What I'm Reading this YEar

I've been in a Mom's only book club for about 5 years now.  We have a great time talking about our kids, husbands, in-laws, parents, schools, jobs, basically whatever comes up, while we gorge on snacks and iced tea and sometimes wine.  It's the one night a month that I can get away from the kids and the homework and the dishes to commiserate with other moms who have all the same problems.  It's my support group and a constant source of entertainment.  Just when you think your kids have done something completely stupid, somebody else's kid did something stupider.  It's my constant reassurance that everything is going to be all right and somehow it will all work out.  And we read books.  Most of us read them most of the time anyway.  Sometimes life gets in the way.  Last semester, for one reason or another, we ended up having to cancel every single meeting.  I was so glad when things settled down and we were able to get together last week for the first time since August.  We've chosen what I think is a pretty diverse group of books for this year so I thought I'd share them with you throughout the year.

  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is our February selection.  I finished it yesterday.  It's non-fiction.  Henrietta Lacks was a poor Black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. A doctor at  John Hopkins took some cancer cells from her before he began her radiation treatments (medical practices seem horrific by today's standards) without her knowledge or consent, because none was required by law in those days.  The doc grew her cells in culture and they didn't die...ever.  In fact they multiplied at a predictable and continuous rate.  He sent her cells to all his doctor and scientist buddies and they are the reason we have immunizations for Polio today. It's both an amazing and heartbreaking story.  If you want to know more about the book, here's the author's website:  

Rebecca Skloot