The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - reading

Finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I feel like I came late to this book. It was recommended by my daughter a long while ago, and I just got around to reading it this year. Its title is literally what it's about. Cells from Henrietta Lacks were harvested and have continued to grow ever since. Overall a well-researched book. If you want to know what happens when you remove regulation around something, go back in time for why those regulations were put in place to begin with. Things like informed consent seem like a simple idea, yet took ridiculous efforts and consequences to put into place. 

Drood - reading

I see it was January 25th when I last finished a book. That's when I started "Drood" by Dan Simmons. I finished it this morning. I also broke my reading glasses. (The two events are unrelated.) At 941 pages, this is nearly the size of all the other books I read so far in 2021 (Making a Literary Life at 255 pages, Writing Down the Bones at 195, The Girl with All the Gifts at 403, and the workbook at 103 = 956 pages.)

How was it? I thought it was enjoyable. A baseline drawn from the life of Charles Dickens, with an overlay of mystery, suspense, even horror. I wouldn't consider it a page-turner, but it was a steady story throughout. 

Here's a great interview with the author including some coverage of Drood.

Writing Down the Bones - reading

Finished "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. A book about writing where each "chapter" is, coincidentally, about two pages long. "Coincidentally" because I recently finished "The Girl with All the Gifts," which also had a handful of chapters that were 1-2 pages each. 

The author seems to prefer writing poetry, but she had some useful advice for people writing novels as well. She related experiences from her life, from her Zen meditation, and memorable stories from the writers she came into contact with while she wrote this. I thought it enjoyable and educational. Also, it's a relatively quick read you can take anywhere with you. Finish a chapter while you're standing in line! In that way it was reminiscent of the Army's "smart book."

The Girl with All the Gifts - reading

Finished "The Girl with All the Gifts" by M.R. Carey. This book is subtitled, "Not every gift is a blessing." The first thing I will say about this: Mr. Carey writes like I do. Well, more likely I write like he does, but whatever. The style of the writing was really familiar - a well polished version of something really familiar, if I'm honest.

This book reminded me thematically of The Taking, by Dean Koontz, which was the book I read that inspired me to write my first NaNoWriMo novel back in 2008, "Imbued." I liked it. The Taking was a spookier book to me as I recall, thinking back 12 years ago, but this was a good story with some military thrown in, like Imbued. The circle is complete. 😁

Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens - reading

Finished "Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens - essential skills and activities to help you manage moods, boost self-esteem, and conquer anxiety" by Rachel L. Hutt, PhD. That's quite the title! My wife and I worked through this book together (we each had our own copy). Though it's targeted at teens, with just a little tweaking, it's appropriate really for any age. Some of the exercises were really good. Some were so-so, but easy to skip over things that weren't applicable. One thing my wife and I did was at the end of a section, wrote down what resonated for us the most. 

I think the section I found most valuable was around common thinking errors, and ways of dealing with them. I notice myself doing these now more than ever, and finding ways to make it better.

Making A Literary Life - reading

Finished "Making a Literary Life - Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers" by Carolyn See. This book came recommended by way of one of the writing lists I'm on, and fittingly so since it deals with writing and creativity. The author shares stories from her life and how she created a literary life for herself. She encourages writing 1,000 words a day, writing charming notes, and several other tips. The author is funny, though sometimes that humor seems a bit stretched. It might have been me as I read it. But overall, she does a great job of getting her point across. Ultimately I'm not about to book a trip to New York City to see what writing gigs I can score, but there was still a lot in this book that I can apply to my own writing life.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

Finished "Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora," a collection of short stories and essays from numerous authors and edited by Sheree R. Thomas. Meanwhile there was a show in the evening sky: the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

Because this book contains a wide variety of content and style, it was sometimes hard to read. Because this book's content showcased African American experiences through the ages, even if in a fictional/sci-fi way, this was sometimes hard to read. 

There were some definitely interesting stories. One that comes to mind is The Space Traders by Derrick Bell, in which aliens arrived and made the offer to trade all the things America needs to get back on track in exchange for all the Black citizens in the US. While I read it, I speculated several different possible endings, but missed the one written.

The essays were also interesting despite being 20-26 years old at this point. I'd like to believe the literary world has improved in the interim.

While I read this, I also re-read Home Invasion, my 2016 NaNoWriMo novel. I really did enjoy that one, but can tell it was rushed to come to a close. There were moments that made me laugh again, and moments that gave me pause. "Did I really want to say that?"