In the Name of God by Cameron Stauth
In the Name of God is an epic book that describes a series of landmark legal cases that changed the way faith-healing churches operated. Faith-healing churches believe that God is the ultimate healer and therefore if they have enough faith they will never be sick. They won't go to doctors or take their children to doctors even if they're dying. Christian Scientists are the most commonly known faith-healing church, but there are many offshoots. In 1977 a woman named Rita Swan lost her son to bacterial meningitis because she and her husband were members of a faith-healing church. It devastated them both and that tragedy turned them away from faith-healing. But it also inspired Rita to fight religious shield laws that allowed churches to get away with what she considered child abuse and murder by allowing their children to suffer and die from common ailments that could be easily treated with medical care.
This book gives a brief history and overview of the Christian Science faith and how it's transformed over the years. The majority of the book focuses on The Followers, an off-shoot of the Christian Science Church, based in Oregon City, Oregon. After far too many children are dying needlessly every year in the Followers church, an insider named Patrick calls the police. He becomes a crucial informant to the police who rarely find someone willing to do what Patrick does by continuing to live in the close-knit Followers community, but working as a double-agent informing the police of sick and dying children. Because of Rita Swan's relentless work to change religion shield laws, the authorities in Oregon City are able to arrest the parents of 4 children who either died or were disabled because of their parent's lack of medical care. These cases shook up the Followers church enough to finally enact some long-overdue theological changes.
While this book is pretty long at 450 pages and the subject matter is not exactly happy, but it is so fascinating and horrific that you just can't put it down. It's truly amazing what people will do in the name of God, but even more amazing is when just one person stands up what can result from that act of courage. A fascinating book about when religion goes wrong and how a few people fighting for what's right changed history and saved countless lives.
A quote I really liked:
"The Followers were pleasant people, Lewman thought, but most of them seemed to be brainwashed. They'd forgotten one fundamental fact: Freedom of religion must include freedom within a religion - freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and the freedom to follow your conscience - or it's not a religion at all." (p. 48)
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan (Books & Banter book club)
I was really looking forward to reading this one, but it was disappointing. The actual story is really interesting and unique, but the way the book is structured makes for frustrating reading (for me anyway). Each chapter has about a page or so from different women who lived and worked at Oak Ridge and following each chapter was a few pages about the history of splitting atoms and understanding atomic energy. The pages about atomic energy could be hard to follow and were very technical. I enjoyed the women's stories, but because you got so little from each woman in each chapter it was hard to remember who was who and keep their stories straight.
The two biggest things I got from this book was how incredibly secretive this whole operation was and how that could almost never happen today. And how many of the women agreed to jobs where they didn't know where it was, what they were doing, who they were working for, etc. and yet they signed up in droves! And it never occurred to many of them to ever question anything - not how most women are today for sure. Overall, the story was interesting and I did like aspects of the book, but thought the book was overly detailed and it could be hard to keep each woman's story straight.
A few quotes I liked:
"The Project liked high school girls, especially those from rural backgrounds. Recruiters sought them out relentlessly, feeling young women were easy to instruct. They did what they were told. They weren't overly curious. If you tell a young woman of 18 from a small-town background to do something, she'll do it, no questions asked. Educated women and men, people who had gone to college and learned just enough to think that they might 'know' something, gave you problems. The Project scoured the countryside of Tennessee and beyond looking for recent graduates." (p. 69)
"There had been plans for an entire Negro Village, one that would have resembled the main Townsite with construction like the white homes, separate but essentially equal. But as housing became limited throughout CEW in 1943, it was decided that the Negro Village would become East Village - for whites. Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw, who was in charge of the program, explained why. Negroes didn't want nice houses, he wrote. His office had received virtually no applications for the village. The negroes felt more comfortable in the huts, that was what was familiar to them - or so went Crenshaw's rationale...The hutments remained, no matter one's marital status, earnings, or seniority, the only housing for black workers." (p. 91)
"The Project probably never saw this coming. The government wasn't interested in social experiments, didn't give a second thought to the cultural-anthropological ramifications of the world they had set in motion. The Project had put all the pieces in place: single young men and women from all over the country. Wives. Mothers...A bond formed among them. For those who chose to stay, there was going to be a community and family,planned or otherwise, like it or not. The military may have been in charge, but the irrepressible life force that is woman - that was well beyond their control. The only thing that would be temporary was the war." (p. 98)
"Over in the hospital, care had taken a disturbing turn for the automobile-crash patient HP-12, formerly known as Ebb Cade. He had been set on a new course of treatment not related to his immediate injuries: The injections had begun April 10, 1945. The first dose that was administered to HP-12 was 4.7 micrograms of 49: plutonium. Years later, a Dr. Howland would state that he had initially objected to the instructions he'd received to inject HP-12 with plutonium. There was no consent given from the patient to proceed with the injections. But he stated he performed them in any case, because he said he was given a direct order from his supervisor, Dr. Friedell. This was an order that Dr. Friedell, for his part, later claimed never to have given. Indeed, Dr. Friedell said HP-12's injections were administered by a Dr. Dwight Clark. This has never been resolved. The doctors made plans to collect biological samples - tissues, urine, feces - all of which would be tested for the presence of plutonium, to see how it would travel, how much of it would remain in the body, and what effect it might have on HP-12...As for HP-12's broken bones, they were not set until April 15, 20 days after the crash. The doctors felt it would be easier that way, considering the tests that needed to be done...The doctors had previously noted tooth decay and inflammation of the gums in the patient. So the doctor - Clark or Howland, depending on who later was relating the story - decided that in addition to the bone samples, they would remove 15 of HP-12's teeth." (p. 221-2)
"Early reports that the atomic bomb could keep killing long after its blast had subsided were dismissed by the US military as propaganda. The Allied occupation of Japan, from the end of the war through April 1952, made it easier to censor news reports. For this reason, both the Japanese and American public were slow to learn of the longer-lasting consequences of this new weapon." (p. 291)
"Ebb Cade was not the only test subject. It turned out that between 1945 and 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium, specifically: 11 at Rochester, New York, 3 at the University of Chicago, 3 at UC San Francisco, and 1, Ebb Cade, at Oak Ridge. Several thousand human radiation experiments were conducted between 1944 and 1974. In 1994, President Clinton appointed the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) to investigate these and other experiments funded by the United States government. Their final report was published in 1996." (p. 293)
"Once her kids were a bit older, Dot took a job at the museum [of Atomic Energy in Oak Ridge] as a docent. She had enjoyed it at first, being able to share the work she had done as a cubical operator. Veterans and civilians alike were proud of their contributions to World War II. Why shouldn't she be?...But one woman in particular strode up to Dot, glaring, and asked, 'Aren't you ashamed you helped build a bomb that killed all those people?' The truth was, Dot did have conflicting feelings. There was sadness at the loss of life, yes, but that wasn't the only thing she felt. They had all been so happy, so thrilled, when the war ended. Didn't any of these people remember that? And yes, Oak Ridgers felt horrible when they saw the pictures of the aftermath in Japan. Relief. Fear. Joy. Sadness. Decades later, how could she explain this to someone who hadn't lived through that war, let alone in Oak Ridge? Dot knew the woman wanted a simple answer, so she gave her one. 'Well,' she said, 'they killed my brother.'" (p. 304-5)
All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner
Allison Weiss has a perfect looking life - she loves her husband, they have a huge beautiful home outside Philadelphia, she has a smart and beautiful 5-year-old daughter, and her "on the side" blog has become incredibly successful. So why does she feel like she's drowning? When Allison hurts her back at the gym her doctor prescribes Vicodin she describes it "like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where everything goes from black-and-white to color." And from that moment on she begins to rely more and more on the pills to get her through the day. Soon she is quickly going through a 30 day supply in half that time, then a week, then a few days. Allison thinks no one notices anything different about her, but her friends and family see her change. When she has an incident at her daughter's school, her husband steps in and demands she go to rehab. But, someone like Allison doesn't need rehab - she's not using illegal drugs and isn't prostituting herself to pay for a fix. She decides to "fake it" to get through rehab so she can get back to her life. But, will she be able to "fake it" or will she really turn her life around?
Jennifer Weiner does an excellent job portraying a "normal" woman's slip into prescription pill addiction. This is another fantastic book by one of my favorite authors.
Unlikely Heroes by Jennifer Holland
This is another great collaboration of animal stories. Instead of animal friendships like the previous books, this one is a collection of stories about animals that acted in heroic ways. The book is divided into 3 sections - Superheroes, Everyday Heroes, Big-Picture Heroes. There are some really great stories and if you're an animal lover you will love this book! Each story is only a few pages and includes lots of pictures, so it's a really quick read. Another great collection from Jennifer Holland!
Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them by Isaac Fitzgerald
I was disappointed with this book. I love tattoos and hearing the stories behind them, so I thought this would be a really interesting book. One of the authors explains the artwork in the book as "A tattoo, whether an ornate full back piece or a scratcher job done in somebody's living room, is art. A photograph of a tattoo never quite captures it; here, art represents art, art representing stories, stories representing life." (p. x) So each story is a drawing of a person and their tattoo(s). Some of the stories are for older, first tattoos, so a photograph might not do it justice, but that's what I would have rather seen. Some of the stories were interesting, but some were just a line or two without much of a story. Overall, it was disappointing and I wouldn't recommend it.
Swimming in the Moon by Pamela Schoenewaldt
This was a unique book that captured a definitive time in America's history. In 1905 Lucia is living in Italy with her mother, Teresa, as servants in the villa of a Count. Teresa can be "difficult" and "moody" so from a young age Lucia learns how to help calm her mother down. But, one day Teresa goes too far and attacks the Count, a fellow servant helps them escape to America. In America Teresa and Lucia find a life of factory drudgery awaits them, until Teresa's voice is discovered by a vaudeville producer. Soon she is travelling all over the US as a vaudeville act while Lucia stays in Cleveland to finish high school. But, all too soon Teresa's demons catch up with her and she has a nervous breakdown. Lucia must give up her dream of college to care for her mentally ill mother. Will Lucia ever break the cycle of poverty and live the American Dream?
My only complaint about the book was that the first half was pretty slow and while a LOT happens in the second half everything wraps up a little too neatly for Lucia. I do think the overall picture of immigrant life in America seemed pretty accurate and Lucia's struggles seem realistic too. The author also does a good job of incorporating labor issues and reform pretty seamlessly into the storyline. Overall, a good but not great book.
