Life in France, which chronicles Julia Childs time in Paris with Paul and going to La Cordon Bleu.

Julie and Julia

I just finished reading this book on Sunday night while half watching the football game (there wasn't much going on in that game honestly worth watching). I have mixed reviews about the book, and can honestly not give a definitive response as to whether I would or would not recommend it to others.

If you haven't already seen the previews of the movie that is out now based on her blog and this book, in general it is following a woman who is lost in her life and so she decides that she is going to cook all of the recipes in Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking book in one year. She hopes that in a years time she will be able to figure out what she is doing with her life and that devoting herself to a lengthy goal will help her get there.

Overall, it was a very easy read. The writer is very cynical, sarcastic, and curses far too much, but there were many times that I laughed out loud at the things she was attempting. She jumped around a lot with timelines and even within chapters, she would start at one timeframe, hop backwards to explain something from weeks before but not really explain that she had hopped time, and then hop back. There were a few places I had to re-read parts to keep on track. And there were lots of add-ins with her job and with her friends that just felt like filler material moreso that added value to the overall story.
The major complaint that I suppose I have with this book, the same with the book The Soloist, is that 99% of the time, a book far surpasses the movie made about it. This book unfortunately does not meet that standard, and even though I have still not seen the movie (that's my thing....read the book then see the movie, just haven't gotten the time yet), I believe hands-down that the movie is going to be better.

So, of course, if you're a reader, I would tell you to read it, but as far as a standing ovation or pushy recommendation.....it would be to rent the DVD.

~Lindsey