Book Review: On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Publication Date: September 30, 2014
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In this bold, fascinating book, Eula Biss addresses our fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what may be in our children’s air, food, mattresses, medicines, and vaccines. Reflecting on her own experience as a new mother, she suggests that we cannot immunize our children, or ourselves, against the world. As she explores the metaphors surrounding immunity, Biss extends her conversations with other mothers to meditations on the myth of Achilles, Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is an inoculation against our fear and a moving account of how we are all interconnected-our bodies and our fates.

A book about vaccines is certainly timely. On Immunity was actually published in 2014 but resonates even more today. I’ve never read a non-fiction book like it. It felt deeply personal to me, like I was having a conversation with Biss over coffee. She writes about the fear that all mothers have, that no matter the care they take, they will do something that will inadvertently harm their child. She delves into this fear without coming across as condescending, recognizing the fear in herself. But then she writes about community and our obligation to one another as human beings, despite our fears:

“Donations of blood and organs move between us, exiting one body and entering another, and so too with immunity, which is a common trust as much as it is a private account. Those who draw on collective immunity owe our health to our neighbors.”

I learned a lot about the history of vaccines from this book. I was surprised to learn that they have been around for hundreds of years. We like to credit individuals with developing vaccines but in truth, they are the result of decades of collective knowledge. At times, it may seem like Biss is getting off-track but then bam, what seemed like a tangent about Dracula or Coca-Cola, ends up coming back to immunity and vaccines and makes total sense. My copy of the book is highlighted throughout and filled with Post-Its marking ah-ha moments I had while reading. One that particularly resonated with me was:

“Wealthier countries have the luxury of entertaining fears that the rest of the world cannot afford.”

Biss takes great care with her words. It’s amazing how much information is packed into On Immunity’s 160 pages. It’s hard to describe what a brilliant, original book this is. Please read it and see for yourself. Highly, highly recommended.

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 9, 2010
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:
Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people—her teachers, her doctors, her classmates—dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can’t tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

I decided to read Out of My Mind when my 5th-grade daughter was assigned to read it for school. It’s the story of Melody, a 5th-grade girl with severe cerebral palsy. She’s in a wheelchair and can’t talk at all. However, she’s extremely intelligent. One day, she gets a computer that can talk for her, similar to what Stephen Hawking uses, and that changes everything. Almost. Even though Melody can speak, she is still vastly underestimated by both children and teachers at school. Some of the students are downright mean. Almost no one has any faith in her when she decides to try out for the school’s quiz bowl team.

I have seen some adult reviewers who thought it was unrealistic that Melody learned to use the speaking computer so quickly without the help of a speech pathologist. I’m sure it is. It’s also unrealistic that she never had any doctor’s appointments or physical therapy. However, I don’t think the point of the story was to teach 5th graders the specific medical details of a person with CP’s life. I think the simplified version accomplishes what the author set out to do. If a reader is interested in learning more about the medical side of having CP, I’m sure there are other books for that.

Out of My Mind is a great story for kids around Melody’s age to show them that you can’t always tell what’s inside a person by just looking at them. Melody is in a special education classroom with kids that not only have physical disabilities but intellectual disabilities as well. Children reading this book will see that all types of kids with disabilities have feelings and young readers will empathize with them. Actually, any age reader will emphasize with them – this book made me cry! My daughter and I both give Out of My Mind our recommendation, especially for middle-grade readers.

Another book by Sharon M. Draper I’ve reviewed:

Copper Sun

Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006)
First published in 1943
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life―from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience.

I actually read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn way back in 2019. I finished it a few days after my son was born and since I was walking around in a total mommy brain fog, I forgot to enter it into Good Reads! I realized that when I came across the book while reorganizing my bookshelves. So while the details of the book are hazy in my mind, I do remember that I loved it.

The main character is Francie Nolan, who is eleven years old when the book starts. She lives in an impoverished area of Brooklyn. This is Francie’s coming of age story but it’s also a lot more than that. It’s about immigration, the American dream, resiliency, family and love. Francie’s mother works long, hard hours as an apartment building cleaner. Her father is an alcoholic who works as a singing waiter when he’s not drunk. There are other members of Francie’s family that are prominently featured as well, like her aunts and younger brother.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a novel that you can completely immerse yourself in. Even though there are many characters, they all have great depth. Smith takes her time and the story is told with great attention to detail. It’s semi-autobiographical – Smith grew up in the same part of Brooklyn in the same time period – which I’m sure is why the novel feels so authentic. Highly, highly recommended.

Book Review: Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson

Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson
Publisher: Chronicle Prism
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Scarred is Sarah Edmondson’s compelling memoir of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult, the 12 years she spent within the organization (during which she enrolled over 2,000 members and entered DOS—NXIVM’s “secret sisterhood”), her breaking point, and her harrowing fight to get out, to expose Keith Raniere and the leadership, to help others, and to heal. Complete with personal photographs, Scarred is also an eye-opening story about abuses of power, female trust and friendship, and how sometimes the search to be “better” can override everything else.

If you haven’t heard of the NXIVM cult, it started out as a self-help type organization with expensive personal and professional development seminars that were supposed to help you realize your full potential as a human. It was structured as an MLM – the more people a member brought in and got to sign up for the seminars, the more money the member made. Of course, most of the money went back into the company as there were always more seminars and workshops for members to pay for and attend.

Edmondson was in NXIVM for years, slowly working her way up the ranks when one day her best friend, who was one of the highest-ranking people in the organization, asked her to be in a secret club where Sarah would be the slave and she would be the master. She sold it to her as a group of women helping other women grow and develop. However, it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. The “slaves” were actually being groomed to be sex slaves for NXIVM’s leader.

You may recall when actress Allison Mack was arrested for sex trafficking. I was shocked that the fresh-faced blond could have been involved in something so sinister. I was hoping that Scarred would give me some background on Mack and how she became involved and ended up the head sex slave master but it didn’t. Edmondson was based in Canada and ran what could be described as a branch office of NXIVM, while Mack, her slaves, and the organization’s headquarters were based in Albany. This turned out to be very lucky for Edmondson. She was able to remain on the periphery of the sex cult. However, that means that her book doesn’t have many details about what the lives of the woman having to interact with Mack in person was like. There are two documentary series about the cult that I’m told have a lot more information about the nitty-gritty than this book does. I’m afraid to say that this book was a bit of a snooze. It piqued my interest in NXIVM but I was left wanting more.

2020 Year-End Wrap-Up

Another year of reading has come to an end. This year has been different, that’s for sure! At the beginning of the pandemic, I had a lot of trouble calming my mind enough to concentrate on reading. I stayed up way too late every night working on puzzles and then always felt like a tired zombie the next day. Add to that a baby and distance learning for my three older kids and I’m surprised I read a single book! I got my mojo at least part of the way back over the summer – just in time for the baby to get mobile and into everything. I was able to read a bit, although I still spend way too much time doom scrolling. Cutting that out will be a New Year’s Resolution for sure.

All right – let’s get to the wrap-up!

How many books read in 2020?
I read 37 books.

How many fiction and non-fiction?
I read 14 non-fiction and 23 fiction books in 2020. Of the 14 non-fiction books, 9 were memoirs. I’d like to read more non-memoir non-fiction in 2o21.

Male/Female author ratio?
I read 28 female authors compared to 9 male authors. It’s usually a more even split for me but I’m fine with reading more women authors!

Favorite book of 2020?
I read a lot of really good books this year but if I had to choose one favorite it would be Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Least favorite?
I didn’t hate it but I definitely had mixed feelings about The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
I didn’t finish Flights by Olga Tokarczuk and Apeirogon by Colum McCann. They are both award-winning books but neither one clicked for me. I gave each about 100 pages before throwing in the towel. I feel like that was a decent try. Neither is included in my total read for the year.

Oldest book read?
I didn’t read any classics this year – which I will remedy in 2021. One of my book club’s February 2021 pick is The Age of Innocence. I’m the host that month so I’ll read and finish it for sure. Back to 2020 – the oldest book I read was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which was published in May of 2013.

Newest?
I read a lot of books that were published in 2020. I’m not sure which one was the absolute latest.

Longest and shortest book titles?
The longest title was Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life. The shortest was Luster by Raven Leilani.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Publisher: Seal Press
Publication Date: January 16, 2018
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy — from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans — has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair — and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

Although So You Want to Talk About Race was first published in 2018, it made its way back to The New York Times bestseller list this summer after George Floyd’s murder. Every chapter in the book is a question – like what is Racism or Why Am I Always Being Told to Check My Privilege? or Is Police Brutality Really About Race and so much more. Oluo addresses multiple core issues related to race that most white people probably haven’t given much thought to or may not understand why race is an integral part of the problem – like the school to prison pipeline. Even if you consider yourself “woke”, I can almost guarantee, there will be something in this book that is new to you or is a new perspective on something you thought you already understood. I’ve studied a lot about race and racism over the years and my copy of this book still has tons of pages marked with post-its and highlighted.

I think the best part of this book is that Oluo explains things in accessible language that makes it easier to have conversations with people. For example, before I read this book, I knew that cultural appropriation is wrong but I didn’t have the language to articulate why simply and coherently. Or trying to explain to a white person why they can’t use the N-word, even if they are just quoting rap lyrics. These are just a couple of examples. This book is not just for white people to learn how to talk about race; she addresses people of color as well. Highly, highly recommended.

Side note: Oluo’s second book, Mediocre, was published a couple of weeks ago. I’m about half-way through reading it and it’s just as brilliant. Stay tuned for my review coming soon!

Book Review: The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion
Publisher: Text Publishing Company
Publication Date: May 28, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*****The publisher’s description and my review have spoilers for The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect the first two books in the Rosie series.*****

Publisher’s Description:

Don and Rosie are about to face their most important project.
Their son, Hudson, is having trouble at school: his teachers say he isn’t fitting in with the other kids, and they’d like Don and Rosie to think about getting an autism assessment. As his parents debate whether a diagnosis might help or hinder, Hudson has his own ideas. Meanwhile, Rosie is battling Judas at work, and Don is in hot water after the Genetics Lecture Outrage. The life-contentment graph, recently at its highest point, is curving downwards.

For Don Tillman, geneticist and World’s Best Problem-Solver, learning to be a good parent as well as a good partner will require the help of friends old and new. It will mean letting Hudson make his way in the world, and grappling with awkward truths about his own identity.
And opening a cocktail bar.

The Rosie Result is the final book in the Rosie trilogy. It fast-forwards eleven years from the end of The Rosie Effect. Don and Rosie are raising their son Hudson, who seems to have inherited Don’s quirks. His school is pressing Don and Rosie to have him tested for autism, but Don decides to take matters into his own hands first.

There is a lot going on in this final installment of the Rosie series. In addition to dealing with Hudson possibly having autism, both Don and Rosie are having trouble at their workplaces. Hudson has made friends with a girl at his school who has albinism and Don with her mother. That family has their share of problems as well. The theme of The Rosie Result is misunderstandings. It was a little stressful reading it, while everyone was trying to figure out what was really going on! But, it was also enjoyable because that’s where the humor came from.

While The Rosie Effect was a tad disappointing, The Rosie Result is on par with The Rosie Project. I feel like Don, Rosie and I are friends now and it’s been fun to watch them grow as people throughout the series.

My reviews for the first two books in the Rosie series:
The Rosie Project
The Rosie Effect

Book Review: The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Paperback Publication Date: July 21, 2015
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

*****The publisher’s description and my review have spoilers for The Rosie Project, the first book in the Rosie series.*****

Publisher’s Description:

Until recently, genetics professor Don Tillman had never had a second date. Then he got serious about finding a life partner, creating a sixteen-page questionnaire (see: The Rosie Project) to identify the perfect match. Instead, he fell in love with Rosie Jarman (“the world’s most incompatible woman”. Now they have survived ten months and ten days of marriage.

Though the fiery Rosie has taught him the joys of unscheduled sex and spontaneous meal planning, Don is still learning the principles of optimal cohabitation. He’s certainly not prepared for the mother of all surprises: Rosie is unexpectedly expecting.

Is Don ready to become the man he always dreamed of being? Or will he revert to his old ways and lose Rosie forever?

The Rosie Effect is the second book in the Rosie trilogy. You definitely need to read The Rosie Project first. In The Rosie Effect, Don and Rosie are married and have moved to New York City so that Rosie can go to medical school at Columbia. They are both surprised when Rosie finds out she’s pregnant. If you know Don, you can guess how well he deals with the unexpected.

The Rosie Effect was just as funny as The Rosie Project. The scene where Don gets arrested at a playground after he follows his friend Gene’s advice to “watch some kids” to figure out how they behave is particularly hilarious. However, I found the drama between Don and Rosie to be somewhat manufactured. I didn’t like Rosie much in this book and I liked her a lot in The Rosie Project. It didn’t feel like her character took an authentic turn in this book. That being said, I still enjoyed The Rosie Effect and I definitely recommend it if you read and liked The Rosie Project.

You can find my review of The Rosie Project here.

Book Review: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Paperback Publication Date: June 3, 2014
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Don Tillman, a genetics professor who is most likely on the autism spectrum, (although it’s never explicitly stated) has decided it’s time to take a wife. What better way to find one than with a detailed questionnaire? It’s simple logic. Enter Rosie Jarman. She is clearly not wife material – she’s spontaneous, she’s late, she drinks alcohol and she smokes. However, Don agrees to help her find her biological father even though he would never marry her.

Don is a lot like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory – he cannot see through sarcasm or irony. As such, his internal monologue can be quite hilarious. He maintains a rigid schedule. For instance, to reduce “cognitive load”, he has devised a Standardized Meal System. He rotates cooking seven dinners, one for every night of the week. Tuesdays are lobster nights. Any deviation from his routine makes him uncomfortable. When Rosie comes into his life, his routine goes off-kilter almost immediately.

In spite of Don’s quirks, he is a sweet man and I found him endearing. Rosie is baffled by him at first but they grow to somewhat understand each other. They are really funny together – I enjoyed the humor of The Rosie Project so much that I immediately read the next two books of the Rosie trilogy! Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: July 31, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn’t tell anyone she blames herself for her mother’s recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.

Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is drawn into a secretive cult founded by a charismatic former student with an enigmatic past. When the group commits a violent act in the name of faith, Will finds himself struggling to confront a new version of the fanaticism he’s worked so hard to escape. Haunting and intense, The Incendiaries is a fractured love story that explores what can befall those who lose what they love most.

The Incendiaries focuses on Will, a born-again Christian turned atheist and Phoebe, a lively party girl. They both harbor guilt about things in their past. Will helped convert his mother to a faith he no longer believes in and Phoebe blames herself for her mother’s death. When Phoebe is slowly drawn into a cult, Will tries his best to save her.

The Incendiaries was this month’s pick for my Moms group book club. We all agreed that the way the book started off is confusing. I got about 30 pages in and realized that I needed to start over. Once I reread the first 30 pages, I had a much better handle on what was going on. There are no quotation marks in the book, a device that I’m never fond of. Much of the book is Will speculating what Phoebe says in her confessions at cult meetings, making him an unreliable narrator at times.

Lack of quotation marks aside, I did enjoy this book. It explores loss in ways I hadn’t thought of previously. Not only is Phoebe mourning the loss of her mother, Will is mourning the loss of his religion. He’s sad that he doesn’t believe anymore. And I’m always intrigued by how a rational person can be drawn into and overtaken by a cult. Even though this is a slim novel at just over 200 pages, we found a lot to discuss in our book club meeting. Recommended.