"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot ****

• Audiobook
• Non-Fiction
• US author
• Story of first set of human cells ever to spontaneously reproduce, and the way they have impacted medical research and treatment worldwide, and continue to do so.  It is also the story of the woman who died, yet whose cells live on and the impact on her extended family
• Review:   A fascinating book.  The author fairly adeptly weaves two true stories together, one of medical history being made and the other being the impact of that historical event on the extended family of Henrietta Lacks.  Both sides of the story involve a difficult medical ethics question about patient rights and their limits, along with the commercialization of scientific/medical research.  The audio version I listened to included an interview with the author at the end which was very interesting as well.

"Beautiful Mystery" by Louise Penny *****

• #8 in the Inspector Gamache series
• Audiobook
• Canadian author
• Setting:  St. Gilbert Entre des Loups, a monastery in isolated area of Quebec, home to a n order of Monks whose primary purpose is to sing Gregorian chants to the glory of God
• Interesting theme.....financial survival v. spiritual survival, power of faith, the destruction caused by ego
• Review:   And the hits just keep on coming!   How does Louise Penny consistently write such marvelous stories?  Without any spoiler...I cried at the end of this one!

"Swamplandia" by Karen Russell **

• Audiobook
• US author
• Originally published 2011
• Setting:  island off coast of Florida....."Swamplandia"...home to an alligator amusement park
• Review: Great opening and it was downhill from there.  Overblown metaphors, fable wannabe, disjointed plot.  Just did not hold my interest. 

"The Hummingbird's Daughter" by Luis Alberto Urrea *****

• Originally published 2005
• Audiobook
• Mexican author
• He was an Arts & Lecture author 
• His novel, "Into The Beautiful North" (reviewed elsewhere) is the 2013 "If All Rochester Reads......" selection
• Historical Fiction
• Review:   Urrea's reading of this piece of historical fiction is magnificent.  I felt like I was listening to an epic poem rather than prose.  The story of Saint Theresita is stirring and spiritual.  It compels the reader into the world of Mexican mystery, religion, history, superstition, and faith, just as Theresita compels more and more followers and believers.  I might have given this novel four stars, but the reading itself merits five! 

"Sarah Orne Jewett's Best Short Stories" by Sarah Orne Jewett ****

• Audiobook
• US author
• Originally published 1994
• Review:   This is a collection of precious gems, short stories which illuminate the character of the classic New England elderly lady.  Ever concerned about her image within her community, avoiding growing old, facing death, and keenly observing those around her.  The stories fit a stereotype which may well have been fairly accurate in its day, and some of which may still hold true.  Jewett writes superbly and has a subtle touch in her caricatures.  Very nice.

"The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by Jan-Phillipp Sendker ****

• Book Club Selection for September 2012
• German Author
• Originally Published 2002
• Review:  A lovely story about a daughter discovering the story of her father's true love. 

"The Guinea Pigs" by Ludvik Vaculik *****

• Open Letter Series
• Czech author
• Originally published in 1968
• Author was banished from the Communist Party during the Prague Spring of 1968, writing was censored, and he was persecuted for decades
• Characters: 
• Vasek, the father , bank employee
• Eva, the mother, a schoolteacher
• Vasek Jr, interested in underground networks
• Pavel, younger son,
• Mr. Maelstrom, lives under the train bridge, works at bank, shunned for his prediction of impending economic doom
• Mr. K, tells Vasek that guinea pigs have a purpose and Vasek tries to figure it out....they feed weasels (metaphor....workers feed Communist leaders aka weasels?)
• Three guinea pigs: Albinika (first, female), Red (second, male, red), Red the second (male, saved from weasels,most well behaved and submissive)
• Vocabulary:
• monophyletics:   consisting of organisms descended from a single taxon.
• Quotes:
• p.5...."Sometimes, though, man departs from some of his intentions, while he follows alternate routes in the interest of maintaining his standard of living.".....a touch of foreshadowing
• p.10......"He had become accustomed to a life of danger, he didn't want to live any other way.  If it cost him his life, nobody would hold an investigation or bear him any ill will, only a few cats will bear a few litters of young ones, more or less, for a while after he is gone."......Vasek's observations about their kitten......again, foreshadowing
• p.12......."The position of a poor sap like that, at the bottom stratum of the social structure, is typified by his absolute helplessness  The one at the bottom is unhappy because everybody, and there is no one to obey him.  But if he finds that he has at least one creature even one creature lower than himself, the world takes on an entirely different aspect.  Social structures expand, and the bottom stratum retreats by a horse's length, by the height of a crow, by the breadth of a dog."......Vasek's experience with the guinea pigs?
• p.14....."The hardest thing in the world, girls and boys, is to change your life by your own free will.  Even if you are absolutely convinced that you're the engineer on your own locomotive, someone else is always going to flip the switch that makes you change tracks, and it's usually somebody who knows much less than you do."
• p.47...."Nothing turns out as bad as it seems at the start:  every dish of  porridge ultimately cools off, according to an old Czech saying.  Most clouds don't bring rain, most rifles don't have any effect on the steamrolling of highways."
• p.57...."Fear of death prior to death is something that has been reserved for mankind."
• p64....."Speak up or shit letters!"
• p.70....".....the dying need to concentrate on their departure, and as long as they are not forcibly brought back to consciousness--which at best means an awareness of their pain or their concern--they no longer suffer."
• p.74......"there are excellent ideas that become unfeasible by the very fact of their having been proclaimed on the street.".....hence the need for an underground network
• p.146...."As long as he knew that the guinea pig was in the water, he couldn't think that he wasn't..  And also, he was the only person in the world that knew it.  From this fact the banker deduced that if there is a God,as He is guilty, even if no one, not even a mouse, in this whole world believes in Him."
• p.175....."When decay causes everything to give up its will and wishes like fine wisps of smoke, for whom is the sacrifice being burnt?  And what is being asked?"......and then he disappears.......at the time the guinea pigs are born......
• Ideas:
• God as the best type of observer, never intervenes  p.22
• economic depression as a whirlpool, or maelstrom......p.41
• music calmed the dying guinea pig, just as it did my dad
• can only pass a judgement about someone after having witnessed their first "deed"
• switched from first to third person narrative when ashamed of his actions...p.145
• Review:  The nearest I can figure is that this novel is about the process of decay and loss of will caused by the tight controls placed on human beings under Communist regimes.  The protagonist's experimentation seems to represent the playing with humanity by regimes and an uncaring God.  The guinea pigs are the example of how paralyzed and unthinking, how devoid of wishes and dreams, people become when socially, economically, culturally, or otherwise confined.  A powerful, thought provoking novel, by an author from the Czech Republic who himself was persecuted and ostracized for the expression of his independent thoughts.
• Link sent to me which has a good review:   http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/06/guinea-pigs-by-ludvik-vaculik.html