DCL Book Chat

Jennifer Weiner readers can count on a dysfunctional family usually with polar opposite sisters who, underneath their differences, really care for each other. Fly Away Home’s dysfunctional family includes a woman whose politician husband just humiliated her with his affair with a twenty-something, her older, brilliant daughter whose unhappy marriage has led her into a hot affair with a younger man, and her younger daughter who’s just out of rehab. These three women end up taking a family “timeout” and reconnect with great food, tears and a lot of laugh out loud moments. This one’s a great lazy, summer read.

Dedra

Author Rebecca Skloot masterfully weaves a complex story of science with the human side of the story of a woman’s culture of cells that change the course of medical research forever. The story focuses upon the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, a young woman diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, who died shortly after the birth of her 5th child. During treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors take a tissue sample during a biopsy. Scientific research show unique attributes of her cells… HeLa cells are the first human cells to grow in culture and not die… This discovery opens the door to research, grow and sell of the cells around the world for groundbreaking medical research.

The Lacks family is woefully unaware of Henrietta’s cells being used in science until 20+ years after her death. The story intertwines the family’s struggle to come to terms with Henrietta’s legacy, while medicine struggles with concerns of consent, research, and bioethics. An interesting and thought-provoking read!

Kyra