Good Books!

We both love reading, and with Chelsea trying to recover, we've been reading a lot lately. Here are some good book suggestions:

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

This book is set about 50 years in America's future. The main premise is America's focus on technology and the latest gadgets and how that is ruining people's ability to function socially--the characters text message and email each other instead of actually having a conversation; no one reads books anymore because they are "smelly" and archaic; if you're not young and hip and use the latest slang, speak in abbreviations and are actively trying to appear younger, than you're dead to the world; the media is constantly bombarding you from every angle of your life; and instant gratification rules--you can find out whatever you want to know about anyone and anything, instantly, sent to you on your Ipad-esque device. And all of this has lead to a financial crisis where America is being split up and sold to other countries, namely China. Whew! It sounds like a downer but I liked how the characters struggled with wanting an identity different than "the norm" ,the consequences of being different, and whether or not you are who the technologically-crazed world defines you based on your "statistics". It was a good lesson about technology and a reason to reflect on why people feel they need to have the latest and greatest new phone/gadget/etc. I was reading this book as the latest version of the Ipad came out, and each morning on my way to work, I would see people lined up outside the Apple store, camped out, waiting to be the first to by the new Ipad. I was especially disturbed because the first Japan earthquake had just hit, and there were people standing in line with the first version of the Ipad, waiting to spend another $800 on the newest one, meanwhile images and descriptions of suffering were all over the news. Not that I'm a saint--I acknowledge consumerism and that I partake in it, I just found it thought-provoking and possibly an opportunity to re-evaluate my own spending habits...

Next on the list is Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Dr. Paul Offit.

Our cousins Claire & Sean had read it and I was interested in the topic, so Chelsea and I both read it. Wow! Very interesting! Over the past few years, I've heard about girls back home that I went to school with who are choosing not to vaccinate their children, mostly for fear that it causes autism. This book is written by an accredited doctor who is a believer in vaccinating children, so starting off you know it's going to be slightly biased, but I liked how easy he made it to understand the science that refutes the belief that vaccines cause autism (and a variety of other diseases). Not only does he describe study after study that have been done since the 80's to test whether vaccines cause child illnesses and the results that they do not, he also discusses many of the diseases the vaccines prevent and how terrible the epidemics of those diseases were in our history. The book talks about how those diseases are starting to come back and how devastating the consequences can be--for example, many doctors today don't recognize the initial symptoms of these diseases, like measles, because it's a disease from our grandparents generation that is just starting to re-appear.

Dr. Offit describes the anti-vaccine movement and discusses & refutes each argument, concluding by saying that since study after study have shown that vaccines do not cause autism, then the anti-vaccine movement should instead be focusing its time and money on autism research, instead of blaming the doctors and government as co-conspirators who hide the truth about vaccines. I think the saddest part about this book is that people who need to rely on "herd-immunity" (where many people who are vaccinated protect those who cannot get vaccinated from contracting disease) and cannot get vaccinated because of medical reasons, like children with Leukemia, are being threatened by ill-informed people who choose not to vaccinate out of fear. Having said that, I'm not a parent and I can hardly imagine what you would do if you thought vaccines might harm your child, but! I find the topic very interesting and didn't know much about the topic nor the arguments on either side of the debate, so I wanted to read more about it and inform myself. I think that is the main point of this book--he writes it in a way that says "Here are the scientific facts, now decide for yourself".

Next up is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Now I have to preface this by saying I am only about 200 pages into this book, so my opinion may change, but so far this book has been fascinating! Chelsea's read it already so you can direct any questions her way...

This book is written by a woman who learned about the first discovered human "immortal cells" called HeLa in science class and their immeasurable value to the scientific world, but when trying to find out more about the woman behind the famous cells, found little to no information. The author felt that the person behind the most famous cells in science should have a story, so she decided to tell it. And what a story it is! HeLa cells belonged to a woman named Henrietta Lacks who died from cervical cancer at a young age in Baltimore in the 1950's. Doctors at Johns Hopkins hospital who were treating her took samples of the cancer cells. One of the doctors had a lab and had been trying to grow immortal cells, or cells that continue to reproduce and multiply on their own, outside of the body, and her cells were the first survive and flourish. He later sent the cells to other scientists to use, who then began growing and giving them to other scientists, which then became a business of labs selling the cells to scientists for research, and an estimated multi-billion dollar industry was born. The use of her cells by researchers has helped doctors and scientists to understand more about cancer and many other diseases; her cells also helped create the polio vaccine, as well as paved the way for the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer for women. Her cells are all over the world today--even Sean has used them in a lab when he was in college!

The most important aspect of the book is that Henrietta Lacks was a black woman from a poor family. That brings up a whole slew of other issues, such as informed consent, ability to understand what the doctors were doing during her treatment, racism within the medical and scientific community, and whether or not you have ownership rights to your cells and other "biological waste". As the author began her research, she discovered the family knew nothing of the use of Henrietta's cells nor their value until at least 20 years after she died. And even as she contacted the family, they still knew very little about it and were mistrustful of people asking questions about Henrietta because of the road-blocks they had met when trying to find out more about HeLa themselves from the very scientists and doctors using her cells. The Lacks family today still lives in poverty, has received no benefits from Henrietta's invaluable contribution to science, and some of them don't even have health insurance! This is unfathomable, considering the power and influence Henrietta's cells have in the medical and scientific world. Companies are making money selling her cells, and the family is still very poor and undereducated. What a shame! And why/how did this happen? Is it because she was a poor and black woman and so the doctors didn't think they had to receive her consent? Or did the medical community take advantage and choose to not follow the informed consent guidelines? I'll have to continue reading to see what happens, but I'm not confident that the family will receive the reparations they deserve.

I'll keep you posted! If you have any book recommendations, leave a comment with the name and we'll check it out. Happy reading!