|
The Big Read is...
...an annual event that begins in March and ends in May. Want to know more? Click here.
We have a winner for the 2011 Big Read!
Voters chose The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot as the book they want to read and discuss next spring. This book tells the true story of a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors. Her cells were taken without her knowledge and became one of the most important tools in medicine. While these cells brought in millions of dollars for researchers, Henrietta Lacks' family lives in poverty. This book raises questions about bioethics, privacy, economics, race, and so much more.
The other two nominees had strong support as well, making this one of the closest votes in Big Read history. Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, came in second. It tells the story of a university professor dealing with Alzheimer’s. The Color of Water, by James McBride, was a close third. McBride describes growing up in New York in a racially and religiously diverse family.
With the decision finalized, we’ll start planning a variety of discussions and activities to make the 2011 Big Read a lively event. Look for more details in February!
 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, c. 2010
Henrietta Lacks, an African American mother of five, was undergoing treatment for cancer at Johns Hopkins University in 1951 when tissue samples were removed without her knowledge or permission and used to create HeLa, the first “immortal” cell line. HeLa has been sold around the world and used in countless medical research applications, including the development of the polio vaccine. Science writer Skloot, who worked on this book for ten years, entwines Lacks’s biography, the development of the HeLa cell line and her own story of building a relationship with Lacks’s children. Full of dialog and vivid detail, this reads like a novel but the science behind the story is also deftly handled. (Library Journal) |
|