Nonfiction Book Group
Many of us tend to get stuck in a reading rut - only reading a specific genre such as mystery or romance. Broaden your horizons! We'll meet three to four times during the year to read nonfiction books in various genres.
No registration is required. Refreshments are served.
The Nonfiction Book Group meets at 7:00 p.m. in the library's Meeting Room.
Copies of these books may be obtained through MeLCat (our interlibrary loan service) or by asking at the Reference Desk (351-2420 ext.111).
You can follow this group on Goodreads.com
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.
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 sixty 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 bomb’s 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.
Click here to see a list of past Nonfiction Book Group titles.
