It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

I'm reading: 

Something from my review pile!

TITLE: The Woman in Cabin 10

AUTHOR: Ruth Ware 

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Canada

PUBLICATION DATE: January 3, 2017

FORMAT: Paperback

LENGTH: 352 pages

GENRE: Mystery

ISBN: 9781501151774

From New York Times bestselling author of the “twisty-mystery” (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.

In this tightly wound story, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read.

I'm still listening to:

Another one from the library, which has been on my TBR list for a long time.

TITLE: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

AUTHOR: Rebecca Skloot

NARRATORS: Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin

PUBLISHER: Random House Audio

PUBLICATION DATE: February 2, 2010

FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook

LENGTH: 12 hrs and 30 mins 

GENRE: Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells, taken without her knowledge, became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first immortal human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years.

If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons - as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings.

HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bombs effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now, Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the colored ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henriettas small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta's family did not learn of her immortality until more than 20 years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family, past and present, is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

I just finished:

TITLE: Death of a Cupcake Queen

SERIES: Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, Book #6
AUTHOR: Lee Hollis 

PUBLISHER: Kensington

PUBLICATION DATE: May 26, 2015

FORMAT: Paperback

LENGTH: 315 pages

GENRE: Mystery/Cozy Mystery

ISBN: 9780758294531

As the food and cocktails columnist for the Island Times, Hayley Powell attends a lot of events—but this one will be murder…

On the eve of her high school reunion, Hayley dreads seeing the trio of mean girls who used to torment her: Sabrina Merryweather, Nykki Temple, and former prom queen Ivy Foster. These days Ivy wears a different crown as the cupcake queen—and flaunting her success is just the icing on the cake.

But maybe the prom queen should have been voted Most Likely to Die. At the reunion, Ivy is found murdered, cupcakes scattered around her. Is a killer out to teach the mean girls a lesson? As Hayley tries to get the scoop, she’ll have to be careful…or someone may be writing this columnist’s obituary next.

Includes seven delectable recipes from Hayley’s kitchen!

TITLE: The Joy Luck Club

AUTHOR: Amy Tan 

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons

PUBLICATION DATE: March 22, 1989

FORMAT: Hardcover

LENGTH: 288 pages

GENRE: Classics, Cultural/China, Contemporary

ISBN: 9780399134203

In 1949 four Chinese women-drawn together by the shadow of their past-begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died, and her daughter has come to take her place, only to learn of her mother's lifelong wish-and the tragic way in which it has come true.

The revelation of this secret unleashes an urgent need among the women to reach back and remember…

TITLE: A Child's Christmas in Wales

AUTHOR: Dylan Thomas 

ILLUSTRATOR: Trina Schart Hyman
PUBLISHER: Holiday House

PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 1985 (first published 1952)

FORMAT: Hardcover

LENGTH: 48 pages

GENRE: Classics, Holiday/Christmas, Childrens

ISBN: 0823405656

A lost but not forgotten childhood is evoked in this nostalgic recollection that endures as one of the most beloved Christmas stories of all time.

Trina Schart Hyman's sensitive illustrations reflect the joy and magic of a special day in the youth of Dylan Thomas.

What are you reading? Have you read any of these books and, if so, what did you think? Please let me know in the comments and, if you are also participating in this meme, leave me a link to your blog post so that I can stop by!