The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I have always been a fan of biology and cells. This is a non-fiction science book about a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells, called HeLa by scientists, were taken without her knowledge and have been one of the most important tools in medicine. They were the first "immortal" human cells to continue growing in culture and are still alive today although she died from cancer sixty years ago.  In fact, if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons. HeLa cells were used for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects. It also helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping. I was amazed by the history in this book. During the time Henrietta was alive it was not uncommon for blacks to be kidnapped off the streets to be used for experiemental testing. They would also inject "voluteers" and prisoners with diseases like syphillis without telling them there was a cure. The book compared these events to being much like the experimentation that was done to Jews during the Holocaust. Most of the book was about the family's struggle to understand why they had been lied to about thier mother's cells and how they could be sold without their knowledge. The writer of the book was actually a reporter that was the first to earn the trust from the Lacks family. This was my first audio book, which may seem boring to some but it was great to hear different voices used to understand how people spoke.

Radiance by Alyson Noel

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

Sliding into Home by Kendra Wilkinson

Stay by Allie Larkin

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Lousie Murphy

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey

When I ordered this book by Steve Harvey, I thought that since he was a comedian it would be a comical book. Although there were funny parts here and there, it was more of a self-help or how to control a man type of book. Those things aside, I thought it was still a good read. Steve made extremely good points that we women tend to try to ignore, look past, and say that we can change the way a man looks at things. My favorite two points he made include that in order for men to be ready for any relationship they have to know who they are, what they do, and what they make (money), also how men show you they love you is through professing (how he introduces you), providing, and protecting. This book is a light read and I did enjoyed it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, so I made sure it was on my Book Challenge List. This is Sherman Alexie's Young Adult novel, however I found it might be a little inappropriate for younger teenagers. For example, within the first few chapters of the book the main character says that God gave us thumbs to "pleasure ourselves." That put aside, it was a very good book and it kept my attention so much that I read it in one day. It addresses a lot of sterotypes like casinos, alcholism, and racism about Native Americans from the point of view from a teenager. There was a metaphor that I found interesting, the main character's friends thought he was a traitor and called him an apple: "red on the outside, and white on the inside." It was a great story about how a child wanted to get off the reservation and the struggles he faced from the people around him until he receives respect.  

From Potter's Field by Patricia Cornwell

Another great book in the Kay Scarpetta book series by Patricia Cornwell. This was book six, and I'm blazing through this series quick. Scarpetta is helping with a new case, with an older killer from a previous book. Kay discovers that the homeless victim is shockingly a family member of the murderer. After a few more members of important people in the government are killed, the killer delivers a body to the morgue, and conspiracies are solved, they catch up with Gault in the subway tunnels of NYC. This is still one of the early books, so it is humorous that back in the 90's there was a major concern about everyone getting AIDS and the confusion of technology.