Books, reviews
Habibi, graphic novel by Craig Thompson
Hardluck story about two lost kids in a fictional Arabic land where selling children and castration are ways of earning a living. It was billed as a beautifully illustrated love story with disturbing quirks. I found it mostly disturbing, particularly because bits from high school textbooks, eg about pregnancy, were thrown in. Not sure who the intended demographic is--shouldn't anyone reading this already have been through high school? Kids younger than that have no business reading this. Is this supposed to be healing for young victims of sexual trafficking? Next!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
HeLa cancer cells are used in every biology lab on earth and yet few people know anything about the woman from whom they came. This book fixes that by introducing you to the remarkable Henrietta Lacks by way of her family, since so few records of her remain. Mrs. Lacks was a powerful, good woman who lived in a time when segregation was normal, education was abnormal, and consent wasn't necessary so unethical doctors got away with murder (though not of Mrs. Lacks herself). Things have changed for the better, but nowhere near enough. People or their descendants should get some sort of royalty for the use of their cells, maybe even a fraction of a fraction of a cent for each, but still something. That they get nothing makes no sense when people in the music and movie industries are collecting royalties for a day's work. Just sayin'.
Among Others by Jo Walton
I wanted to like this more than I did. A Welsh teenager with a crazy mother and a dead twin goes to boarding school in England, discovers science fiction, sees world, which includes fairies, through the lens of every scifi/ fantasy she reads. Are her drunken father's incestuous advances so easily shrugged off because a girl has read Heinlein? How does piercing an ear (which can grow shut) ruin one's ability to do magic, while being mangled in a car wreck doesn't? I kept waiting for a really huge reveal like the magic doesn't exist, but no. I did miss the day's revelations after I finished it. It just didn't feel finished. Meh.
First Shift- Legacy by Hugh Howey
This is the prequel to Wool Omnibus, the how it all began. Political parts are believable. Characters are beautifully sketched. Just not sure this needed to be written down. The rest of the story seems stronger without it.
Hardluck story about two lost kids in a fictional Arabic land where selling children and castration are ways of earning a living. It was billed as a beautifully illustrated love story with disturbing quirks. I found it mostly disturbing, particularly because bits from high school textbooks, eg about pregnancy, were thrown in. Not sure who the intended demographic is--shouldn't anyone reading this already have been through high school? Kids younger than that have no business reading this. Is this supposed to be healing for young victims of sexual trafficking? Next!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
HeLa cancer cells are used in every biology lab on earth and yet few people know anything about the woman from whom they came. This book fixes that by introducing you to the remarkable Henrietta Lacks by way of her family, since so few records of her remain. Mrs. Lacks was a powerful, good woman who lived in a time when segregation was normal, education was abnormal, and consent wasn't necessary so unethical doctors got away with murder (though not of Mrs. Lacks herself). Things have changed for the better, but nowhere near enough. People or their descendants should get some sort of royalty for the use of their cells, maybe even a fraction of a fraction of a cent for each, but still something. That they get nothing makes no sense when people in the music and movie industries are collecting royalties for a day's work. Just sayin'.
Among Others by Jo Walton
I wanted to like this more than I did. A Welsh teenager with a crazy mother and a dead twin goes to boarding school in England, discovers science fiction, sees world, which includes fairies, through the lens of every scifi/ fantasy she reads. Are her drunken father's incestuous advances so easily shrugged off because a girl has read Heinlein? How does piercing an ear (which can grow shut) ruin one's ability to do magic, while being mangled in a car wreck doesn't? I kept waiting for a really huge reveal like the magic doesn't exist, but no. I did miss the day's revelations after I finished it. It just didn't feel finished. Meh.
First Shift- Legacy by Hugh Howey
This is the prequel to Wool Omnibus, the how it all began. Political parts are believable. Characters are beautifully sketched. Just not sure this needed to be written down. The rest of the story seems stronger without it.