It’s the middle of July and I’m way ahead of my reading goal (of 10, lol). I’m reading a wider variety of books than I normally do, I’m reading books that have been on my shelf for years and books I’ve picked up on a whim. I’m proud of the books I’ve read and I’m appreciative of the questions these books have asked of me.
So, shall we?
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.”
This was my pick for our most recent book club! I’d seen it all over the Internet for what felt like ages, but had no real idea what it was even about. Essentially, Henrietta Lacks was a poor, Black woman from Maryland who died of cancer young. Her cancerous cells were able to grow in culture & are still used today, but all without her or her family’s knowledge or permission. I think Rebecca Skloot did an amazing job at combining the science with art of storytelling. (It helps that she not only has a degree in science, but also creative writing so I think no one else could’ve done this story justice.)
Skloot’s storytelling also gave us a look into questions like, “Who has the right to tell a person’s story?”, “Is this white woman going to water real life down?”
In the end, this book is really about how Henrietta’s cells brought on new medical discoveries over the last sixty years that have opened a potential Pandora’s Box of legal and ethical issues regarding tissue collection, research, patents and money, but Skloot is always there reminding us of the pain all of this caused Henrietta’s family.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
“Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.”
Who am I if not my partner?????????
This book sent my down a spiral more so than any other Emily Henry book has. Daphne’s questioning of who she is without Peter because she gave up so much of her life for this one love has hit that spot in my gut that makes me feel like I’m falling.
No notes!
Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken*
“In thirteenth-century Ireland, a woman with power is a woman to be feared.”
Molly Aitken’s book was inspired by the first recorded person in Ireland to have been condemned as a witch — Alice Kyteler.
This book had everything I really wanted — witches, history, Ireland, and unabashedly female. Learning about real life Alice Kyteler felt like looking into my past, present, future self; felt like learning about my ancestors, and the ancestors of others. It was sad, terrifying, joyful, and insistent.
I read some other reviews that called Alice “hard to sympathize with” and it’s like the almost got the point there. You shouldn’t need to be able to sympathize with a woman to realize she shouldn’t have to die just because she’s a woman.
*I received a free eARC in exchange for an honest review
Mistborn (The Final Empire) by Brandon Sanderson
“For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible.”
(Honestly I don’t know whether this book is called Mistborn or The Final Empire….why is it so confusing?)
There’s a lot of discourse going around TikTok (and probably has been for years, but I just haven’t been privy to it) about whether this book should be classified as YA, that Brandon Sanderson himself said that if he were a woman this book would most definitely be classified as YA. And I’m here to give my input on that: I believe books should be shelved as YA if they were written with a YA audience in mind. There’s really no way that Sanderson wrote Mistborn thinking that a 14 year old would read it, despite the main character being 16. I know that’s a bad take, but it’s mine nonetheless.
Anyway! I’d been told to read Mistborn by one of my really good friends for YEARS like I seriously mean since like 2017, but fantasy always scared me. I grew up and started to really love fantasy, so I picked it up again. As my first foray into the Sanderson Universe, this did not disappoint. All the characters were strong, the written was imaginative, and the world building was wonderous. The only real problem I have with it is that I’m not sure how the rest of the trilogy is going to live up. (My fav character is Sazed, btw, and if anything happens to them I will be very sad!)
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
“Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonization and tourism.”
I initially added this collection of essays to my list when I saw schizophrenicreads was reading it apart of their book club sometime this summer. I couldn’t wait & read it almost immediately.
Never have I been on a vacation to a place that the United States has colonized; I’ve never relaxed at the expense of natives. But to be a tourist anywhere (even in countries like England) sometimes feels invasive.
Kincaid does an amazing job at showing readers that behind the benevolent Caribbean scenery are human lives, always complex and often fraught with injustice. This tiny book should be required holiday reading for more sustainable and humane interactions during times abroad.
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
“A young Cree woman's dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.”
Talk about a book that’s been on my TBR for a while!! The moment this book was published last year, I picked it up on every single bookstore trip, holding it in my hands, wondering if it was time yet. It never was.
I devoured this book; I haven’t been that invested in a book in quite a long time. I really enjoyed how familial-relationship orientated this book was, it felt like fresh air reading about mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and how all of their lives depended on one another in different, important ways.
I ended up giving it a 4 star rating on Goodreads/Storygraph though because I felt like the horror elements could’ve been strengthened.
Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro*
“It's 2014 in Lookout Mountain, Alabama, where the Prophet—a 70-year-old man who paints his visions—lives off the grid in a cabin near the Georgia border. While scrounging for materials at the local dump, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl with zip ties on her wrists, a girl he realizes he must rescue from her current life.”
The storytelling was gripping, the idea was imaginative, but somehow it fell flat. Quatro’s writing had all the works of being great, but it felt like it was trying to be too individualistic and it lost all sense.
This felt like a book you read if you want to appear more versed, more original, more grim than you actually are. Which caught me in its trap because sometimes I do want to be more, ya know?
*I received a free eARC in exchange for an honest review
As always, if you’re here — love you. <3