The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Never in a million years would I think of the word fascinating in association with the periodical table of the elements, but The Disappearing Spoon has changed all that. The periodic table is fascinating if you know about what went/goes on in discovering, proving, and naming all of the different elements. This book is full of fun and sometimes disturbing facts about the great scientists and their quests to be famous. The elements themselves have a history and a uniqueness that most of us never think about past chemistry class. Seriously, if you are looking to learn about something new, this is a great read!

Karen

Read-alike: The Professor and the Madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. Of course completely different subject matter but same fascinating unknown factoids.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta Lacks died in the colored ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital on October 4, 1951 of cervical cancer. However, unbeknownst to her or her family, tissue samples were taken from Henrietta's tumor and the cells from that tumor survived and continued to multiple in cell culture (something no other cells had been found to do before). Those cells become known as HeLa (the first immortal cell line) and have helped bring about the polio vaccine, new information about cancers, and have even been sent into space. These cells are still being used in labs around the world. Her family however, didn't learn about them until decades after Henrietta's death, most of who have been without health insurance for periods of times throughout their lives. Rebecca Skloot first heard of HeLa and Henrietta in a college lecture hall at sixteen, and became fascinated with the person behind the cells, that the world knew so little about.

In her research to discover more about Henrietta The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks becomes more than just a story about Henrietta. It is about her children, and how the magnitude of HeLa cells has impacted their lives. It is about how the cells were acquired and what rights patients had in the 1950s and what rights they have today. Skloot, delves into the ethics regarding human tissues ("today most Americans have their tissue on file somewhere" (Skloot, 315)), scientific research, and commercial use. A fascinating look into scientific research and the human stories behind it.

HeLa Cells

Image From: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cell_culture_(HeLa_cells)_(261_18)_Cell_culture_(HeLa_cells)_-_metaphase,_telophase.jpg

The Boys In the Boat by Daniel James Brown

I’ve always thought of Ivy League schools and the eighties Rob Lowe movie Oxford Blues when it comes to the sport of rowing. It turns out that rowing, or crew as it was often called, was one of the biggest sports in the U.S. in the early part of the twentieth century. The Boys In the Boat by Daniel James Brown tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 rowing team, perhaps one of the most celebrated and closely followed U.S rowing teams of all time. This rowing crew received a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but most of The Boys In the Boat’s pages are spent on the crew’s up and down journey just to get to the Olympics and on the sport of rowing in general.

Much of the story is devoted to Joe Rantz, one of the key oarsmen on the gold medal crew. Joe’s life is very emblematic of what people were going through in the 1930s. Joe’s stepmother ends up forcing his father to abandon Joe in favor of his younger half siblings when Joe is a teenager. This seems rather shocking to today’s reader, but Joe explains years later to his girlfriend that there simply wasn’t enough food for everyone and that, as the oldest, it only made sense that he was left on his own. Joe gets by in his high school and college years by stringing together odd jobs or finding back breaking work over the summer.

Since the ’36 Olympics were held in Germany, the book also gives a disturbing look at the Nazis’ propaganda machine. Berlin was turned into something of a movie set while the Olympic athletes and foreign press were there. Anti-Semitic signs were removed from stores and streets were spruced up to make the city look beautiful and spotless.

Even with all the hours of ESPN I’ve watched over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a rowing event or given much thought to the sport. However, Brown’s analysis of the boats and the different theories on what makes a successful rowing crew, combined with the stories of the rowers and coaches at Washington at the time, makes The Boys In the Boat a fascinating read.

John

Bliss House by Laura Benedict

Bliss House is one of those great, creepy novels where the main character is really the house. It is the house that holds all of the secrets, the house that makes ordinary people do extraordinary things, and the house that is the one in charge. And we all know when the house is in charge, nothing good happens.

Rainey Bliss Adams needs a place to hide. She and her daughter Ariel have just gone through a horrible tragedy in St. Louis, and Rainey decides that this old family home in rural Virginia might just give them the peace they need to get on with their lives. After all, Bliss House has been in Rainey's family since the late 1800s, and although there have been a few tragedies associated with the property, Rainey is sure she made the right decision. That is, until a death occurs at her first party. A death her damaged daughter may or may not have witnessed. Just what exactly did Ariel see?

With all the elements of one of those old, gothic-style novels, you will not be able to put this one down.

Karen

Read-alike: The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson.