The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.

Linda's November Pick

My pic for November is Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

Synopsis
From amazon.com

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future.

Enjoy!

Annell's pick for October

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me. 

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus--a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest--and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatenning to overtake and consume our world before it is too late. 

The Monstrumologist

by Rick Yancey

Anne's pick for September: The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah

The enduring toll of the loss of a parent. Family estrangement. Sisterhood. And the difficult choices life hands us.

Best-selling author Kristin Hannah (Fly Away) transports her favorite themes to World War II as the Nazis penetrate the Maginot Line and invade France.

Viann Rossignol was 14 and her sister Isabelle just 4 when their beloved mother died, leaving them with a shell-shocked father unable to overcome the loss of his wife to care for them. Tasked with caring for her sister, Viann finds love with Antoine and they marry, but a miscarriage at 17 leaves her emotionally spent. Isabelle is shipped off to the first of a series of boarding schools she is forced from or flees.

Athena's pick for August: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly

‘An incredible story of how one boy survived and prevailed through extreme circumstances to change his fortunes.’When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines.
Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.
Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pore over satellite images of the country for landmarks he recognized. And one day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for.
Then he set off on a journey to find his mother.
A Long Way Home is a moving and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. It celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit – hope.

Opinions

Manly Daily
‘★★★★★ I literally could not put this book down … [Saroo’s] return journey will leave you weeping with joy and the strength of the human spirit.’

Weekly Review‘We urge you to step behind the headlines and have a read of this absorbing account … With clear recollections and good old-fashioned storytelling, Saroo … recalls the fear of being lost and the anguish of separation.’
Saturday Age‘A remarkable story … [Brierley] provides an informative and fascinating insight into how Third World families live with, and somehow survive, their poverty.’
femail.com.au
‘An incredible story of how one boy survived and prevailed through extreme circumstances to change his fortunes.’

 Lauri's JUNE PICK:

Interesting Times by Matthew Storm

Oliver Jones is the most dangerous man in the world.

At least, someone out there believes he is. Oliver himself thought he was one of the world's duller men, working as a financial analyst in San Francisco by day and eating microwave dinners by himself every night. That was until he befriended a stray cat, and then one lonely night the cat began to speak to him.

Now Oliver is on the run, hunted by an inhuman assassin whose client believes Oliver is the "Destroyer of Worlds." His only hope for survival rests with a trio of unlikely new allies: A werewolf with a fondness for Hawaiian shirts, an emotionless little girl who is much, much older than she appears, and a genocidal gunfighter with a serious anger management problem.

And there's that talking cat, of course. But that's a little harder to explain...

Pam's pick for May

A historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.

Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.

Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee’s enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.

April's Book

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard's sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king's palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

I have tried a million times to post this, and every time I get interrupted. This time I'm not moving from the computer until it is done. :) The book is the Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare. Some--if not most--of you have read it before, and I have probably picked it for book club before. If you have read it, you know you want to read it again. For those who haven't, it is one of my favorite books of all time, and I know you will love it. So read it! (You, too, Stephanie!) Love to you all! Candy

February -- Spoiled Brats, by Simon Rich

Here's a collection of short stories to read.  Enjoy!