The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a highly acclaimed work of nonfiction that should be required reading for anyone who wonders why the talk of race abounds 45 years after the Civil Rights Acts and even after the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The fact that systemic and institutionalized racism has been and continues to be a blight on the American way of life is on full display here in the saga of Henrietta Lacks, an impoverished black woman who died in 1951 of an aggressive form of cervical cancer. Although Henrietta died, her cells did not. Harvested against either hers or her families knowledge those cells have endured to this day and have been instrumental in all kinds of medical research through the years. This book is a telling look at medical ethics, race in America and the toll that the secrecy of Henrietta’s cells wreaked upon her family.
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan–This, the last in the Percy Jackson series, was my least favorite. With that said the books were good fun reading.
Caught by Harlan Coben–This is Coben’s latest twisting thriller. His books are not literary heavyweights but they are impossible to put down. This latest is no exception.
The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down by Andrew Young–In early 2007 I endorsed John Edwards for president. His message resonated with me and I appreciated his commitment to those mired in poverty. The subsequent scandal and downfall was truly disappointing to me. As a result this was not an easy read. I found Young’s retelling of Edward’s rampant narcissism and extreme sense of entitlement to be a stunning indictment of what could have been a great national leader.
