My Temporary Life

Martin Crosbie's My Temporary Life is a complex and dark tale of the life of Malcolm, a Canadian-Scottish man in the late twentieth century.  Crosbie delves into the childhood, adolscence, and adulthood of Malcolm as he experiences the hardships of his parents divorce, trans-Atlantic life (he spends his summers in Vancouver with his mother and remaining time in Scotland with his father), puberty, and his slowly developing romance with Heather which sends him on a suspenseful chase throughout Canada.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

"Doctors took her cells without asking.  Those cells never died.  They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry.  More than twenty years later, her children found out.  Their lives would never be the same." - Skloot, [cover].


Skloot, a science writer whose work has graced many magazines and journals, weaves an emotional tale of Henrietta Lacks, a poverty-stricken American woman of colour diagnosed with cervix cancer, during the 1950s and onward in her work The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Doctors harvested cells from Lacks' cervix following her diagnoses of cancer.  However, her cells continued to reproduce in the hospital's petri dishes and came to be one of the most important tools in developing vaccines, gene mapping, and the ability to clone animals.  She and her family never received recognition or funds despite the wealth of information and money Lacks' cells have brought to the field of medicine throughout the twentieth century.

RSVP

Helen Warner weaves a tale of weddings, lost loves, and mixed messages in her novel RSVP.  Warner tells the story of Anna, a love lorn young woman who never got over her ex, in modern London.  Emotions come to a boil when she is invited to her ex's wedding ten years later.

Coventry

Helen Humphreys' Conventry: A Novel portrays the National Socialist bombing of Coventry, England, during World War II.  This book is a fast read which permits its readers to become lost in English culture and values during the turbulent 1940s. 

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday, a weekly meme at shouldbereading lets readers share two random sentences from a random segment of their current reading material.  I haven't participated in this meme for a verrrrry long time (perhaps a year!?) so here it goes:


Book:  Something from Tiffany's by Melissa Hill



 "He ran a hand through his dark hair, wondering why all of this felt so surreal now, when back in Tiffany's it had seemed so right.  Covering her little hand with his big one, he continued: "just know how much I love you."" - Hill, 2011, p. 24.

Valenti's Purity Myth

"While boys are taught that the things that make them men - good men- are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that our moral compass lies somewhere between our legs.  Literally." (Valenti, 2009, p. 13)

Virginity is a  convoluted subject.  What is the act that marks the loss of virginity?  Why does North American culture suggest that all females must be good, wholesome girls who wait to 'lose' their virginity on their wedding night while our culture is so sexualized in and of itself?  How do we, as young women, balance these two contrasting roles - the highly sexualized and the highly de-sexualized persona of womanhood?