Long Live Evil

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, 464 pages

Three years into a battle with cancer, Rae has very few comforts in life, though her younger sister reading from their favorite fantasy book series while she's in the hospital is one of them. When an opportunity to join the fantasy world and cure herself with a magical flower presents itself, Rae jumps at the chance, not realizing that when she arrives, she's taken over as Rahela, the villainess of the series and foe of Rae's favorite character, the Emperor. It means a few adjustments, including getting comfy with her new seductive character, but Rae is determined to save herself with an evil plot... if she can keep the Emperor from executing her, that is.

While the beginning of this book is a bit confusing (Rae gets inserted into the fantasy world before the reader really knows anything about the world, other than that the Emperor exists), the rest of it is a lovely story of escapism, of being an antihero, of fighting hard battles, and of creating family out of outcasts and miscreants. And it's funny! Very much enjoyed it, and I look forward to the second book in the series.

Wink

 

Wink by Rob Harrell 316 pp.

Ross Maloy is a seventh grader who just wants to be a normal kid. However, after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that may cause him to lose an eye, his life is anything but normal. Rob Harrell, a survivor of the same type of cancer, created a character who faces the difficulties of being both a middle schooler and a cancer patient with honesty, a little tragedy, and a lot of humor. The humor in the story is not making light of the idea of a potentially fatal disease. Rather it laughs at the oddball situations Ross finds himself in while facing his classmates and manages his treatment. The survivor in me found this story to be well written and factual without being grotesque or maudlin. 

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel, 425 pages.

Richtel, a reporter who has written several novels and the nonfiction work, A Deadly Wandering, the account of fatal car crash, centers this work on the immune system and advances in immunology. He tells the stories of four people, a government attorney who contracted AIDS back in the mid-1980s, a professional golfer with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and two people who, for the love of god, I no longer recall (wait, I just remembered the main one--the author's high-school buddy who has developed a particularly aggressive cancer). He tells their stories, not only their lives, but the stories of their diagnosis and treatment.
With the four parallel stories and with the narrative history of immunology woven in there, Richtel does a good job of keeping the reader interested.
A decent introduction to immunology, written in an engaging and accessible style.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins  386 pp.

I generally like Tom Robbins' books but this one just didn't grab me. I don't know if it was the plot, the characters, or that it was written in the second person or all those things combined that made it a poor representation of his work. A stock market crash puts Gwen, a broker, in fear of losing her job. While the angst about that is going on, her boyfriend Belford's "born again" pet monkey has escaped and is on the loose in Seattle. Belford is worried more about the monkey than Gwen's crisis. Gwen hooks up with a former broker by the name of Larry Diamond who is a confusing mixture of spiritual guru and shady character. Diamand is hoping the frequently inebriated Dr. Yamaguchi's claimed cancer cure can save him and maybe revive the stock market. Gwen's friend and neighbor, the 300 lb. psychic tarot reader Q-Jo Huffington has gone missing. The story is convoluted, as Robbins' novels usually are, but never finds a groove to settle in. Disappointing.

The Life We Bury

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens  303 pp.

Joe Talbert needs a subject for a biography assignment in a college course. He finds one in a local nursing home. Carl is in the last few months of his life after spending most of it in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a 15 year old girl. The heroic Vietnam veteran Joe meets and interviews doesn't seem like he could have done the horrible deed. Joe and his neighbor and now new girlfriend begin investigating to get the backstory on Carl's murder conviction which was largely based on the girl's coded diary. While this is going on Joe is dealing with an alcoholic mother, his beloved autistic brother, and trying to stay afloat financially. It's an intriguing story with well written characters. My only complaint was the occasional, dangerously dumb things Joe and his girlfriend do towards the end of the story.

When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, 228 pages. Read by Sunil Mulhotra and Cassandra Campbell.
Brilliant neurosurgical resident (and professor), Kalanithi, finds himself diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer just as his career is about to begin. His priorities shift, naturally enough, and there are many thoughtful, sad moments. That's to be expected, of course. The unexpected sorrow comes when he discovers that in his drive to be the best, and then in his decision to keep his own medical concerns to himself, he had almost destroyed his marriage. He and Lucy must find a way to see some sort of future together even as their options become more and more limited.
 A very moving account of one doctor's illness.

The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives

The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, 256 pages.
The author has a PhD in English and taught at Tufts before deciding to become a nurse. In this book she recounts one twelve-hour day working on a cancer ward in a Pennsylvania hospital. She tells how even on what looks like a "light" day, she has three patients while the other nurses have four each, the workload can be all-consuming. With having to "chart everything," two new admissions during the course of the day, a huge mistake by the admitting staff found in one patient, dangerous chemotherapy to be given to another this average shift is fraught with complications, and ptentially life-threatening situations.
Brown does a wonderful job showing the complexity of the lives of her patients and her coworkers.
Balanced, hopeful, and engaging; the author's PhD in English and love of literature makes the account a good read.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein  321 pp.

Enzo, a Labrador/terrier mix (named for Enzo Ferrari) is the narrator and devoted companion of the story of race car driver Denny Swift. With great insight and a point of view that only a dog could have, Enzo tells Denny's story, recounting his successes, failures, triumphs and tragedies with compassion and philosophical reflection. Enzo also expresses frustration at his inability to communicate with words and his lack of thumbs. The story begins with an elderly Enzo contemplating his own end and his hopes to be reincarnated as a man before telling his life story with Denny from his adoption as a puppy, Denny's marriage, the birth of a daughter, and the tragedy that follows. Enzo has that innate canine ability to judge who is and isn't a good person and laments his inability to protect Denny from those who wish him harm. This book will leave you wondering what your pet is really thinking about you. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I read this before but never blogged about it. We listened to this on a long drive recently. My kids, 14 and 11, liked it but thought it was very sad (which, you know, teens dying from cancer . . .). Hazel Grace has thyroid cancer, and while it's still a terminal diagnosis her new chemo is keeping it in check for now. Hazel meets Augustus at a support group for teens with cancer. His cancer has been in remission for a while, so he's their mostly to support their mutual friend Isaac, who will soon have surgery to remove a tumor, and unfortunately, Gus and Hazel begin a romance, of sorts, and share Hazel's favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. Gus attempts to help Hazel find the answers to her concerns and questions about the book.
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot  369 pp.

This is the incredible, upsetting, maddening, heartwarming, and very interesting story of how one woman's cancer cells survived and reproduced for over 50 years, long after she had died. The so-called HeLa cells became the most important tool in the search for cures for a variety of diseases. But little was known about the woman, her life, and her family until Skloot began her research. In fact, many believed the cells belonged to a woman named Helen Lane. What emerged is a story of an impoverished family with many problems who didn't know anything about the importance of Henrietta's cells. When they did learn that a part of her still lived and was being experimented on, they were not educated enough to really understand what was being done or why they had never been told. The book raises the issues of medical ethics, who owns tissue removed from patients, and who can profit from it.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, 318 pages, YA

This was an excellent book, very sad, but never maudlin.
Kara wrote an excellent review a few months, ago, and it's late on the last day of the month and I'm falling asleep (and then I actually did fall asleep but the blog post counted. Hah!).
I don't even want to talk about it. I had to stop reading it on the plane back from Seattle, cuz no one wants a really large librarian weeping near them on a 737. I know that's true, I've asked
This is a beautiful story about Hazel and Augustus, the love they find, and how they and their families and friends deal with serious illness. Augustus's parents turn to their faith, famed author Peter Van Houten drinks a lot, Isaac eggs his ex-girlfriend's house, and Hazel and Gus turn to an angry and honest form of humor.
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The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green  318 pp.

Spoiler Alert: This is a book about teenagers with terminal cancer so, of course, there is death among the main characters, who are much to young to die.

That being said, I love this book so much!!! Yes, it's about kids who are dying of their respective varieties of cancer. Yes, there are events that will make you weep. Yes, it stirred up some not too pleasant memories of my own cancer treatment and friends I've lost to the disease. But it's an incredible book! If it is possible to fall in love with a character in a book, then I am totally smitten with seventeen year old Augustus Waters, who has lost a leg to bone cancer. He is funny, intelligent, quirky, and doesn't just sweep Hazel Grace Lancaster off her feet, he takes her on an amazing journey to Amsterdam and back and much more. Hazel has metastatic thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. She has been a Stage IV from the start and so is basically hanging on until she can't anymore. Augustus and Hazel meet at a support group and the rest is an amazing story of love and loss, with terrific dialogue and characters you can't help caring about. These kids are incredibly bright and articulate. The way they talk about their disease is profound. When Hazel compares having Stage IV to being a hand grenade that will one day go off and inflict damage on those around her and that she really doesn't want to be that hand grenade doing that damage, I thought, "That is exactly right." Green has written much more than just another tear jerker. This book is thoughtful, intense, and everyone should read it.

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, 318 pages

This book is labeled as YA, but I think the only reason for that is the age of the main characters. The story follows 16-year-old Hazel, who has been living with terminal cancer for three years, dragging around an oxygen tank and watching ridiculous amounts of bad TV. Then, at a support group meeting, she meets Augustus, a wise-cracking guy with only one leg, who also happens to be one of few people to share Hazel's cynical sense of humor about their shared diagnoses.

Given the subject matter, this should be a total downer of a book. Somehow it's not. While it deals with some understandably heavy topics, The Fault in Our Stars is also funny, sweet and quite enjoyable to read.

Stitches

Stitches: a memoir by David Small  329 pp.

Award winning illustrator, Small, turns his talents from his well-known children's books to a graphic novel for adults. In Stitches Small tells the story of his childhood with emotionally distant parents, an abusive, mentally ill grandmother, and his bought with cancer which cost him a vocal cord and left him without a voice for a long period of time. And if the fact that his parents let him live with a growth on his neck for years before having it removed wasn't appallling enough, they didn't tell him he had cancer, and the radiation treatments his father had given him for respiratory problems when he was younger caused the cancer. The story is a depressing one and the artwork conveys that mood quite well. It is thanks to a kind psychiatrist that Small finally left home at sixteen and went on to pursue a career as an artist and illustrated many well known and loved books.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Medicine, 571 pages.
Mukherjee is a deft writer, and he gives us this huge, yet readable account of Cancer, presenting the evolution of our knowledge of the disease, and of its treatment, spanning(mostly) the last one-hundred years. We see the rise of the "Radical Surgery" school, and the carnage it caused, for its attendant lack of results. The "Laskerites" bring us the War on Cancer, sponsored by the Nixon administration and slow steps they made toward understanding the disease and the possibilities of meaningful treatment. Throughout the book, someone in the medical community is always sure that the cure for cancer is right around the corner, but it isn't until researchers begin to understand how cancer works inside the cell, that it is our own cells run amok, our own genes turned on or turned off that a true difference is made for the patients suffering from some cancers. An incredible book, packed full of information, yet accessible.


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The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks/Rebecca Skloot 369 pgs.

I enjoyed the different perspectives in this book...the details about the life and death of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cells that she left behind. The information about the usefulness of those cells in a range of scientific experiments that resulted in so much good for a lot of people. The modern day struggles of Henrietta's children who never really understood her role in medical research and the earlier struggles of Henrietta herself whose life was hard but she seemed to be a wonderful happy woman. The historic injustice of experimentation and shoddy health care for poor and in particular black people and how that may not have changed enough. This book seems to tell a big story and does it well. The author worked on it for 10 years and her care and dedication shows. - Christa

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 384 pages.
Skloot writes a very interesting book that is part science, part history and part personal story of her writing the book and the difficult and unususal relationships she developed with the family of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks's cells, the HELA line, have lived on for decades after her death. Her husband and her never knew that the cells had been taken and have spent years feeling as if they had been used and lied to by the medical community. Skloot runs into all sorts of problems trying to research this and there is no happy ending for all involved, but it is an interesting, compelling and many-layered book that is well worth the time. One of my staff picks for June.