Laura Hillenbrand on Today Show

Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the best-selling book, Seabiscuit, which I finished reading last week. She has now released a new book called Unbroken, that I have on reserve from the library and I’m looking forward to reading.

While I am attracted to both books because of their subject and because they are so well written, it is also because Laura Hillenbrand has severe CFS. She’s been ill for the better part of 25 years, much of that time spent in bed. Despite that, she’s written one best seller and it’s looking like this new book may well be one as well.

While I don’t know her and she’s never heard of me and never will, I respect her so much, to have achieved what she has. My writing, while probably never of publishable standard anyway, just faded away on me, dried up and vanished completely. I miss it, but there’s just nothing there in my head any more for me to work with.

Hillenbrand has managed not only to do the hard, physical and mental work of writing two books – she’s done all the research and work involved in preparing to write them as well (check out the enormous number of research books on her shelves in the video below). I couldn’t take in that information and collate it into anything coherent any more, let alone then write it all up so beautifully (and I’m not as sick as she is).

I’m very impressed (and I admit, a little jealous) and I wish Hillenbrand all the very best, both with her health and her career. It’s so good to see someone with this awful illness doing so well.

The video below is from NBC’s Today Show and talks mostly about the book, but also a little about the illness. It’s so nice to see something in the media that acknowledges how serious it is without being disbelieving, disrespectful or mocking.

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Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)
Read: 16-9-10 to 14-11-10

A friend lent me this book, and while I've been reading it very slowly, I've also been thoroughly enjoying it.

Hillenbrand made her subject come alive and I found myself cheering for this ungainly little racehorse too - and racing is not something that interests me at all.

So don't let a lack of interest in horse racing keep you from a great book filled with wonderful characters.

I was also interested to read the book knowing Hillenbrand suffers from severe CFS. I am so impressed that she managed to write this while often house-bound. In the interview at the back, she mentions sometimes needing to just close her eyes and write with her eyes closed. While I don't suffer the awful vertigo she does, I could totally relate to that.

View all my reviews

Chicks Dig Time Lords by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (editors)

A combination of anecdote and analysis, this was an interesting read. Most of the entries were relatively light-weight, concentrating on the authors' experience of Who fandom, but there were a few more in-depth essays delving deeper into topics of women and Doctor Who.

Chicks Dig Time Lords
Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (eds) 
7/10
Read: 14-4-10 to 21-4-10

The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum follows New York City's first forensic scientists to discover a fascinating Jazz Age story of chemistry and detection, poison and murder.

Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. In The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.
Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook-chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler-investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.

From the vantage of Norris and Gettler's laboratory in the infamous Bellevue Hospital it becomes clear that killers aren't the only toxic threat to New Yorkers. Modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner. Automobiles choke the city streets with carbon monoxide; potent compounds, such as morphine, can be found on store shelves in products ranging from pesticides to cosmetics. Prohibition incites a chemist's war between bootleggers and government chemists while in Gotham's crowded speakeasies each round of cocktails becomes a game of Russian roulette. Norris and Gettler triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice during a remarkably deadly time. A beguiling concoction that is equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten New York.

I picked this up on a whim from the new books stand at the library.

I was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I think it is the long ago chemist in me (hey, I have a BSc(Hons) in Chemistry) that was attracted to it. I very briefly considered forensic science while at university but quickly realised I was way to squeamish for it. But I do love a good forensic mystery where it is science that solves the puzzle.

To read about the beginnings of that science was fascinating.
It was also very interesting to hear about the chemical issues of drinking in the Prohibition era. I had realised the full implications of what the law meant or how absolutely dangerous it had been.

If you like a bit of chemistry, a bit of history and some interesting poison cases, this might be just the book for you

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Deborah Blum
9/10
Read: 17-5-10 to 18-5-10

Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale (The Final Chapter) by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook

I loved the first half of this book when I read it (before the second half was added for the reprint), but this time I just wasn't in the mood.

I wonder if it was because the new series has started and we have a new Doctor now and all this fussing about the old Doctor didn't seem so to-the-point.

Or maybe I've just had enough of the ups and downs of RTD now I'm watching Stephen Moffat.

Or maybe I'm just in a reading slump, which my lack of reading any other books right now does seem to suggest.

Anyway, I find I don't really want to keep reading.

All the same, I highly recommend the book, as I loved it the first time I read it, so check out that review instead of this one.

Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale (The Final Chapter)
Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook
DNF
Read: 29-5-10 to 14-6-10

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane’s child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, through laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

I'd seen a lot of mentions of this book (and its follow-up) on blogs. While I never went out to look for it, it did remain in the back of my mind.

While in the library today I saw it on a display stand and immediately picked it up. My mother is visiting and I thought it was something that would appeal to her, so I figured that even if I didn't read it, she might.

In fact, I picked it up not long after we got home and sat there until I finished it. I have already put a library hold on the second book.
This is a fascinating read about Satrapi's childhood in Iran at the time of the revolution. We follow the author from childhood (I'm not sure how old she is at the start) through the revolution and the Iran/Iraq war until she is fourteen and her parents send her to Austria to get her out of Iran.

It was fascinating to see the lives of Iranians who seemed to have very similar notions to my own, adjusting to the strict post-Shah atmosphere of Iran. Satrapi grows into a typical teenager interested in pop music and clothes, in a society where such things are forbidden. For some reason the scene that most showed it for me was the one where her mother warned her about painting her nails and she insisted she would keep her hands in her pockets.

As someone who knows nothing beyond popular knowledge of the Iranian revolution, I found it ironic that the same people who knew enough to support the revolution against the Shah, were the same ones to recognise the oppression of the new regime and to be opposed to that as well. Satrapi's parents and relatives were some of these.

I know I haven't given this a hugely high score, and I'm not even quite sure why as I tend to rate by gut feeling. I think it was mostly because it didn't feel finished, stopping abruptly as Satrapi left Iran (although I realise that this is non-fiction rather than fiction, meaning things don't always wrap up neatly) and because the graphic novel is a medium I struggle with.

All the same, I agree with others who have described this as an important work and I highly recommend reading it.

Persopolis: The Story of a Childhood
Marjane Satrapi 
Persopolis, Book 1
7/10
Read: 15-7-10 to 15-7-10

Persopolis

1. Persopolis: The Story of a Childhood
2. Persopolis 2: The Story of a Return (Goodreads link)