caoilinreads's review
4.0
Really well-written and captivating, it delves into our veins and explores our connections with the liquid that flows through us and keeps us alive.
weaselweader's review
5.0
It is always a pleasure to find non-fiction that qualifies as a gripping page turner!
If Lawrence Hill’s Blood were a musical composition, one might characterize it as a brilliant, free-wheeling and far-ranging improvisation on a single note – that single theme note (well, it’s obvious, isn’t it!) is “blood”! A couple of random quotations might serve better to illustrate Hill’s eclectic intent in pulling together such a disparate collection of essays. For example, consider this tidbit from the close of the first chapter:
“Blood, indeed, filters into every aspect of our language and defines who we are: in our emotional states, in our social ranking, in our state of innocence or moral guilt, and most important of all, in our relationships to each other.”
“Blood is truly the stuff of life: a bold and enduring determinant of identity, race, gender, culture, citizenship, belonging, privilege, deprivation, athletic superiority and nationhood. It is so vital to our sense of ourselves, our abilities, and our possibilities for survival that we have invested money, time, and energy in learning how to manipulate its very composition.”
and an excerpt of the description of Hill’s CBC Massey Lecture that formed the kernel from which he created Blood:
“Blood: The Stuff of Life is a bold meditation on blood as an historical and contemporary marker of identity, belonging, gender, race, class, citizenship, athletic superiority and nationhood.”
Racism; persecution, blood sacrifices and religion; the imaginative ways that athletes, their coaches and their doctors have devised to cheat in sports; misogyny, feminism and menstruation; blood diseases; tainted blood, homosexuality and blood transfusions; the history of the science of blood; blood in mythology; the cultural definitions of “being” black, Jewish or aboriginal; genocide; entertainment and the public thirst for blood and gore; the popularity of vampires in today’s literature – well, I think you get the idea. The breadth of topics that Hill touches on is almost dizzying in its eclecticism.
On virtually every line of every page, Blood:The Stuff of Life is informative, entertaining, provocative, thoughtful and – that element so often missing from drier and less well-executed non-fiction – it is compelling.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
If Lawrence Hill’s Blood were a musical composition, one might characterize it as a brilliant, free-wheeling and far-ranging improvisation on a single note – that single theme note (well, it’s obvious, isn’t it!) is “blood”! A couple of random quotations might serve better to illustrate Hill’s eclectic intent in pulling together such a disparate collection of essays. For example, consider this tidbit from the close of the first chapter:
“Blood, indeed, filters into every aspect of our language and defines who we are: in our emotional states, in our social ranking, in our state of innocence or moral guilt, and most important of all, in our relationships to each other.”
“Blood is truly the stuff of life: a bold and enduring determinant of identity, race, gender, culture, citizenship, belonging, privilege, deprivation, athletic superiority and nationhood. It is so vital to our sense of ourselves, our abilities, and our possibilities for survival that we have invested money, time, and energy in learning how to manipulate its very composition.”
and an excerpt of the description of Hill’s CBC Massey Lecture that formed the kernel from which he created Blood:
“Blood: The Stuff of Life is a bold meditation on blood as an historical and contemporary marker of identity, belonging, gender, race, class, citizenship, athletic superiority and nationhood.”
Racism; persecution, blood sacrifices and religion; the imaginative ways that athletes, their coaches and their doctors have devised to cheat in sports; misogyny, feminism and menstruation; blood diseases; tainted blood, homosexuality and blood transfusions; the history of the science of blood; blood in mythology; the cultural definitions of “being” black, Jewish or aboriginal; genocide; entertainment and the public thirst for blood and gore; the popularity of vampires in today’s literature – well, I think you get the idea. The breadth of topics that Hill touches on is almost dizzying in its eclecticism.
On virtually every line of every page, Blood:The Stuff of Life is informative, entertaining, provocative, thoughtful and – that element so often missing from drier and less well-executed non-fiction – it is compelling.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
caitie95's review against another edition
3.0
Well, this book definitely didn't go as I expected when I picked it off the library shelf!
This book isn't really a science book, despite giving the outward impression of it. About half the time is spent with the author waxing on about racism or sexism in some way. It is about blood, but more in a how it is seen in a societal way, and over time, rather than it's make-up and function (though this is touched upon).
It was interesting to read, if a bit random, just not what I was expecting. There is one thing I hated about it though. It mentions Harry Potter and claims he is a 'half blood' because his mother was a muggle, when actually she was muggle-born. Surely anyone who's read the books knows that!
This book isn't really a science book, despite giving the outward impression of it. About half the time is spent with the author waxing on about racism or sexism in some way. It is about blood, but more in a how it is seen in a societal way, and over time, rather than it's make-up and function (though this is touched upon).
It was interesting to read, if a bit random, just not what I was expecting. There is one thing I hated about it though. It mentions Harry Potter and claims he is a 'half blood' because his mother was a muggle, when actually she was muggle-born. Surely anyone who's read the books knows that!
tirapati's review
5.0
A great non-fiction read! Hill analyzes and discusses the importance "blood" has in society. From racism, lineage, family, sports, steroids and Indigenous rights this book makes you think.
Very easy read and easy to follow. Length is manageable and I read through this book so fast because it had very fascinating content.
Very easy read and easy to follow. Length is manageable and I read through this book so fast because it had very fascinating content.
lunaslabcoat's review
4.0
As I spend everyday at work analyzing and looking at blood under the microscope I was intrigued to read this book. The clinical parts were nothing new (for me) but very interesting all the same.
I loved reading the changing attitudes throughout history and reading some of the historical experiments and discoveries of mankind. I have to admit I skipped over about 20 pages devoted to blood politics.....to me politics bores the pants off me (I know they are important and crucial to life today, but there is just no way of making a dry subject interesting....IMO)
Overall a great and interesting read!!
I loved reading the changing attitudes throughout history and reading some of the historical experiments and discoveries of mankind. I have to admit I skipped over about 20 pages devoted to blood politics.....to me politics bores the pants off me (I know they are important and crucial to life today, but there is just no way of making a dry subject interesting....IMO)
Overall a great and interesting read!!
chelseycatterall's review
5.0
An extremely smart, heart-felt and genuine autobiography of blood. I thought this was brilliant!
lindsaysofia_25's review
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
I have no idea how Hill managed to use such pretty writing to create such an astoundingly mediocre book. I'm not even convinced it's about anything. Sure, it's ostensibly about blood, but what does that really mean?
So many topics are discussed, none of them given time or nuance. Blood is the only through line. I think a book with that structure could absolutely be done well, but this did not do that. I would like to read one of Hill's novels because I do see a lot of good writing and I can tell that he is a novelist, but I have absolutely no qualms giving this book such a low rating.
I found that there wasn't a point in splitting the book into chapters because each new topic discussed was just as closely related to the others within a chapter as it was to the topics discussed in the rest of the book, and the chapters tended to become repetitive. I feel like Hill expected this book to be read chapter by chapter with long breaks in between because a few things were brought up in multiple chapters and defined in almost exactly the same way, as if to someone who had never heard of them before, every time.
I also found that some things were just way too gory for a book that gives absolutely no warning about that type of content. Some descriptions given about various appearances of blood in history are definitely going to haunt my nightmares. Maybe that's on me for not looking for trigger warnings, but I feel like it wasn't unreasonable to go into it not expecting that kind of detail from a book required for a high school English class.
So many topics are discussed, none of them given time or nuance. Blood is the only through line. I think a book with that structure could absolutely be done well, but this did not do that. I would like to read one of Hill's novels because I do see a lot of good writing and I can tell that he is a novelist, but I have absolutely no qualms giving this book such a low rating.
I found that there wasn't a point in splitting the book into chapters because each new topic discussed was just as closely related to the others within a chapter as it was to the topics discussed in the rest of the book, and the chapters tended to become repetitive. I feel like Hill expected this book to be read chapter by chapter with long breaks in between because a few things were brought up in multiple chapters and defined in almost exactly the same way, as if to someone who had never heard of them before, every time.
I also found that some things were just way too gory for a book that gives absolutely no warning about that type of content. Some descriptions given about various appearances of blood in history are definitely going to haunt my nightmares. Maybe that's on me for not looking for trigger warnings, but I feel like it wasn't unreasonable to go into it not expecting that kind of detail from a book required for a high school English class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Murder, Rape, Islamophobia, and Slavery
smcarlson's review
2.0
As a social scientist this book frustrated me greatly. Although it contained a good deal of interesting and useful knowledge, I was still very disappointed. There was a much greater emphasis on racial categories, which are not useful categories, as they are based upon social construction, not genetics.