Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye

Format: Audiobook

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: Nonfiction

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publication date: November 14th, 2014

Read on: June 17th to 26th.
 

Thoughts: Since I didn’t grew up in the US, my first knowledge of Bill Nye and his show Bill Nye the Science Guy came after I was at least in my early 20s. Hence I did not get to experience his effect on science appreciation as a kid but that is not to say I didn’t get excited about science as I was listening to his book. The fact that the book is read by Nye himself was the cherry on top of the sundae; he can transmit all of this energy and love for science a way that made me feel like a child again, learning about what makes science great.

Did I learn about evolution with this book? A little. A lot of the facts that are presented in the book are facts that, working in science, I’ve been exposed to before, albeit in a more academic background. At the same time, since I do not work on evolution myself, there were a couple of items that I wasn’t aware off or that needed refreshing in my head.

However, what I take out of this book is how good a person can be making a subject accessible without dumbing the subject down. All the information and data Nye uses are accurate and well researched, but at the same time, the tone and terminology used makes it easy to understand, especially if this is the first time you are approaching evolution.

 

 

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 400

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: Nonfiction

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Publication date: October 13th, 2014

Read on: August 16th to 23rd

Thoughts: When I first heard about this book I was more than interested. I had used the pill before, but more importantly, I'm always interested in scientific breakthroughs and how they came to be (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) or just the history of a big scientific topic (The Emperor of all Maladies), so learning about how the Pill was discovered and how it came to be one of the most popular contraceptives to date was certainly down my alley.

The book focuses on the roles of Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick, Gregory Pincus and John Rock in the pursue, formulation and finally establishment of The Pill. A very well researched book, with all the notes anyone could ask for and as many details as one could imagine for the development of the pill as well as for the personal lives of the people involved. As a woman, even though I knew it would be approved at the end, it was quite a ride to see how hard it was for this 4 people to make the Pill what it is today: effective, approved and widely available to the masses.

Unlike what I experienced with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, where the author pushed the sentimental angle a little bit too much for my licking, Eig stuck to the point...most of the time. The Emperor of all Maladies was a dense book, but even though it alternated with specific cases of patients and then the history of cancer itself, it never felt to me that pieces of information were superfluous. Unfortunately, there were several points in Eig's book where I did get such feeling, mostly when referring to personal parts of the people involved. It's not that I didn't care for this side of the story; it's just that sometimes a line would be dropped about their characters and it wouldn't give anything to the paragraph or the chapter even.

That said, I think Eig did a wonderful job with it's narrative. Some people might think that establishing the flow in a nonfiction piece it's easier, since the time path is already there, but this is so not true. Knowing how to thread the events and the people in a consistent and fluid manner is not easy, and Eig did it skillfully.

It is a very nice micro-history about not just the pill, but the lives of people who have influenced many. 

 

 

Julia Alvarez: Thoughts and mini reviews

In the past 2 months I've read my first novels by Julia Alvarez: In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García girls lost their accent. While the novels were originally written in English, I read them in Spanish but I think I could've read them in any language and still been struck by the beauty and pain that Alvarez can convey with her writing.

Both books tell the stories of a group of sisters, all very different and all very strong in their own way. In the Time of the Butterflies takes place in the Dominican Republic when Rafael Trujillo was still ruling the island. The Mirabal sisters, known as the Butterflies eventually (Mariposas), real characters of the revolution, are given a loud voice by Alvarez, who takes you through their beginnings as school girls, the first rebellions of their youth and sadly, the death of 3 of them in an "accident". As background, the pain and suffering of the people, trying to deal with the dictatorship, and the hope of many that something better shall come. Alvarez weaves love and happiness in an otherwise sad story. There is hope in her writing, even as the Butterflies are incarcerated. There is love between them and with their families and all along. The tension builds in a rapid pace, and although I knew what will happen to them, I was still hoping, against better judgment, that everything would be fine.

The Garcia sisters on the other hand, have a very different story. While they are pushed out of the island once again because of Trujillo's dictatorship, theirs is the story of immigrants, not even first generation, since they were all born in the island, but that generation that has to learn to grow with 2 very different identities/cultures. The "freedom" they get living in USA peppered with the restraints that their father will try to impose, as is the way of the island (and most Latin@s if I'm being honest). The forming moments that will make these 4 women who they are at the beginning of the book (the novel goes in reverse chronology), the things that they will never be able to shake off and the things they wished they would've never lost. In essence, what it is to be an immigrant in a country so different from your own.

The same way I really enjoyed Meg Medina's Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your Ass depiction of being a Latin@ teenager in the States, I loved the way Alvarez portrayed the struggles not only of the Garcia sisters, but also of their parents, what it means for them not only to lose their country and their ways, but to lose their daughters too.

Alvarez has won a reader, that's for sure. 4/5 for both books.

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Format: Audio

Length: 20hrs 49 min

Narrator: Stephen Hoye

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: NonFiction, Cancer, Science

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Publication date: November 10th, 2010

Thoughts: Both A and I have been wanting to read this one for quite a while, and so we decided to make it our road trip listen. As you probably know just by looking at his bio, Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher, and so he introduces us to the world of cancer, with 2 parallel story lines: one of his patients battling cancer and one of cancer research itself.

In the past years, I've read more about cancer in nonfiction that I have done in academic papers, which is normal, considering that my own research is not connected to cancer. But books such as Pandora's DNA where focused on the own personal experience with cancer and with one cancer in particular: breast cancer.

Mukherjee's book deals with all types of cancers, while spending more time with those that we have more information about, such as breast cancer and leukemia. Nevertheless, his narrative on how different discoveries were made both by struck of luck and by perseverance, was captivating. Discoveries both in treatment and prognosis and how the medical and scientific communities dealt with both. To hear that when the Pap test was proposed for the first time and how it was dismissed as useless is both baffling and interesting, especially when compared to nowadays standards.

A fair amount of information in the book wasn't new to me, considering that I had to learn at least the basis of it during my undergrad and graduate studies. However, there was a lot more that I didn't know and was always interesting. I feel that the author did a great job both researching the subject and vulgarizing it, a thing that is not always easy to do, coming from a research background.

Stephen Hoye did a great job as a narrator, I have to say, it didn't feel like a long read (or listen) at all.

Bone & Bread by Saleema Nawaz

#amreading #CanLit #hellohemlock

A photo posted by CaroGomez (@carolikesbooks) on May 11, 2015 at 3:49pm PDT

Format: Paperback

Pages: 445

Source: Library

Genres: Fiction, CanLit

Publisher: House of Anansi Press

Publication date: March 30th, 2013

Thoughts: This was one of the 2015 selections of the Hello Hemlock. I have to say, I really, really like this one. The story follows the lives of two sisters, Beena and Sadhana. The book opens with Beena dealing with the recent death of her sister, due to a sudden heart attack, and it's through her grief and memories that the author takes the story back to their childhood. Daughters of a Sikh baker and a white yoga instructor, the two girls become orphan at very early age and then end up in the care of their very strict uncle.

Nawaz builds her story around what sisterhood can be and mean, while also touching hard subjects such as death, anorexia and teenage pregnancy. How little we can now from the people that are the closest to us, and how, even after they departure they can still surprise us.

I think that, because I live in Montreal, the images described by the author, in the Plateau, walking around the city, felt so much more vivid. And yet, she also shows another side of the city that I am not familiar with, trough complex characters that have much more than one facet and even at the end are still changing.

Some reviewers have mentioned that the side story (the immigrant family) was unnecessary, but I think it showed another side of Sadhana and considering that they came from an immigrant family too, it made sense to me that it touched her so deeply. Considering it's such a thorny subject around here, I feel that Nawaz used to the advantage of the story, with characters that felt that they don't always belong, even if they were born there. 

Black Milk: On the Conflicting Demands of Writing, Creativity, and Motherhood by Elif Shafak

A photo posted by CaroGomez (@carolikesbooks) on May 22, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

Format: Paperback

Pages: 288

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: NonFiction, Memoir, Motherhood

Publisher: Penguin Books

Publication date: July 31st, 2012

Thoughts: I am not a mother, and for the longest time I thought I would never be. However, recently this thought has changed and I as start to think about the possibility of maybe, some day, having a child, I've started to be more and more curious of other women's experiences. When I heard Elif Shafak's talk in TED, I knew I wanted to read something of her and so I bought Honor but as I was checking out I saw that she also had this nonfiction book, Black Milk and decided to also go for it. I am very happy I did.

From the begging the book grabbed me, so much that for the first time in years I wrote, underlined and dog-eared a book. So many things she was saying that I wanted to mark down, for future me. Shafak's shares with the reader her own debating with settling down, getting married and then with being both a writer and a mother. All the parts of herself, represented in "Thumbelinas" or little women inside of herself, fighting to take prevalence, all the extremes that she put herself through thinking that all this sides of her where incompatible. Then, after her daughter is born, the depression that afflicted her. At the same time, she alternates with other writer's experiences with motherhood.

I took this book with me on a short flight, with a long wait, which allowed me to dive in it and read it almost in one sitting. Her writing is incredibly fluid and the way she describes her surroundings as well as the turmoil that was taking place in her heart embraces the reader easily. While I am still not ready to be a mother, seeing and reading about all possible outcomes, both joyous and sad helps me be a bit less afraid of whatever is to come. 

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Format: Paperback

Pages: 408

Series: The Sparrow #1

Source: Library

Genres: Science Fiction

Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House)

Publication date: September 8th 1997 (first published January 1st 1996) 

There is a difference between being responsible and being culpable

First impression

When I first finished this book I needed some time to re gather my ideas. I fell for the narrative and continued reading because at every step of the book the typical interpretation of things is questioned. How relationships are built and what makes a sentient society. How we define culture and friendship and abuse. The end (no spoilers, don't worry) of Sandoz's story made me cringe uncomfortably mostly because it made so much sense and the sorrow and hatred he had developed suddenly fell right in place with all the context. While I liked this book in general, I cannot bring myself to go for the sequel. 

It's like all sickness [...] His heart desires something he cannot have

Final thoughts

The Sparrow jumps from different time points: Early in time the discovery of extraterrestrial life and the quest to find it in person and in the future the story told by the only survivor who makes it back to Earth, Emilio Sandoz. He is a changed man and through the book we learn what type of person he was before joining priesthood, while on Earth and after traveling to Rakhat.

As I advanced in the book I noticed that I just needed to know more about each character, even if at first they would feel secondary to the story; while I admit that the beginning was quite a slow start for me, once the pace picked up I was passing pages like there was no tomorrow.

My favorite characters were by far were Anne and George Edwards, not only as a couple (a very nice and complex couple) but as individuals they were so interesting. How I would love to have dinner parties like theirs all the time! Imagine the fun of it. I cannot say that there was a character that I didn't like, even the priest (and I just forgot his name) that was so against Sandoz. Because all of the characters come from such different backgrounds, they add to the complexity of the team in an intricate way that for me at least made it even more involving and more touching as I learned more about them.

I absolutely loved the way the author deals with the subjects of faith, love, friendship and off course, culture. Particularly when presented with the 2 main alien groups. Unlike a lot of other reviewers, I didn’t cry but I have to admit that it was a very emotionally charged book, for all the subjects I mentioned before. Every character that left the story did it in a way that you would remember them.

More than a religion questioning, I feel the main point of the book is an anthropological question. That said, and as interesting as I found this first installment, I can’t find it in me to go for the sequel. I keep feeling that The Sparrow moved me as much as it could and it genuinely scares me to ruin the experience if the sequel doesn’t live up to expectations. I would recommend this book for fans of Science Fiction with a lot of philosophical questioning behind.

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys

Format: Paperback

Pages: 294

Series: NA

Source: Copy sent by the publisher for review.

Genres: Historical Fiction, WWII,

Publisher: Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Publication date: February 3rd 2015

The publisher contacted me and I received this book for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Mariner Books for the book.

First impression

Being my first book by the author I wasn’t sure what to expect as writing style, but I am very happy to say that hers is a very fluid one while at the same time conveying a lot of sentiment from her characters. The story, or stories rather, follow the life of 4 main characters that are affected by WWII in very different ways. Is the third book I read almost consecutively this year that takes place in this period and I have to say, while they were all very different, this is without a doubt the one I enjoyed the most. Not a happy book by any means but gratifying as read.

Final thoughts

Starting in 1940, the author presents the life of 4 individuals: James Hunter, a POW captive in his first mission, taciturn and very reserved; Rose Hunter, his wife who while waiting for his return has started to question whether she married the right person or not; Enid Hunter, his sister, who loses everything after her apartment is bombed; The Kommander, a German officer that will affect James’ life even after the war is over.

There is a lot of sorrow and hurt in these stories, all pushed to confrontation under the war circumstances. What is more, after the war is over and presented in the second part of the book (starting in 1950) they all will have to deal with their new lives and forced to carry on without the things they took for granted before the war.

Using the war as an inevitable influence of the time, Humphreys explore what we usually consider is love and how this sentiment might change when bigger things are taking place. I have to say, at first the jump in time took me by surprise and it took me a bit to get into the characters again, they felt so different somehow…but as I continued reading it just felt normal that they had changed.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for lovely story about relationships and how they can be affected by war and peace.

Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani

Format: Hardback 

Pages: 250

Series: NA

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: YA, Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins: HarperTeen

Publication date: January 17th 2012

First impression

I bought this book after Book Riot recommended it in their South Asian YA: 5 titles to read post. It had a very nice premise; a whole family moving from India to the States, the elder girl has been engaged since she was 3 years old and dealing in general with being a teenager. The book does all this things but I was disappointed with the end.

Final thoughts

Shalini is the main character of this book and she is telling the story of how her father found a new job in Los Angeles. As a dutiful daughter, she acts exited and supportive, but the truth is that she is not that thrilled of leaving everything she knew behind, including Vikram her fiancé. Arriving to LA and learning a whole different culture would be hard enough on her, but as it turns out her mother isn't taking the move so well and soon Shalini is taking care of the household, trying to deal with bullies in her class and, for the first time in her life, questioning what for so long was supposed to be her life plan with Vikram, even more so, when Toby comes to the picture.

There are a lot of things I liked about this book and they are all related to Shalini and her family being in foreign land. The amusement of finding a place that sells the food you grew up with; the sort of challenge of explaining to others things that you've grown accustomed to; the fear of changing and losing your roots and at the same time, of not changing and losing your mind. All of these things are so real when you leave your comfort and yet they are so great to help you grow as a person.

Shalini's mom goes into a deep depression due to this move; her father tries to work hard but is afraid of what might have come of his family. Her little sister on the other hand, seems to adapt very well to her new life. All of these perspectives made the book even more enjoyable.

However it was the love story that made me hesitant to give this book a 4...for most of the book the only love interest is Vikram, and while I was interested in the idea of Shalini questioning this relationship now that they were no longer together all the time I wish it wouldn't because another boy. This made her look like a girl whose decisions revolve solely around boys and I can't like that, sorry. I think I would've rather her questioning the whole idea of being engage at 3 when being exposed to other views; if at the end of it all she felt that this was what made her happy, great! It is not? also great.

And then we have the ending. Don't worry; I will not give away spoilers. All I can say is that it felt extremely abrupt and rushed. What is worst, it felt like there was not conclusion at all. I still gave it a 4 because going to it gave me what it promised. To quote Book Riot: This is great because there aren’t a lot of South Asian YA novels that deal with this transitional period, coming to the United States as a teenager and trying to figure things out.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick

Format: eGalley

Pages: 246

Series: NA

Source: NetGalley

Genres: NonFiction

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Publication date: April 21, 2015

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction for the book.

 First impression

It’s hard to say which is more exhausting: the sheer arbitrariness of knowing that her one true love could appear out of anywhere, anytime, and change hr fate in an instant (you never know who is around the corner), or the effortful maintenance (manicures, blowouts, bikini waxes, facials) that ensures she’ll be ripe for the picking when it happens

These words, set in the very beginning of the book caught my attention and with it set the tone for a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was afraid that the book might be a book dedicated to throwing marriage out of the window as just “bad” and how glorious it is to be single, and nothing else. I was very happy to see that Bolick, does not make it sound like being single is the only way, or that women deciding to marry have it wrong or viceversa. Rather it is the telling on how she came to find what worked for her, her inspirations, her questioning on why the connotation of single hood on a woman is immediately associated with “something missing” or why the term spinster has such bad association. Based on her own life experience, Bolick gives a very interesting view on being single for the long term.

Final thoughts

Why is it that there is so much pushing to get married? The whole industry behind weddings, engagements and at the end, marriage sometimes feels overwhelming. Instead, in her book, Kate Bolick talks about wonderful women who were amazing on their own, and at the same time tells the reader how she got to a point on her life where she is perfectly comfortable in her skin, as an unmarried woman, and why, shall it be your decision to do so, you should be perfectly fine with it too.

While women have come a long way in a lot of accounts, it would seem that the idea of you always needing someone else is almost inevitable. Not so much if you area man, although I have seen the pressure on both sides. The idea that you can be happy without being in a couple still feel foreign and somehow, unrealistic. This book make me think so much about single hood, which sometimes felt weird, considering I’ve been in a relationship for more than 5 years now and we are presently engaged. But, the question that kept coming as I read this book, was: Would I be fine if for some reason we break up? Well, off course I would be sad, but I would be ok. Even more telling was realizing how many of my friends might not be, if they would become a “spinster”.

Bolick doesn’t spend the book talking about the evilness of marriage, or even being in a couple. She has been part of a couple and has been happy in it, but she mostly shows how it is perfectly possible to be equally happy being single. With splashes of the rest of her life such as the death of her mother, the big move to New York, and a huge break up, she tells her journey as it is: the journey that took her to love her single hood.

As with any big part of one’s identity, the idea of being single and what it represents changes through her life, and that was probably one of the things I enjoyed the most in the book: how her perspective changed and grew as different moments in her life were taking place and as she met her inspirations. I learned of women I had never heard of, women who were comfortable with themselves and loved their single selves.

I would recommend this book to almost anybody. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it can get very academic some times, and hence a bit heavy in certain passages.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Format: Audio
Lenght: 13 hrs and 46 mins 
Series: NA
Source: Audible
Genres: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication date: January 7th, 2014 

First impression

I had heard so many wonderful things about this book, ever since it came about, almost a year ago but hadn't gotten around to reading it. During the holidays, I had some extra time and had an extra credit on Audible, so I went for it.

The story is told from 2 POVs: Sarah Grimcke, the daughter of a plantation owner in Charleston and Hetty "Handful" Grimcke, a slave for the family. The 2 girls grow together, very close on age, and the develop something close to a friendship. Both prisoners in very different ways, both trying to break free from the roles society has imposed on them. They grow up to be strong women still in each other's life, until the end and end up helping the other out in ways they didn't see coming.

The role of Sarah Grimcke is based on a real character of the early abolitionist movement, and the author is very clear about the fact that there was a lot of fiction added to this story, the final product being a very emotional and touching story.

Final thoughts

I haven't read The Secret Life of Bees so this is my first contact with the author's style, but now I want to get my hands on her previous books. Speckled with historic facts, this novel takes the reader through the first steps of the abolition movement through the eyes of Sarah, who is not only fighting against slavery but also against the set ideas against women. On the other hand, Hatty represents the hardest conditions, being a slave AND a woman: the description of punishments, mistreatments and her life in general are heartbreaking, even more so when you think about the fact that this is perfectly realistic to how slaves were treated.

The book is presented in several parts, all of them representing a couple of years of the girls/women story, beginning when they are merely 11 years old, up to their 40s/50s. The author makes a wonderful job at building their characters, showing how these changes with age and with the marking events they bath have to encounter. The constant contrast of where each one of the main characters were is probably one of the strongest assets of the book, in my own opinion.

I don't know how much of the intensity I felt from both characters is due to the narrators, but for me, they were both very charged, full of emotion, particularly Hetty. The flow of the story made for a seamless narrative and so I got carried away with the story, so much that when it ended I stayed sitting in my chair for a couple of minutes savouring the conclusion of it.

I cannot compare this book to any of her previous work, so I cannot suggest to anyone that they should start with this one; however I can say that if like me is your first approach to Sue Monk Kidd, is a good one, with well developed characters and interesting views of the 19th century USA. Both Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye do a wonderful job giving a voice to Sarah and Hetti.