Since I’ve recently re-stocked the Dad Shelf with a new load of yet-to-be-read books (thanks to the Borders liquidation), it occurred to me that it’s been awhile since I blogged about reading. A couple of books recently have given me a great deal of food for thought, in addition to hours of enjoyment , so I thought I should spread the good news to my blog fans, who are legion.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot will take you awhile to read and sometimes gets bogged down in minutiae. Nevertheless, it’s one book that we should all read. It’s the story of a woman who died at a tragically young age of metastasized cervical cancer, leaving behind a husband and children who came a bit undone when the glue left the family.
What makes the story worth a book treatment is that she also left behind one of the greatest legacies in the history of medicine. You see, some cancerous cervical cells taken from Henrietta during her decline became the progenitors of the HeLa line of cells that have had profound impact on medical and genetic research for the last sixty years. Hardly any of the advances in cellular research would have happened without this line of cells.
What makes the story worth a book treatment is that she also left behind one of the greatest legacies in the history of medicine. You see, some cancerous cervical cells taken from Henrietta during her decline became the progenitors of the HeLa line of cells that have had profound impact on medical and genetic research for the last sixty years. Hardly any of the advances in cellular research would have happened without this line of cells.
I might mention that Henrietta was African American and this was the early fifties. So-o-o, the good folks at Johns Hopkins apparently felt no need to obtain permission from Henrietta or her family to take and preserve her cells, or to inform any of them of the profound effect the cell line has had on modern science. Nor did they feel that her heirs should share in the untold millions of dollars generated through the marketing of HeLa cells to and between researchers worldwide.
For those who weren’t around to enjoy Jim Crow or the struggles of the Civil Rights movement, reading this book will help you understand a racial gulf that remains un-bridged in this country. I might also recommend We Lived In a Little Cabin in the Yard by Belinda Hurmence and Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall by Carl T. Rowan. Ignorance of history is dangerous and ignorance of our civil rights history unforgiveable.
Speaking of history, the other book I’d like to recommend is Hardly a Hero by Michael Young. The iconic books about our war on VietNam include The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio, Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic, Chickenhawk by Robert Mason and now one hopes, Hardly a Hero. Most of the young men who served in VietNam were neither helicopter pilots nor became figureheads of the anti-war movement. And not that many of them participated in the great battles at Hue, Ke Sanh, or in the Au Shau Valley.
Most of the young men who marched off to that ill-conceived conflict went there misinformed and came home confused, left to flounder their way through re-insertion into life in The World. They lost friends and their own innocence in a less-than-grand adventure for which the question “Why?” has still not been satisfactorily answered.
Michael Young has some minor wrinkles to work out as an author but his storytelling is spot on. This e-book is brilliant and gripping, compelling and most of all, honest. I enjoyed and learned a lot from the other books I named and I understand why they’re so well read. But if you aren’t moved by Young’s autobiographical treatment, you simply have no soul. It is one of the few true books about a war that should never have been.
Michael Young has some minor wrinkles to work out as an author but his storytelling is spot on. This e-book is brilliant and gripping, compelling and most of all, honest. I enjoyed and learned a lot from the other books I named and I understand why they’re so well read. But if you aren’t moved by Young’s autobiographical treatment, you simply have no soul. It is one of the few true books about a war that should never have been.
More to come but meanwhile, please consider reading these two books. You’ll be better for it.
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