Although many people prefer winter as the time to curl up with a good book, I find I often catch up on my reading during the summer. Winter weather invigorates me, and I become involved in projects; while summer makes me lazy and more inclined to relax in a lawn chair, or curl up in air-conditioned comfort with book in hand if it’s as unbearably hot as it has been this past month.
For some reason, I seem to favor biographies or nonfiction, and for those of you whose taste runs along similar lines, here are a few selections I particularly enjoyed:
-No. 1 on my list and one of the most outstanding books I’ve read in a long time is “The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks,” the amazing but true story of a poor, African-American woman whose unique cancer cells provided science with many of the most important medical discoveries of the past 100 years.
It is also the story of author Rebecca Skloot’s determined search for the story behind the amazing HeLa cells. Skloot is a scientific journalist, but she creates a story as exciting as any novel while raising some important bioethics questions. I couldn’t put this book down.
-No. 2 “Half the Sky” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof has been one of my favorite writers ever since he started reporting for The New York Times. Always a fighter for the poor and oppressed, he has become especially passionate about the oppression of women in the Third World.
This book, written with his wife, is about individual women who are responding in a grass-roots way to gender-based violence. It is a testament to the strength and resilience of women who, despite the odds, never give up. It is an inspiration and a call to arms for the rest of us to help those fighting injustice.
An important book about saving the world, one woman at a time. The title is from an old Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky.”
-My third choice is “Making Toast” by Roger Rosenblatt, a small book that makes a big impression. It is a memoir about his daughter, Amy, who at age 38, died suddenly, leaving her husband and three young children.
Rosenblatt writes in an understated way, but with wit and feeling about how he and his wife move into their daughter’s house and take over the terrifyingly difficult work of filling the void in the children’s lives while trying to come to terms with their daughter’s death themselves.
The title, “Making Toast” comes from the one job that Rosenblatt is able to accomplish to everyone’s satisfaction. When one of the children asks, “How long are you staying, Boppo?” ... he responds, “Forever.”
His book is a tribute to the beauty and strength of a family’s devotion.
-And my last recommendation, even though I am only three-quarters of the way through, is “Perfection” by Julie Metz, a piercing memoir of her discovery of her husband’s deceptions while she was still grieving over his loss.
The book sheds light on certain types of individuals who can be charming and exciting and seem self-confident, but in reality are in constant need of reassurance and admiration. Her recognition that her life before her husband’s death was not what she thought, her struggle to retain some of the good of her marriage while putting her life back together, is another “hard-to-put-down” read.
While it is not my intention to start another “Oprah” book club, I would be interested to hear from readers of this column about their recent favorite books.
If one or two books turn up on everyone’s list, I’ll mention them at some future time.
Contact Jean Cherni, founder of the retirement advisory service, Senior Living Solutions, at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds at Hotchkiss Grove, Branford 06405.
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