Others have reviewed this for Cannonball Read already, so here are the basics in case you missed it: Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who died at Johns Hopkins, where she had been admitted due to complications from cervical cancer. She had radium treatment at one point, and when she received the treatment, a biopsy of her tumor was taken at the request of a researcher. From there, the cells were cultured and became some of the first that would grow, and keep on growing, […]
Morning in Angola
Book 4 of 10 African novels! The author, Ondjaki, is quite prolific, and I’d never heard of him before specifically seeking out African authors! In my search for African authors and novels, I’ve found it’s pretty easy to find novels about the immigrant (Africa-to-US) experience, but harder to find accessible (and English!) novels by Africans who still live in and write about their home country. So I was glad to find this little novel, which is unlike any other Africa-related books on my list. This […]
While I did enjoy it, not a lot of the Twentieth Wife stuck with me. It was a decent historical fiction about the rise of Mehunrissa through her marriage to Jahangir, Emperor of the 15th century Moghul Empire. It’s perhaps the result of our history, but it seems like most historical fiction marketed to women are about the political maneuvering of a woman working her way through a harem, a sea of ladies in waiting, or a royal court of some sort and attaching herself to the […]
Geological love stories and bisons fleeing Yellowstone
Considering all the earthquake talk and stories about animals fleeing Yellowstone (but not really), I figured now would be a good time for a review of Simon Winchester’s A Crack in the Edge of the World: American and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. I admit that I sometimes like to read disaster nonfiction (I don’t get out enough anymore) and from the title it seems like a disaster story, but it is much more than that. Winchester in good geologist fashion gives you the entire […]
Women Behaving Badly (i.e., like men): The Scarlet Sisters
Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin were two sisters famous/infamous in American social and political circles starting in the 1870s. While most would think of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony when it comes to women’s rights, suffrage and reform, these sisters were renowned orators whose lifestyle fascinated and irritated the general public, especially men in power. They were from the wrong social class and espoused scandalous (for the time) views on sex, women, the poor and wealth. And they were linked to one […]
Half of a Yellow Sun
Admitted, I read this book solely based on the author’s brilliant TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story”. I did very little research on which of her books to read and ended up with this one because I liked the title and the cover. This book seemed like it was written for me. I do not know much of Africa and I am not one to be touched by stranger’s death on the news. Part of it is due to not being sentimental as […]
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