Nautie Books :: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Wrap Up

Judging from the lack of interest I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume this one didn't grab you.  I understand.  Really, I do. I got a lot out of this read but, here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“Like the Bible said,' Gary whispered, 'man brought nothing into this world and he'll carry nothing out. Sometimes we care about stuff too much. We worry when there's nothing to worry about.”

“When he asked if she was okay, her eyes welled with tears and she said, “Like I’m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different.”

“She's the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?”

Vocabulary:

Henrietta Lacks

HeLa

Nautie Books :: Let's Chat About Henrietta Lacks

January's Book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a doozy wasn't it?  Thank goodness I had already read it because, I'm certain I wouldn't have been able to while in port for most of the month! Minus the fact that it was of a serious nature did you enjoy it?  Did you learn something?  Are you still struggling to finish?

The Author, Rebecca Skloot has thoughtfully provided reading group resources and I think it might be beneficial if we use some of her Readers Guide questions to help guide a more productive discussion of the book.

I've selected a few to help us get started:

7. As a journalist, Skloot is careful to present the encounter between the Lacks family and the world of medicine without taking sides. Since readers bring their own experiences and opinions to the text, some may feel she took the scientists’ side, while others may feel she took the family’s side.What are your feelings about this? Does your opinion fall on one side or the other, or somewhere in the middle, and why?

9. In 1976, when Mike Rogers’s Rolling Stone article was printed, many viewed it as a story about race (see page 197 for reference). How do you think public interpretation might have been different if the piece had been published at the time of Henrietta’s death in 1951? How is this different from the way her story is being interpreted today? How do you think Henrietta’s experiences with the medical system would have been different had she been a white woman? What about Elsie’s fate?

10. Consider Deborah’s comment on page 276: “Like I’m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different.” Is it possible to approach history from an objective point of view? If so, how and why is this important, especially in the context of Henrietta’s story?

11. Deborah says, “But I always have thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors? Don’t make no sense” (page 9). Should the family be financially compensated for the HeLa cells? If so, who do you believe that money should come from? Do you feel the Lackses deserve health insurance even though they can’t afford it? How would you respond if you were in their situation?

(The rest of the questions can be found here.)

This book stuck with me for awhile.  It had me thinking about American History in ways I hadn't ever considered.

I'll add these questions to a new forum topic so that those of you who are shy can keep your thoughts out of the comments.

Chat Away, Nautie Friends!

Confused about Nautie Books?  Don't be!  Read a bit on how it all began,  the first book we discussed and how Nautie Books became an official thang.  

Nautie Tidbits :: Houston, we have a problem...

We don't really have a problem.  I just really wanted to say that. This port stay has now been extended by three days with the possibility of a fourth thrown in.  Between the rain, the slow loading rate of crates and the sheer volume of cargo we've progressively pushed our sailing date back.

In the meantime, this sweet little blog has been suffering from neglect.

To get us all caught up, here are some tidbits worth mentioning:

• Our Nautie Books! December 2012 read The Scorpio Races didn't get much fanfare but, I LOVED what my Dad had to say about it.
• I ran home yesterday afternoon to drop off my car and tie up loose ends at the apartment.  I learned a very, very, valuable lesson.  Just because you live in the same city as the port don't assume you'll be back home (i.e. don't leave a dozen eggs in the fridge - I hope my shipmates love hard boiled eggs)!
• Houston has been cold and damp.  Standing outside for hours a day in cold and damp is icky.  Who knew that Houston could be so cold and damp?!  I didn't...
• I'll be using this site to help with this months Nautie Books! discussions.  Check it out!
• Everyone on the ship is sick.  Like gross sick.  Pneumonia and Bronchitis.  Which also makes me wonder if Doctors know what they're talking about anymore....how about 'common cold'.  These dudes are babies.  (I am eating lots of gummy vit's and oranges.)
• This totally cool print is floating around the interwebz and I love it.
• My ship is FULL of cargo - and it's exciting.  I love seeing American goods moving via ship.
• Along with a dozen hard boiled eggs, I brought my blooming orchid to the ship with me.  Every single dude who has walked into the cargo office has commented on how lovely it is.

Well, I think those are all my tidbits.

Enjoy your day! 

Nautie Books :: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I can't believe I forgot to post this! It made it up onto the Facebook page but it didn't make it too much further...whoopsies!

January's selection is: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

As always, we'll try to finish by the end of the month.

I'll be using some aides I found online to help with our book discussions.

This is an intense book - lots of issues to keep your mind turning.

Fair warning: it's not a light read.

The forum should be fixed up soon. Although, to be honest, it might have to wait until I'm out of port.

Nautie Books :: The Scorpio Races Wrap Up

Some of my favorite moments in The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater...

Sean:  "Instead I remember him as he was before the race:  afraid.  I won't make that same mistake."

Puck:  "She is my are and my best friend, and I keep waiting for something bad to happen to her, because I love her too much."

Puck:  "I didn't actually realize there wasn't much to the island until a few years ago, when I started reading magazines."

Puck:  "Actually, I know different.  And it's still enough."

Puck:  "The kitchen has turned into the small, yellow place that it becomes at night when the darkness outside presses it smaller."

Puck:  "I add, hurriedly, "Sir," because Dad once said that saying "sir" makes gentlemen out of ruffians."

Puck:  "Mum liked to say that some things happen for a reason, that sometimes obstacles were there to stop you from doing something stupid."

Sean:  ""You look in fine spirits."  "Do I?"  "Well, your face looks like it remembers a smile," Holly Says."

Puck:  ""Don't expect them to be friendly to you, Puck," Peg Gratton tells me, as if Elizabeth's not there.  "A lot of them consider a girl on the beach bad luck.  They won't be happy to see you."  I press my lips together.  "I don't need them to be friendly.  Just need them to let me go about my business."  That would be a kindness," Peg says."

Puck:  "Because it doesn't matter how brave I've been or how brave I will be.  It only took a casual handful of minutes to convince everyone here that I don't belong on the beach."

Puck:  "You sure don't like to do anything the easy way, do you?" "I didn't know," I start truthfully, "that it was the hard way when I started on it."

Sean:  "But that's part of this, the not knowing.  The surrender to the possibilities beneath the surface."

Puck:  "I had thought, for some reason, that being one of the riders in the Scorpio Races would get me a bit more respect, but it's ever surprising, the things that don't change."

Sean:  "Corr can hold a thousand things in his heart and reveal only one of them on his face, like he did earlier today.  He is so very like me."

Puck:  "I'm careful to close the gate as I found it, because I'm aware it's the worst crime on a farm to do otherwise."

Sean:  "Her expression is fierce and uncompromising, full of the intrepid bravery of a small boat in an uncertain sea.  Above us is the same full moon that lit the ocean all those nights ago."

Puck:  "I think, possibly, that this island has begun to get its hooks into him, and this makes me like him even more.  Anyone Thisby chooses to seduce can't be half-bad."

Puck:  "But mostly I think about the way he looks at me - with respect - and i think that's probably worth more than anything."

Sean:  "May the ocean keep our brave."

Sean:  "Do you know what to wish for now?"  I swallow.  I have no wishing-shell to throw into the sea when I say it, but I now that the ocean hears me nonetheless.  "To get what I need."

Vocabulary:

capaill uisce

uisce

guillemots

When I picked up this book I was expecting it to be good.  What I wasn't expecting was to be so highly invested in Puck.  I felt like she was a fresh Third Mate on an oil tanker for her first rotation.  I wanted her to succeed - so, so badly - and she did.  When Sean was introduced I wanted him to not be a pushover trying to get the girl - and he wasn't.

I liked this book but, more importantly, I liked the people in it!

I enjoy YA but, this, this book could be enjoyed by anyone.

Book Confessions

I was potty trained with 'the bird book'. I would sit on my parents lap while they got it done in the bathroom and flip through the pages looking at birds. My favorite was The Kingfisher. I've still never seen one in real life but, I can to this day see that page in my head. I still own the original book. I think reading on my iPad is starting to give me tendinitis because its so heavy but I'm still reading on it.

My favorite book ever is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi . I think there is a 90% chance it's why I ended up at sea for a living. I also think it was my first taste of adventure.

I read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy....twice. I know, I know!

I had to read Hamlet in high school - and I hated it. I didn't get it, at all. I was a total biatch to my high school teacher. I mean, I was such a biatch that I still feel guilty about it.

My Grandma taught me to read the summer before I went to Kindergarten. She got a copy of The Ugly Duckling - she wrote every word in the book on a piece of paper and then I had to match the words to the ones in the book. That same summer I learned how to tie my shoe laces and skip. I learned to read faster than I learned to skip.

I read copious amounts of trashy romance novels. I mean copious. I have to literally force myself sometimes to take a break from the smut and read quality.

I could spend ALL DAY in Powells in Portland. When I go there now I know that I need to devote at least an afternoon or I'll leave feeling bummed.

I own a lot of books and pay for a storage unit in Hawaii that's climate controlled specifically for those books. It would kill me if they succumbed to the tropics. Some of the books at my family's home have been completely eaten through by termites. It's awful.

In Elementary the Scholastic Book Fair was my favorite. My Mom always let me order something.

In Fifth grade I was on the Newbery Quiz Bowl Team. We made it our mission to read all the Newbery Medal books.

My friend Melissa told me I had to read the book Molokai by Alan Brennert - especially since my Dad had lived in Kalaupapa. She loaned me her copy and I started it that same night. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I'd never cried like that while reading a book.

Nautie Books makes me really happy. If for no other reason that it forces me to read 'non-smut'. Mostly, I love it because it lets me talk books with friends.

I remember signing up and receiving my first library card at the Downtown Hilo Library. I especially remember signing the back in cursive. Here's some history for ya.

I have a lot of books on my shelf that I've never read...or started to read and couldn't finish. A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez is one of them.

When I graduated from Maine Maritime Academy I didn't split right away and instead stayed for the summer to cruise on The Schooner Bowdoin. My favorite memory of the trip? Sitting in the galley shoulder to shoulder in front of the stove with Captain Chase reading to us from Salt-Water Poems and Ballads by John Masefield. I later found a used copy at Powells. It's hands down one if my most prized possessions.

I'd really like to read Moby Dick. I always get bogged down and set it aside.

When I was in intermediate I really liked reading about The Holocaust.

I read Gone With The Wind in sixth grade. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that wasn't an age appropriate read.

I wrote and illustrated a book in the third grade. I can't really remember what it was about. Something to do with bears coming alive at night. Anyways, on the back 'about the author page' I made stuff up that I thought would make me seem cool. I think I wrote that I really liked to eat green apples....ummm what?

I'm gonna read Anna Karenina this next time at work....even if it kills me...then I'm gonna watch the movie so I can speak intelligently about it.

It really chaps my craw that although I read so often and can identify a grammatically correct sentence I can't write one. I have NO idea where a comma belongs in the pervious sentence. I find it mortifying.

Lastly, I didn't read Novembers Pick, Gone Girl. I feel really, really guilty about it. Twenty pages in I decided I hated it. I am going to do my ultimate best to give it another go.

This post was inspired by Amy. It's nice knowing there are people out there who feel the same way as I do about books.