All Lady July Guest Post: Jamie from Books & Beverages talks about what person and what books shaped her as a reader!

Today on the blog I'm pleased as punch to have the amazing Jamie from Books and Beverages guest posting. All of her info is at the bottom of the post, and I highly reccomend you make regular visits to her site. If for no other reason to talk Tolkien and Lewis (Tollers and Jack to those in the know) during the Inklings readings! I love that Jamie chose this topic to write on! Thanks for being here today Jamie friend, and happy belated birthday! :)

Hello everyone! I’m so excited to be a part of All Lady July this year! Thank you so much Wesley for letting me join in the fun! One of the ideas Wesley came up with was who encouraged me to read. This question fits perfectly because I get to talk about one of my favorite people on the planet and she’s also quite the lady - my Mama!

My Mom has always encouraged my siblings and I. She continues to do so, even though I’m well into my adult years. From building sets (and lots of Legos) to pets, sports and everything in between, my Mom has always encouraged me to explore and find what I love. One of those early on was most definitely books.

I loved the times during summer (when we weren’t running around our neighborhood) when we’d go to the library. To this day my heart holds a special place for my hometown library (and I really hope they have the same 70s carpet and shelves). And those summer reading challenges? My mom was the one to introduce me to them and encourage me to join (I did not mess around people. There were some serious prizes waiting for me - like free books!).

She would often buy me books and my love for literature and reading has never died down. I’m so thankful for those memories and developing an early love for books. Now I’ve been able to return the favor by giving her plenty of recommendations and lots of books - it’s so fun!

I still have many of these books from childhood (I can let go internet, I can’t). I’ve re-read a couple in recent years and y’all - they are just as fun now as they were back then.

I not only remember these books, but each impacted me in different ways - even if I didn’t realize that at the wise age of 10. Whether for their bravery, courage, inspiration or all of the above, here’s a few of my old favorites:

Roll of Thunder Hear MyCry by Mildred D. Taylor - This book wasn’t a light read, but an important one and helped myself, along with plenty of other people, understand racism from a young girl’s perspective in the South.

Island of the BlueDolphins by Scott O'Dell - This book was based on the true story of Juana Maria, who lived on the island by herself for 18 years. I remember thinking - girls DO have what it takes.

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary - This book? It showed me reading is fun.

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - This is one I need to re-read soon, but I don’t think there’s many people who didn’t like this book.

Wesley Note: Jamie and I want to do a read along of this book. Maybe in the fall? Anyone interested in reading along?

A Murder For Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner.  This was probably the first clue that I would become rather obsessed with Criminal Minds, Monk and Psych. Mystery and witnessing murder? Nothing an 11-year girl can’t figure out right?

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. After I read this (I remember watching the movie back in the day too!) I desperately wanted a secret garden. I re-read this recently and I loved it all over again.

Anne of Green Gablesby Lucy Maud Montgomery. I have to confess, I grew up only with the movies. Yet, this was a story that still impacts me and was a favorite to watch with my sister and cousins. I haven’t been able to watch it since the death of Gilbert Blythe though. Sigh…

Black Star, Bright Dawn by by Scott O'Dell. Another classic from Mr. O’Dell. It involves a husky, so of course it would be a win for me! Bright Dawn’s story was yet another reminder that women can accomplish some pretty amazing feats.

Another reason I love Jamie's blog, she takes a wonderful picture.

Do you have favorite books from your childhood?

Thanks for reading and I’d love to connect with you! I write over at Books and Beverages (booksandbeverages.org) and can also be found on Twitter . Facebook  and Instagram 

All Lady July Guest Book Review: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

My beloved friend Jen is joining us today for All Lady July. At this point she should have an official title like "Special Science Correspondent for Library Educated". She has joined us before talking about brains. She's back this year to share with us an amazing true story about a woman who was almost forgotten despite her great contribution to science. Thanks for being here Roommate Jen. AND Happy Birthday tomorrow! Take it away!...

Before I even started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I knew I wanted to see if Wesley would let me review it for All Lady July. (The door is always open for you Jen!) It’s an important story about a lady and her family’s tumultuous, unintended journey into the world of scientific research, written by another lady who wouldn’t give up on her dream to tell this story to the world.

Full disclosure: I’ve worked in the human clinical research field for the past 7 years so this book has a great deal of meaning for me and what I do every day.  I was somewhat ashamed that I didn’t read it sooner, but when I did start reading, I couldn’t stop. I had this on my TBR list because I was attending a conference where the author was a keynote speaker, but I didn’t start until I arrived at the airport for my flight to the conference (I’m not a procrastinator… I just work better under pressure). I had the whole thing finished before I landed in SLC and I had to fight off some tears on the plane - a fair warning for anyone interested in reading the book.

The book weaves two main threads of this story together: Henrietta and her family’s experience and the scientific community’s actions. We learn about Henrietta’s upbringing as a poor African-American woman in Maryland and her battle with cancer in the early 1950’s. We also learn about her biopsied cells being taken to a lab for research purposes, without her knowledge or consent, and the stir that her cells caused when they didn’t die. Her immortal HeLa cells were used in the creation of the polio vaccine, sent into space, and continue to be used in laboratories around the world today.  (FYI: the name of her cell line makes me SO uncomfortable because it breaks all sorts of confidentiality rules/laws by using the first two letters of her first and last name.)  The cells take the scientific world by storm over the next few decades; meanwhile, Henrietta’s family has no idea this is happening. Fast forward to the 2000’s where our author, Rebecca Skloot, goes on a mission to learn about Henrietta, her family, her cells, and why no one has ever really been able to tell the full story before. There’s so many small things that I could share here about how the stories develop and intertwine, but it’s just best left to Rebecca’s writing. Also, I don’t want to ruin the whole book by having a nerd alert geek fest for 500 more words.  I’ll show some restraint and avoid oversharing.

What I will say is that the book provides a powerful narrative on the intersection of race relations and segregation, doctor/patient relationships, confidentiality, educational disparity, human subject research regulations, bioethics, faith and so much more.  It’s simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking to see the contribution the Lacks family provided to science and how this contribution was revealed and explained to them. Since I work in the research sector every day, I was reminded of why I do my job and also how I should communicate and treat each person that volunteers to be in a research study. So here’s where I plug a cool program that I’ve found since reading the book: the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Yes, that Alan Alda.(Insert Wesley's surprised face here). He’s on a mission to help scientists learn how to take their amazing work and communicate it in a way the public can understand. I feel this is such an important movement within the community over the past few years, and it also ties into my last point about the book. This isn’t really a light read in terms of the subject matter, but it isn’t terribly dense for those not scientifically inclined. I didn’t need to have Google handy, but you might want to if you are interested in following some of the scientific history tangents. If you have any interest in the progress of the field of human research or you just want an incredible true story, I highly recommend this book. 

Joy from "Joy's Book Blog" talks about Kick Ass Women!

When Wesley announced All Lady July, I immediately thought about my favorite lady writing about ladies -- Karen Karbo and her Kick Ass Women series:

• How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great
• The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons From the World’s Most Elegant Woman
• How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living
• Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life

In these books, I love the way biography weaves with memoir and interlaces with self-help. The experience feels new and modern and, yet, builds on the essays of Montaigne and the journaling of the American Transcendentalists. The lives of all four of these ladies provide lessons to modern women on how to live well and long. Karbo's Kick Ass Women books are attractive and small, quick to read, but the thoughts they inspire linger. Two of these women spent many years in Paris and it shaped who they are and how we think of them. The influence of Coco Chanel still lurks in your closet and mine and the ghost of Julia Child lives on in our kitchens. Through them, we get the spirit of Paris in fashion and food, but pared to the essence to fit our modern lives. Hepburn and O'Keeffe are associated with other places, Hollywood and the American Southwest, but it's not so hard to find Paris connections. Katharine Hepburn met and then played Coco Chanel in the Broadway musical, Coco, in 1969 and 1970, going on tour in 1971 right after Chanel's death. It's easy to imagine Hepburn wearing Chanel. Last year, during my first trip to France, I saw one of Alfred Stieglitz's nude portraits of O'Keeffe in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay, in an exhibit trying to tease out when the photographic nude is art and when it's porn. The French, I gathered, draw that line in a different place than we prudish Americans. O'Keeffe went to Paris, for the first time, at age 62, as one of several late-life adventures. In "How Georgia Became O'Keeffe," the third book in the series, Karen Karbo draws from the lives of Hepburn, Chanel, and O'Keeffe a lesson about how to live an adventurous life well into old age:

Like O’Keeffe, they were skinny, busy, and irritated until they declined a bit, then died. They were active, didn’t eat a lot, and followed their interests. They never let anyone tell them what to do. They were always a bit pissed-off. I can only assume that this is the real recipe for longevity.

That, I think, might be the best secret revealed in the Kick Ass Women series. Thanks, Wesley, for giving me this space to talk about a favorite lady author on a special day for France.

Joy, thanks so much for guest posting today! These books sound like great reads!

Guest Post: Oliver reviews "American Guns: A History of the United States in Ten Firearms" by Chris Kyle and William Doyle

Alright, we're ending our Guest Poster week with a BANG, literally and figureatively.My dear friend Oliver is guest posting today on the blog. I met Ollie about the same time as my husband, since the two of them are close friends, along with the husband of guest poster Jen. It's a bromance (eye roll). Anyway, I'll let Ollie take it from here!

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and guns.

Lots and lots of guns.

Whether you lean more to the left or the right, or what your view is on one of the more controversial punctuation marks in history, no one can deny the impact of firearms in writing history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of the land of the free and home of the brave.

American Gun is one of those books where you honestly could judge a book by its cover, not that I encourage that. Its subtitle states, “A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms,” and it’s exactly what it delivers. Upon opening the front cover, you’re immediately shown the ten guns the text focuses on. They are displayed as black and white line drawings reminiscent of old-time patent applications. For those with knowledge of firearms most are immediately recognizable: a Kentucky long rifle, the Colt 1911, a Smith & Wesson .38 special revolver. Even those without any firearm knowledge would be able to pick out one or two: the notorious Thompson “Tommy” sub-machine gun, or perhaps the modern M16 rifle. That is this book’s strong point. It manages to tell the story of how technological advancement impacted war within the United States while not alienating a reader who knows nothing about firearms. At the same time, it remains educational and entertaining to those who have an existing knowledge of US history and firearms.

True, if you are a hardcore firearm enthusiast or historian this book would leave you wanting for more information, but that reader isn’t the target. Having read, or more accurately tried to have read, other books on the history of specific firearms, American Gun doesn’t even begin to get close to the level of detail as other books. And that’s a good thing. I never finished those other books because frankly they read like dull text books. Long lists of production numbers and nuanced changes that differentiated the various models from each other filled their pages. Kyle’s greatest success is weaving the story of the gun with the history of the people around them, both those who pulled the trigger as well as those being targeted. Not just recounting a string of battles or simply telling how a particular model came into existence but how it influenced the battles they were used in, or in some cases not used in, and how they lead to military victory. And as well all know the Victors write the history. Spoiler alert: the victors have the better guns.  

As a non-fiction book it’s not exactly a page turner, the “ok-one-more-page-then-I-sleep” kind of book. But, with it being laid out chronologically with each firearm/section of US history assigned to its own chapter, it’s very easy to read. It’s a “read until you’ve had your fill of guns and glory” book that you’re able to set down then pick up right where you left off days later and not have to re-read a thing.

All that being said I really enjoyed American Gun, but that isn’t surprising in the least bit. Anything history or firearms related is pretty much my wheelhouse. Put them together and you’ve got a winner. I give it four of five stars. It’s an easy read, shares its points without getting too political, and for a history type book maintains a good pace while staying true to the topic.  That said I can’t honestly recommend it to everyone simply because it’s just not going to everyone’s thing. However, if you have any interest in US or firearm history American Gun is a great read that serves as an excellent overview of US firearms.

A note on the author:

American Gun: A History of the U.S in Ten Firearms is Chris Kyle’s second, and sadly final, foray into the publishing world. His first book, American Sniper, hit the New York Times bestseller list by chronicling his career as a Navy Seal Sniper. After his military career, Kyle became very active in supporting those wounded in combat as well as those struggling with PTSD. Tragically one of the people whom he tried to help cope with what they were told was PTSD fatally shot Kyle and another veteran Chad Littlefield while at a gun range in Kyle’s home state of Texas*. American Gun was in the final stages of publication but not yet completed at the time of his death. To honor their fallen friend many of the people who worked on and contributed to his first book came together and readied Gun for publication, with authorship being credited to Chris Kyle with William Doyle.

*For more on this check out this excellent New Yorker article; In the Crosshairs. 

 Thank you Ollie for taking the time to read and write for LE, I truly appreciate it! That's the end of guest post week but Bloggiesta is still going on. I'm trying to get in on one more Twitter talk and then I'll show you how my list panned out on Sunday night!