Thanks to Heather for her wonderful hospitality last night. The flourless chocolate cake was so delicious and indulgent,
We welcomed our new member Aileen with brief introductions and trips down memory lane recalling some of our earlier book club selections.
Jane led our discussion of her recommendation Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. We talked about the father-son relationship and the father’s requirement that his son speak only English. Nicolette and Sylvia both shared from their personal experience on this topic. It was decided that the father did this to protect and help further advance his son’s immersion into American life. We discussed the difficulty for Asian immigrants during wartime and the potential for confusion between the ethnic groups. Jane also shared an interesting and funny article about the recent controversial “Tiger Mother” who has been in the news. We all seemed to enjoy the book…and it is the perfect segue into next month’s book.
Carolyn’s Recommendations:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot This is a phenomenal book from the unchosen list that I’m hopeful will make a return. It is simply a “must read.”
From Amazon: Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace. It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women—Skloot and Deborah Lacks—sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah’s mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line—known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta’s death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children.
**Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand Our choice. A wonderful new book by the fascinating author of Seabiscuit.
From Amazon: The inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini–a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time.
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross This title makes a reappearance and gets rave reviews from all members who have previously read it.
Amazon: Cross makes an excellent, entertaining case in her work of historical fiction that, in the Dark Ages, a woman sat on the papal throne for two years. Born in Ingelheim in A.D. 814 to a tyrannical English canon and the once-heathen Saxon he made his wife, Joan shows intelligence and persistence from an early age. One of her two older brothers teaches her to read and write, and her education is furthered by a Greek scholar who instructs her in languages and the classics. Her mother, however, sings her the songs of her pagan gods, creating a dichotomy within her daughter that will last throughout her life. After a savage attack by Norsemen destroys the village, Joan adopts the identity of her older brother, slain in the raid, and makes her way to Fulda, to become the learned scholar and healer Brother John Anglicus.
