In my twitter travels, I follow a wide variety of authors. Due to this fact, I often stumble upon other authors. The next two books that I read I discovered just this way. The first book,The Squirrel That Dreamt of Madness by Craig Stone, delves into the mysterious world of homelessness. Written in first person, Stone’s main character leaves behind the drudgery of the cubicle work environment to live in a local park. He feels like he can be free if he doesn’t have the constraints of conventional living. His family thought he had gone mad and the contents of his mind show that they’re not far from being right. Stone weaves a diverse set of characters and situations into an ultimately charming story. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this book early along, but was so glad I stuck with it. The twists and turns in the end of the book were so much fun.
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Early in my twitter experience I started following Rebecca Skloot. When she published The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I was intrigued by the idea of someone writing a novel about the back story of biological cells. I could not imagine ever reading such a work as science is not something that I find enjoyable. As Skloots work began to attract attention from the mainstream media, I was pleased for one of my twitter connections to be receiving such attention. But I still had no interest in reading it myself. It wasn’t until one of my friends read it and shared her pleasure with the novel that I finally purchased it on my kindle. Another year passed before I decided to tackle the almost 400 pound book. What a surprise to find such a great story of the human struggle to connect with our history. Skloot immersed herself into the lives of Lacks’s family as she tried to capture the woman who’s cells would live on to provide scientists cells to experiment with. These experiments provided much of our current medical vaccines and treatments. But the essential element of this work is the story of the family who lost their mother/wive/cousin too early. This is not what I would call a beach read. The scientific details are fascinating and provide volumes of historical information. However, much of it is so dense that it was difficult for me to comprehend. I am glad that I finally chose to tackle this work .