A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides

David Rhode and Kristin Mulvihill's book, A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides, is one of those books that sounds great on paper. It has all the intrigue of a fabulous story--a kidnapping in a faraway land, the new bride at home tossed into the confusing, mysterious world of government agents and international agendas as she tries to free her new husband from the clutches of murderous extremists and a backdrop of international terrorism and religious zealotry. Rhode and Mulvihill manage to take that set of facts and make it into a dry, boring, tedious work that will desperately make you wish you weren't the type of person who finishes books that you start regardless of their quality.

Rhode is a Pulizter-prize winning journalist and his skill in writing and narrating isn't entirely lost in this dull, occasionally self-indulgent memoir/expose/snoozefest. Mulvihill's presence in the book adds an element of vacuous tedium, the voice of a powerless woman who spends her time pining for her husband with a ticking biological clock and a career built on the vanity and materialism of other vapid, dull women. Her portions of the book made me long for the riveting plots of Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer where his sections of the book reminded me of that dull history professor with a penchant for including family stories in his lectures.

I'd place this book in a category with Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea and that's a far better read.

Mockingjay

The last of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay is the weakest of the three books. Katniss and Peeta return to the arena, slated to fight to the death against other victors yet again. This time there's a rebellion underfoot and a handful of the victors escape the arena to stoke the flames of revolution. Peeta, however, is captured by the capital and thus, we have angst as Katniss and Gale team up to rescue Peeta from the clutches of the evil capitol, as Katniss takes her role in a manicured broadcast of rebellion. It's a very odd take on revolution and propaganda and unlike the empowered girl of the first two books, Katniss comes across very much as bumbling, meandering, powerless token of forces beyond her control. Her actions in this book seem fairly useless and ultimately contrived by those around her for their own benefit. After plowing through the first two books, I found this one something of a let down. And I hated what Collins did to Peeta. Sadistic bitch.

At any rate, after you've gone through the first two books, you really have to finish the third. And if you're into melodrama, you may enjoy it.

Catching Fire

The second of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, picks up where The Hunger Games left off, with Katniss and Peeta as celebrated victors of the sadistic games. Katniss learns that they've inspired a rebellion among the districts against the oppressive rule of the Capital and that she has become the heroine of the rebels. She's also discovered that her best friend, Gale, has romantic feelings for her, creating an anticipated but groan-worthy love triangle for the remainder of the series.

Catching Fire manages to maintain the momentum and interest of The Hunger Games. The world that Collins has created is cruel and gory; it has all the elements to appeal to its target audience, vicious, blood-thirsty, romance-starved teenage girls and their adult counterparts. I liked it. The whole series is worth a go.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

In her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, writer Rebecca Skloot cleverly weaves a tale of scientific discovery with the story of a poor black woman who died of cancer in the 1950's. That woman was Henrietta Lacks, the body behind a cultured line of cells named HeLa that have done everything from traveling to outer space to playing an integral role in the development of the polio vaccine.

Skloot takes us through Lacks' childhood as a member of a poor, black sharecropping Southerner to her move to Baltimore where her husband found work in the steel factory during WWII. Her philandering husband most likely gave her the HPV that precipitated her cervical cancer, a slice of which ultimately became the first line of cells to be successfully cultured for experimentation. Her family had no idea that Lacks' cells were being used in this manner and eventually, when they did learn of it, they ultimately lacked the education to understand what a significant contribution to science the cells had made.

This is a story about science and about a poor black family, full of ignorance and tainted by poverty and illness even before birth. We may all be born equal in the eyes of the law, but Lacks' children were born touched by syphilis, with the accompanying impacts on IQ and competence. This narrative is both heartbreaking and stunningly effective in demonstrating the ethical dilemmas of research medicine, particularly when subjects are impoverished or unable to comprehend the implications of their participation. From a woman who doesn't understand the basic mechanics of cellular structure to researchers performing some of the most consequential and advanced cytological studies, Skloot manages to weave a true history of the women behind the cells, her descendants and the paradoxical centrality and irrelevance of their family to science.

Fascinating book. I highly recommend it.

The Price of Everything

Eduardo Porter's bestseller, The Price of Everything, is an economic exploration along the lines of Freakonomics, only not quite as interesting. That's not to say it's a bad book, just that if you only had time for one, I'd go with Freakonomics.

Porter examines the price of everyday goods and services before taking his book on a more interesting path as he examines the price of concepts and institutions, like happiness and marriage. He employs economics to explain why polygamy fell out of favor, why religion has the potential to make rational sense and why the recording industry had to destroy Napster but may have gone about it in a stupid way.

Overall, I liked the book. If you're looking for some interesting dinner conversation, it provides some relevant, timely fodder.