Stacked: A booklog

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

"Since Whicher was sure that the murderer was an inmate of the house, all his suspects were still at the scene. This was the original country-house murder mystery, a case in which the investigator had to find not a person but a person's hidden self. It was pure whodunnit, a contest of intelligence and nerve between the detective and the killer. Here were the twelve. One was the victim. Which was the traitor?" 

--from The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Title: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

Author: Kate Summerscale

Publisher/Publisher Date: Bloomsbury

Library/Bookstore: Amazon Kindle Store

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: January 2012

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About (Summary from Good Reads):  

The dramatic story of the real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction.

In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land.

At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking, as Kate Summerscale relates in her scintillating new book, that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

Why I Chose to Read It:  I  had heard about this horrific crime on Deadly Women (LOVE this show).  It was also a Kindle daily deal!

Notes About the Book:

1. I really liked how the author talked about the evolution of the detective mystery novel throughout the book.  I'm going to have to check out The Moonstone, The Woman in White, and Bleak House sometime in the future.  Apparently, Whicher was the inspiration behind many famous literary detectives (Inspector Bucket and Sergeant Cuff). 
2. I still can't believe that the police were dumb enough to get themselves locked inside the kitchen by the main suspect during their investigation.
3. William Saville-Kent grew up to become a famous marine biologist.  He also conducted the first experiments to create cultured pearls in Australia.
4. I loved how the floorplans for the Kent house were included in the book.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  I thought it was really interesting, especially the trial part.  Some parts are kind of dry, but overall, I really enjoyed it.  It definitely makes me want to read more detective fiction.

Links:

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher trailer--Paddy Considine plays Mr. Whicher.  

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

"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 much sense.  People got rich off my mother without us even knowin about them takin her cells, now we don't get a dime.  I used to get so mad about that to where it made me sick and I had to take pills.  But I don't got it in me no more to fight.  I just want to know who my mother was."

Deborah Lacks, The Immortal Lifre of Henrietta Lacks

Title:  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Author: Rebecca Skloot

Publisher/Publisher Date: Broadway Paperbacks/2011

Library/Bookstore: Borders

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: June 2011

Rating: *****

What It's About:  At the age of 31, Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951.  Without her knowledge, doctors removed her cancer cells hoping that they would continue to grow outside the human body.  Better known to scientists as HeLa, Henrietta's "immortal" cells have played an important role in developing polio vaccines, cloning, gene mapping, and more.  Her cells have traveled all around the world, been to space, and used to test the effects of nuclear radiation. 

Why I Chose to Read It:  My mom told me about this book after hearing about Henrietta's story on the news.  I was intrigued.   

Notes About the Book:

1. I learned a lot from this book about the history of medical ethics & it was terrifying!  Did you know they used to inject patients with cancer cells (sometimes without even telling them) all in the name of research?  And the part about what may have happened to Henrietta's daughter at The Hospital for the Negro Insane made me sick to my stomach.  
2. It was depressing to read about the heartache and stress Henrietta's children went through after learning about what doctors did to their mother.  They didn't deserve to be treated the way they did and it's appalling to me that they don't have access to quality healthcare.  Hopefully, things are better for them now that this book has come out.
3. The part where Deborah & her brother went to go see their mother's cells for the first time choked me up.
4. Rebecca Skloot is awesome and has the patience of a saint.  I don't know how she put up with all that she did in researching for this book.

Do I Recommend It?  YES!  I could not put this book down.  It was fascinating to read and each chapter was more shocking than the next.  If you like the scientific writing & the humorous style of Mary Roach, I'm sure you'll love this book, too.

Links:

Rebecca Skloot Official Site

The Henrietta Lacks Foundation

Henrietta Everlasting: Wired Magazine's Timeline of the HeLa Cells

 

Role Models

If you're not sure you could love your children, please don't have them, because they might grow up and kill us.

John Waters, Role Models

Title:  Role Models 

Author: John Waters

Publisher/Publisher Date: Farrar, Straus and Giroux/2010

Library/Bookstore: Amazon Kindle

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: June 2011

Rating: ****

What It's About:  John Waters talks about the people who have influenced him in life such as Johnny Mathis, a member of the Manson family, Tennessee Williams, a Republican lesbian burlesque dancer, and many other strange, fascinating people.

Why I Chose to Read It:  John Waters is like the creepy uncle I've always wanted.  I love listening to him talk about random things that he finds interesting.

Notes About the Book:

1. I also love Johnny Mathis and listen to his Christmas tapes every December.  His voice is like buttah.
2. Wouldn't it be great if more celebrities talked about their favorite books?  What does Dieter Laser read?
3.  You get to learn about the origins of his pencil mustache and the woman behind his clothes.
4. I loved the chapter on his interview with Little Richard.
5. Um, I may have skipped a good chunk of the last chapter about his collection of art.  The only thing I hate more than modern art is reading about modern art. 
6. Is it just me or does John Waters kind of look like Freddie Mercury on the cover art?

Do I Recommend It?  How could I not recommend it?  It's by freaking John Waters!  Reading this book is almost like you're having an actual conversation with him.  

Links:

NPR Interview with John Waters on Role Models

Dreamland

 

Packing for Mars

Upon the occasion of history's first manned flights--in the 1780's, aboard the Montgolfier brothers' hot-air balloons--someone asked Franklin what use he saw in such frivolity.  "What use," he replied, "is a newborn baby?"

Mary Roach quoting Benjamin Franklin, Packing for Mars

Title: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Author: Mary Roach

Publisher/Publisher Date: W.W. Norton & Company/2010

Library/Bookstore: Amazon Kindle Store (My first e-book!)

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: May 2011

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About:  Mary Roach answers all of the questions your dying to know about what really goes down during space flight.  How do astronauts go to the bathroom?  Do astronauts get freaky in space?  Is it okay to smuggle a sandwich during a launch.  Is there such a thing as space madness?  Inquiring minds want to know! 

Why I Chose to Read It:  I've read Mary Roach's previous books and loved them!  Also, I've  always been curious about space travel and thought this would make for an interesting, humorous read.

Notes About the Book:

1. I'm a knee-bobber, so that automatically makes me an undesirable candidate for space flight.
2. I have even more respect for astronauts after reading this book.  What they put themselves through all in the name of science is astounding considering the risks they face.  I'm talking brain stem separation, people.
3. I learned more about space defecation than I ever wanted to know.  Floaters...(shudders).
4. I so want to float around weightless in zero G.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  Mary Roach, rocks!  If you love space, you'll love this book, too.

Links:

Mary Roach (Official Site)

NASA (Latest Space Shuttle News)

 

Left for Dead

"I can tell you that some force within me rejected death at the last moment and then guided me, blind and stumbling -- quite literally a dead man walking -- into camp and the shaky start of my return to life...." 

Beck Weathers, Left for Dead

Title: Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest

Author: Beck Weathers

Publisher/Publisher Date: Random House/2001

Library/Bookstore: Borders

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: January 2011

Rating: ***

What It's About:  Beck Weathers is one of the mountain climbers who miraculously survived the 1996 Mt. Everest storm disaster that killed eight climbers.  Weathers was left to die in subzero temperatures on the summit because rescuerers were certain that he could not be saved.  They were wrong.         

Why I Chose to Read It:  I had read about Beck Weathers' unlikely survival in Jon Krakuer's Into Thin Air.  

Notes About the Book:

1. The way the book is written is interesting because it also shares his family and friends' perspectives on the tragedy and the events that led to it.  Um, but at times the back and forth bickering can be a bit annoying.  Who edited this book? 
2. Being left to die on the summit was bad enough, but what was even more shocking was what happened to him once he made it back to camp.  
3. Weathers lost a nose, his fingers, a hand, and parts of his feet due to frostbite (google it if you have a strong stomach).
4. Asked if he would do it again, Weathers insisted that he would.  Before climbing Everest, his marriage was on the rocks and he was suffering from deep depression.  He is now a motivational speaker.   

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  It amazes me what people are willing to go through in order to climb Mt. Everest.  I think it sounds like pure hell, but I guess that's part of the thrill of it.  It is an inspirational story.  A lot of people would have succumbed to guilt and bitterness after surviving something like that.  

Links:

Badass of the Week: Beck Weathers

Rebirth on the Summit

 

 

Wishful Drinking

 "Cry all you want, you'll pee less!"

Carrie Fisher's grandmother, Wishful Drinking.

Title: Wishful Drinking

Author: Carrie Fisher

Publisher/Publisher Date: Simon and Schuster/2008

Library/Bookstore: Fred Meyer

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: December 2009

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About:  It's Carrie Fisher's memoir on Hollywood inbreeding, substance abuse, her marriage to Paul Simon, motherhood, and living with bipolar disorder.        

Why I Chose to Read It:  I love Carrie Fisher.  Postcards from the Edge is one of my all-time favorite movies.  As soon as I saw the cover, I knew that I had to read this book.

Notes About the Book:

1. The book has pictures!  Lots and lots of pictures!  It also has a chart of the "Hollywood inbreeding" that occurred in her family.
2. It has to suck to be such a big pop culture icon (Princess Leia).  Can you imagine all the creepy fan-mail she must get from nerdy weirdos? 
3. I love the cover art for the book.  Brilliant.
4. Did you know that George Lucas wouldn't let her wear a bra in Star Wars because apparently there is no underwear in space?  HA!
5. The book is crazy.  Carrie jumps around a lot and it's hard to believe what she says sometimes.  For example, she claimed that Bob Dylan phoned her to ask for ideas for names for colognes.  
6. Both of her parents asked Cary Grant to talk to her about the dangers of LSD! 
7. I didn't know she dated Senator Chris Dodd.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  Carrie Fisher is a damn good writer.  My only problem with the book was that it was way too short.  

Links:

Carrie Fisher (Official Site)

Leia's Metal Bikini (There's actually a website devoted to her slave outfit.  Weird.)

Debbie Reynolds (Official Site)

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe

“We have at present no basis for a scientific explanation of the brain-mind relationship. We can only continue to study the brain without philosophical prejudice. And if the day should ever dawn when scientific analysis of body and brain solves the “mystery,” all men who have sought the truth in all sincerity will rejoice alike: the professing materialist and the dualist, the scientist and the philosopher, the agnostic and the convinced worshipper. Surely none need fear the truth.”

Wilder Penfield, Speech and Brain Mechanisms, 1959

Title:  Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A brain surgeon exposes life on the inside

Author: Katrina Firlik

Publisher/Publisher Date: Random House/2007

Library/Bookstore: Inklings

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: December 2009

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About:  It's about the life of neurosurgeon, Katrina Firlik,  She shares what it's like to cut open brains for a living and the challenges she faces as being one of the few women working in her field.           

Why I Chose to Read It:  I'm fascinated by the brain.  I admire people who are brave enough to do this kind of surgery.  I could never make the hard decisions that Katrina has to with her job.  I'd probably crack under the pressure.

Notes About the Book:

1. I loved reading about all of her unusual cases.  Fascinating stuff.  Early on in the book, she talks about one of her patients who had a nail stuck in the left frontal region of his brain. 
2. Did you know that in America there is one neurosurgeon for about every 66,000 people?  However, in Africa the ratio is one neurosurgeon for every 1.4 million people.
3. Robert White, most famous for his monkey head transplant surgery, attended her wedding.
4. She came across as snobbish sometimes, which was annoying.
5. I thought it was interesting how at the end of the book she talked about her belief that in the future people will pay for procedures that will make them savants.  It's a terrifying thought (Gattaca).  
6. She said that the brain eating scene in Hannibal could not happen.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  I thought it was very entertaining.  What a gory job. 

Links:

Katrina Firlik Official Site

Official Book Club Selection

"You know what, my whole life has been putting my reality out there and owning up to it. For better, or for worse."

-- Kathy Griffin

Title: Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Author: Kathy Griffin

Publisher/Publisher Date: Ballantine Books

Library/Bookstore: Inklings

Date Read: September 2009

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About:  Kathy Griffin talks about her struggles making it as a comedienne.  She writes about her time with The Groundlings, being banned from talk shows, plastic surgery gone bad, the ending of her marriage, and good old celebrity gossip.  Kathy doesn't sugar-coat anything and tells it like it is.

Why I Chose to Read It: I freaking LOVE Kathy Griffin!   

Notes About the Book:

1. It was really interesting to learn about how she got her comedic start with The Groundlings.  She actually used to teach improv and her students included: Cheri Oteri, Will Farrell, Molly Shannon, Melissa Rivers, and Mariska Hargitay.
   
2. The book has pictures!  A LOT of pictures!!  She even included some intimate pictures of her and then boyfriend Jack Black.
3. I was disappointed to learn that Steve Martin is a real jerk (no pun intended).
4. It was sad to read about Kathy's older brother's death.
5. The chapter that included her e-mails with Steve Wozniak was really boring.
6. I'm dying to know which member of N' sync she had a fling with!  Justin, maybe?  Hmmmm.
7. LOVE the reading group guide at the end.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  I laughed my ass off.  This books makes me love her even more.  

Links:

Kathy Griffin--Official Site

Life on the D-List

Kate is Enough: The Kate Gosselin Story

Author: Kathy Griffin

Publisher/Publisher Date: Ballantine Books

Library/Bookstore: Inklings

Date Read: September 2009

Rating: ***1/2

What It's About:  Kathy Griffin talks about her struggles making it as a comedienne.  She writes about her time with The Groundlings, being banned from talk shows, plastic surgery gone bad, the ending of her marriage, and good old celebrity gossip.  Kathy doesn't sugar-coat anything and tells it like it is.

Why I Chose to Read It: I freaking LOVE Kathy Griffin!   

Notes About the Book:

Kate is Enough: The Kate Gosselin Story

1776

"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army." 

-- General George Washington, July 2, 1776

Title:  1776

Author: David McCullough

Publisher/Publisher Date: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005

Library/Bookstore: Wal-Mart

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: March 2009

Rating: ****

What It's About: 1776 focuses on General George Washington and his ragtag army of colonial, rebels.  Untrained, unprepared, and underpaid, the rebels find themselves on the losing side of the battle over and over again.  (After awhile, the losses really do start to get embarrassing.)  We learn about the frustration and despair that General Washington felt as he struggled to keep his men from deserting the army and the American cause.

Why I Chose to Read It: I really enjoyed the HBO mini-series, John Adams, so I thought it would be a good idea to read 1776, which I had bought a year earlier.  I also wanted to learn more about what went down during the Revolutionary War.

Notes About the Book:

1. I'm not a religious person, but even I'm convinced that our winning the war had to be the result of some divine intervention. 
2. I got a kick out of reading about Mt. Whoredom.
3. Washington inadvertently intercepted a letter from General Lee to Joseph Reed that lamented his "indecisive mind" and called for new leadership.  Ouch! 
4. Hmmmm.  I had more notes about this book, but I seem to have forgotten them.  Shame on me for waiting so long to write a review.

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  However, it can be kind of dry at times.  I really liked how George Washington never gave up, even though he was convinced of his own shortcomings.

Links:

George Washington

Mount Vernon

Rediscovering George Washington

The American Revolution

Mayflower

 "You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, you will play golf, and enjoy hot hors d'oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, "Do not trust the Pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller."

--Wednesday Addams from Addams Family Values

Title:  Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick

Publisher/Publisher Date: Penguin Books, 2007

Library/Bookstore: Inklings

Date Borrowed/Bought/Read: December 2008

Rating: ****1/2

What It's About:  The title is misleading because the book is mostly about the history of the second generation of English colonists and the outcome of their bloody conflict with the Indians known as King Philip's War.  Philbrick spends very little time actually talking about the Mayflower voyage or the first Thanksgiving.  Instead, he writes about how greed, arrogance, and betrayal (from both sides) broke the bonds of the first generation and triggered the start of a violent war that lead to beheadings, scalpings, slavery and the costly destruction of both families and communities.  

Why I Chose to Read It: I really enjoyed reading In the Heart of the Sea and I've always wanted to learn more about the true history of the first Thanksgiving.

Notes About the Book:

1. The Puritans really, really liked to display their enemies' heads on pikes.  King Philip's head was put on display on a pike in Plymouth for over twenty years!  Then the man who killed him pickled his hand in rum and charged people to look at it.  They also liked to cut their enemies' bodies into quarters.
2. Did you know that the Puritans banned Christmas?!  It was actually against the law to celebrate Christmas in Boston.  Those scrooges didn't even like Christmas decorations! 
3. King Philip's War is considered to be the bloodiest war in America's history.  Before King Philip's War, the overall population of southern New England was approximately 70,000: 50,000 English settlers and 20,000 Indians. By the end of the war, 5,000 to 6,000 people were dead.
4. Those Puritans gave their kids weird baby names.  Some names included: Wrestling, Love (a boy), Remember, Desire, Cotton, Humility, Resolved, Constant, Conscious and Oceanus.  Here's a Time article that lists more odd Puritan names.  How would you like to be called Flie Fornication Andrewes?

Do I Recommend It?  Yes.  It's a fascinating read about a subject that most people don't know much about.  Philbrick doesn't take sides when writing about the English and the Native Americans either.  I think even non-history buffs would enjoy reading this book.

Links:

Mayflower Families

Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower