CBR16 Book 59: "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou

Page count: 352 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 37 minutes

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: From a genre you've never read (true crime)

CBR16 Bingo: Fiasco (Theranos was a massive fraud and a fiasco)

I've owned this book since 2020 and am pretty sure I picked it up in an e-book sale because of the many Cannonball reviews I've read about it over the years. Not being particularly interested in the tech world or medical science, and certainly, not someone who reads a lot of business news, I didn't really hear about this case as it was unfolding, and I'm aware that there have been podcasts, a documentary and a mini-series starring Amanda Seyfried about the scandal, but this book was pretty much forgotten in my e-book collection until the Nowhere Books bingo required me to find a book from a genre I've never read.

Readers of my reviews will know that I have certain genres I prefer - romance, fantasy, YA, the occasional mystery or sci-fi novel. If I read nonfiction, it's usually historical biographies, celebrity autobiographies or something I need to read for work. Nevertheless, I like to challenge myself, so over the years I've read a LOT of different books in so many different genres. It was genuinely a challenge to come up with one I hadn't already tried. My husband suggested I look up subgenres of nonfiction, as it was clear that was where I'd find something that might fit the bill. When True Crime came up, I realised that would work. I know that lots of people find True Crime fascinating, but I just don't really see the appeal in exploring grisly murder cases or other horrific crimes. This book, which I remembered that I had on my shelf didn't seem to involve any murders, so it would probably not traumatise me too much. 

John Carreyrou is the journalist who wrote the Wall Street Journal articles which began to expose Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud and brought attention to the very shady business practices of her tech company Theranos. He later developed his thorough research into this book, where he details how Miss Holmes, a young and charming Stanford dropout managed to bamboozle the tech and business world for years, promising her company could deliver quick, accurate and almost pain-free blood tests with devices so small and portable they would be possible for the public to have in their homes. At one point, Theranos was valued at 10 billion dollars, without ever having actually managed to produce the testing machines or blood testing results they were promising.

Holmes was beautiful and persuasive, and clearly excellent at fundraising for her company. Along with her boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, who was COO of Theranos, they managed to perpetrate their fraud for so long by intimidating and threatening their employees, firing anyone who spoke up about their suspicions of underhanded dealings, and because very few of their investors actually understood the science behind what they were trying to do. Holmes was featured in a number of highly flattering articles, and the board of directors of Theranos at various points included several senators, former secretaries of state (including Henry Kissinger), a former secretary of defence, an admiral, and a general - all seduced by Holmes' promising tale of deception. 

Once Carreyrou started investigating the case, he had a hard time finding people willing to talk to him, since Holmes and Balwani made all their employees sign iron-clad NDAs and were fiercely litigious towards anyone they thought might be a threat to their company. However, Carreyrou were able to publish several critical articles, which again led to investigations into Theranos' business practices and inspections of their laboratories. The results were disastrous for the company, proving that not only were the test results their labs produced extremely unreliable and could endanger patients because of it, but they were mostly using equipment from other producers to get their results since none of the proprietary machines made by Theranos worked at all. They had not only misled their investors, they had put countless patients' lives in danger with their inaccurate blood tests. 

It was a fascinating story, and I will probably check out the HBO documentary and the mini-series at some point as well. Now, having read this, I can't really think of any genres I haven't tried at least once.

Judging a book by its cover: Some editions of this book feature a gloved hand holding up a tiny vial of blood, but my edition, and most that I've seen, have this fully black cover with the bold red title. Not exactly the most exciting, but the contents of the book more than might up for it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR13 Book 24: "Broken (in the best possible way)" by Jenny Lawson

Page count: 288 pages

Audio book length: 8 hrs 18 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR13 Bingo: Rep (features honest and sometimes graphic descriptions of life with a variety of mental and chronic illnesses)

 

It's no secret that Jenny Lawson, known online and to her followers as The Bloggess, suffers from a large number of ailments, both physical and mental. She has dealt with various kinds of chronic illness throughout her life and manages to be mostly very light-hearted and humourous about it. 

I chose to get this book in audio, because Jenny Lawson narrates her own books, and hearing her voice talk about all these frequently absurd, yet also occasionally absolutely heart-breaking things makes me feel closer to her. Due to the pandemic, this book was recorded in a closet in her house that she turned into a recording booth, which led to its own challenges, mainly that her cats didn't necessarily want to give her privacy while recording. At least a few places, the mews have been left in the finished book.

In contrast to her previous two books, I found this one a bit slow to get into. She also covers some really rather serious topics, and lets her readers in on some of the 'secrets' of a long-lasting and successful marriage, when one of the partners has as many health considerations as Ms. Lawson does. She is very honest about the tolls her depression takes on herself and those close to her, and one of the most affecting parts of the book is her open letter to her insurance company, literally begging them to fund essential life-improving treatments for her. As Ms. Lawson points out, in many cases, she's privileged enough to be able to afford some of them, but the vast majority of Americans cannot, and in a lot of cases, this can literally lead to deaths. 

As I'm currently struggling with anxiety and depression as well, reading about Ms. Lawson's stuggles certainly puts things into perspective. My depression is (hopefully) a passing thing, which will get better with medication and therapy. I'm never going to have to resort to ketamine injections or transcranial magnetic stimulation to live a halfway normal life. Jenny Lawson has shared a lot of her life with readers already, not only on her blog, but in two previous memoirs, Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy. Both are highly recommended. However, if you read either or both of these before, and they didn't appeal to you, this book won't either. 

Judging a book by its cover: With her third book, Jenny Lawson wanted to do something different with the cover, and the very talented Omar Rayyan turned a photo where she's holding one of her many cats into this brilliant depiction of her and the monster that I think is supposed to symbolise her depression and/or chronic illness. Or possibly just the weirdness that is her life. Either way, I love it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR13 Books 22-23: "Eg snakkar om det heile tida" by Camara Lundestad Joof and "Ikkje ver redd sånne som meg" by Sumaya Jirde Ali

Eg snakkar om det heile tida (I talk about it all the time)

Page count: 94 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Official book description:

I call a friend. 

Did the man in the bar call me a black b*tch when I didn't want to give him my number? That time we had arranged to drink beer, but we drank tequila instead?

She goes quiet.

No. He called you the n-word.

Thank you, I say. Thank you for remembering.

I talk about it all the time is a witness statement, an appeal and a personal examination. Camara Lundestad Joof is born in Norway, with a Norwegian mother and Gambian father. This book describes how the racism she constantly experiences infects her everyday life and controls her thoughts. She searches her memories. What if she remembers something incorrectly, how will anyone believe her? How many details do you have to remember to seem credible? Does she believe in herself? And can she ever be free of the question of skin colour?

Ms. Joof is a stage performer and dramatist who works with documentary stage shows and deals with intersectionality, de-colonialism, and the criticism of common societal norms. While she is born and raised in Norway, and her mother is Norwegian, she has faced absolutely staggering acts of racism for much of her life. This short work of non-fiction is a series of short vignettes, some only a paragraph or two long, some covering a few pages, where she gives the reader insight into only a selection of all the 

insults, slurs, prejudice and micro-aggressions she faces on a daily basis.

I read this essay collection as part of my job, as we Norwegian teachers were looking for short and engaging texts in "nynorsk", a written variant of Norwegian that secondary and high school kids here are required to learn. For those students who don't live in one of the geographical areas where the language variant is the majority written language, there tends to be a lot of complaints and grumbling, and getting the pupils motivated to learn and write gets harder with each passing year, as English becomes more and more dominant in society. Nevertheless, the excerpts we used from this collection certainly sparked a lot of discussions, and also gave a lot of our minority background kids a chance to talk about difficult and unpleasant experiences they, friends or family members have faced over the course of their young lives. 

While I was able to borrow this book for free through the school, I bought my own copy, as I was deeply affected by Ms. Joof's words and her understandable anger, sense of despair and just disappointment that despite not ever wanting to, she keeps having to "talk about" new racist and prejudical experiences all the time. While Norway is a wonderful place to live in many ways, we have a long way to go when it comes to dealing with racism.

Ikkje ver redd sånne som meg (Don't be afraid of people like me)

Page count: 92 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Official book description: 

"It's only now, as a twenty-year-old, that I understand how crushing the 22nd of July was to me. To my identity. I was thirteen years old, and I did not escape the political. I carried it with my entire being"

Sumaya Jirde Ali came to Bodø (in the North of Norway) as a child and was treated like everyone else, she felt that she belonged. In this book she recounts the carefree days of her childhood. She tells about the schock when she heard about the terrorist attack in Oslo on the 22nd of July 2011 and what it did to change her self image and beliefs about belonging. She describes the feelings of shame and self contempt, of becoming dehumanised, and the need to belong. We also get insights into what she does to counteract hate, keep her spirits up and stand up for what she believes. 

I read this back in April (yup, that's how far behind I am on my reviews right now) and it feels very strange to review only a few days after the tenth anniversary of the terrible tragedy that features so prominently in this little book. As a teenager, Ms. Ali, whether she wanted to or not, was forced to face up to the knowledge that Anders Bering Breivik, the white supremacist who ended up killing a total of 77 (8 with a bomb in the centre of the Oslo government district, 69 at Utøya, a small island where the Labour Party Youth Association were having their annual summer camp) did it because he believed it was wrong for Norway to accept immigrants like her and others like her. While this horrific terrorist attack was so shocking and devastating to the Norwegian public, this book highlights how much worse it must have been for people with an immigrant background. Ms. Ali came to Norway as a young child, her family were refugees, she didn't ask to move here. However, after the events in July 2011, despite a relatively idyllic childhood in the North of Norway, she very much did not want to stay here. She had terrible guilt, just because of her immigrant status and the colour of her skin. 

 

As someone not directly affected by the terrorist attack, it's staggering to me how many people had their lives irrevocably changed by it, and still deal with the aftermath. Ms. Ali eventually accepted that her family were not going to listen to her pleas about moving back to Somalia, and got involved in public debates and tried to make a difference with her life - which sadly has led to her facing a lot of harassment in public and online. Like Ms. Joof, she's had to have police protection on occasion, and she admits to now having several mental health issues, anxiety among them, because of all the verbal persecution she has faced. 

Both of these books are short essay collections as part of a series called Norsk Røyndom, which translates as Norwegian secrets. The series asked a number of prominent members of society from a number of minority and discriminated groups to write and tell their stories. As well as these books about racism and racial harassment, there are books covering disability, LGBT+ issues, religion in modern society and other kinds of otherness in Norway today. It's a very informative and interesting project and I suspect I will seek out more after seeing the high quality of these two books. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR10 Book 89: "Running Like a Girl" by Alexandra Heminsley

Page count: 242 pages
Rating: 4 stars

#CBR10Bingo: Not My Wheelhouse (the book is a) non-fiction and b) about running - neither of these things are in my usual wheelhouse)

I was at a bit of a loss as to which genre or book to choose for the "Not My Wheelhouse" square on the CBR10 Bingo card, because while I primarily read romance, paranormal fantasy and YA (especially at the moment), I do try to branch out into other fiction genres every so often, and while I don't read them as often any more, I wouldn't consider science fiction or mystery or general historical and/or contemporary fiction outside my "wheelhouse". I could go for horror, but that would have meant reading an actual horror novel. I keep putting off Locke and Key, vol 5 because those books freak me out a little and I'm assuming Joe Hill has something really bad planned for the conclusion of the series.

So I settled on non-fiction. I heard about this book several years ago and added it to my TBR list. I'd completely forgotten about it until I started looking through my unread books and the non-fiction books on my TBR list on Goodreads. I am fascinated by people who run. A close friend of mine, whose youngest daughter is about three months older than my little boy, recently ran her first half marathon since giving birth and set a new personal record for time. I've known her since we were both 15 and when she told me a few years ago that she'd started long distance running, I thought she was kidding. Before she had to have her hip replaced, my mother-in-law also used to run long distance races. Before they had children, my sister and brother-in-law used to run together, for fun (I honestly don't know if they do anymore, going to guess it's difficult for them to find the time with two very rambunctious little girls). It was completely alien to me why anyone would do this, yet so many people not only do it regularly, but feel better because of it.

Alexandra Heminsley's book gave me a lot more insight into the mind of a runner. She didn't start out as one, but eventually bored by gyms and yoga, decided to start training for a marathon and initially barely managed to run as far as a block. Ms Heminsley's story of how she trained and managed to complete her first marathon, even when she thought she was going to fail, then almost stopped running, but ended up running a second one and how she just kept going from there is funny, engaging, at times very moving and I suspect it might be motivating to some. She doesn't hold back on the challenges she faced along the way and the setbacks that made her want to give up on occasion. Apparently, her father used to run, and she recounts how she stubbornly refused to listen to advice from him when she herself started doing it, only to realise that she was missing out on a lot of good tips when she finally did relent and start talking to him about her new past time.

The first three quarters of the book is Ms Heminsley's story about her running career, culminating with her running a women's only marathon in San Francisco. She'd almost given up her training and her intention of going, until she realised just how recently, women weren't even allowed to run these races and found new inspiration to keep going. The final quarter is all practical advice to anyone who wants to take up running - which shoes to pick, how to select the correct sports-bra, other gear to get, how to get started etc. While anyone with two legs can run, it makes it easier if you have the right attitude and equipment and don't completely overdo it when you start out.

I would like to say that having read this, I now want to get myself a pair of running shoes and get out there to get fit, but while I have tremendous respect for Ms Heminsley and the other people in my life whom I know enjoy running, I am also pretty certain I'm not likely to start training for long distance races anytime soon. Swimming is still my preferred form of exercise. Completing a 5K race at some point might be fun though?

Judging a book by its cover: I am ashamed to admit that it took me not just a first and a second glance, but a slightly confused third, before I realised what the cover is actually depicting. I love the mint and teal colour (two of my favourite colours) and once I figured out that the white strips are in fact supposed to be laces, that the whole thing is supposed to look like the top of a laced up running shoe, I was rather impressed with the design. Before I figured that part out, I thought the white bits were ribbons or banners or something, which made a lot less sense.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.