Today's Mail Call

Normally, I don't talk about something as mundane as snailmail because I tend to receive bills, junk, bills, crap, bills and more bills -- certainly nothing worth mentioning. But not today: today was special.

Today was special because I received a book. A book that I had to sign for. Since I had to sign for it, you should already know, dear readers, that this is not just any book, noooo sirree. This is a special book; it is the new, hot off the presses "LabLit" book, Intuition (2006, Dial Press), by Allegra Goodman, that I am going to review here. The book is due to be released on 7 March, so this is shaping up to be quite a race: will I publish my review before the book is released to the public? Only time will tell.

(Incidentally, I hunted down this book after a reader tipped me off about its impending publication. The publisher was only too pleased to send me a copy -- by overnight mail).

As soon as I received it, I couldn't resist, I eagerly ripped the package open in the post office. A quick peek through the book makes me look forward to snuggling under the covers with it this weekend. The book is set in the fast-paced world of cutting-edge cancer research -- I worked in cancer research for two years -- and it focuses on four researchers; three women and a man. Wow, three women?? In the same cancer research lab?? I am impressed; cancer research has really made some progress since I bailed approximately one decade ago.

According to the publicity release that accompanied the book, Allegra Goodman, whom I've never read before, has quite an impressive literary track record, so I expect that I am in for a real treat (she won the Whiting Writer's Award, and her first book was a finalist for the National Book Award, for example). She also has a PhD in English, so I wonder why she chose to set this novel in a cancer research lab. Maybe we all will get really lucky and she or her agent will pop in here to provide some insight?