What I’ve Been Reading

It’s been a while since I had one of these posts, but I guess that’s what happens when you read something other than young adult novels for a change!

tilohl

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks31/104

WOW. What a fantastic book! The author, Rebecca Skloot, does an amazing job of uncovering the history of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died in 1951, but whose cells (the first human cells successfully cultured) still live and grow in labs across the world, as well as telling the story of her descendants. Parts of this book are horrifying, such as when the author and Deborah, Henrietta’s youngest daughter, discover the awful conditions of that Deborah’s older sister lived in at the Crownsville Hospital for the Negro Insane in the five years before she died there, or the details of the abuse Henrietta’s younger children suffered after she passed away. Actually, a lot of this book is really sad and deals with all sorts of pre-Civil Rights racism, but still, an amazing and well-written book.

tod

The Omnivore’s Dilemma32/104

This book took me what felt like FOREVER to read, especially to first part about corn. Corn corn corn. However it was interesting overall and did get me thinking about the sort of food I serve my family and myself (which will be made evident in an upcoming post about my new favorite grocery store & the awesome meal I made from the stuff I bought there). Of course, as a Canadian, my own personal food experience is different from an American’s; namely, we don’t make everything out of HFCS, so some of the horrification of the industrial food system doesn’t apply to me. It did get me excited about farmer’s market season starting though!

Currently we are just under 18 weeks into the year and I’ve read 32 books, which puts me a few books behind my 2 book a week pace, but I’m confident I can catch up!

3 Replies to “What I’ve Been Reading”

  1. I need to read more! I want to put it on my to do list! Reading has always been something I enjoyed. I read a book by Michael Pollan before but never got to finish it. I think I just might 🙂

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