You've Read That? Now Read This: The Family Gene

You’ve Read That?

Many times while I am reading I will find a similarity or connection to a book I have already read. It might be the same topic, but sometimes it's something not as easy to pinpoint.  I'm highlighting three books I think readers will enjoy based on their experience with a certain book.  

This week I am featuring The Family Gene: A Mission to Turn My Deadly Inheritance Into A Hopeful Future by Joselin Linder

Linder's book begins with her explaining her father's death after a long and mysterious illness.  Although at the time no one in her family connected any dots, an uncle also died of a mysterious illness as did her great-grandmother.

In her twenties Linder's legs and feet began to swell and she starts to look at her father's medical charts to see if there is a connection.  What she, and a team of experts, discovers is that her family carries a genetic mutation, which is allowing researchers an up close look at genomic medicine, and also a chance to try and help those battling these symptoms

This was an easy read, more of a memoir than a dry science-filled book.  Linder does a great job of explaining things so that a reader without a medical degree still understands what she and her family experienced.  I loved reading about Linder and her family and felt connected to them.  This could have turned into a "poor me" story as well, but Linder did a great job of being matter of fact and even upbeat.

So, if you've read that....

Now Read This!

What We Have by Amy Boesky - Boesky's memoir shares how the women in her family died of cancer at an early age, and how she, at the age of thirty-two, decides to confront the killer that she knows is waiting for her.

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova- Genova's novels are known to be heartbreakers and this is no different as the patriarch of the family discovers he has Huntington's and his chidren must decide if they want to be tested to see if they carry the gene.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot- is a non-fiction book (soon to be a movie) about a poor woman who died, but whose cells have been used in medical research, providing some much needed information to scientists.  This book uncovers the issues of medical ethics and race and shares one family's story.

How about you? Are there other books you can recommend that would fit in with these four titles?