Get Back Home
Event box
Virtual: Third Tuesday Night Adult Book Club Online
This book club will be held virtually, hosted by Washington County Library. This month's selection is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Summary:
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, 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. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of--From publisher description.
- Date:
- Tuesday, November 17, 2020
- Time:
- 6:00pm - 7:00pm
- Library:
- Hardwood Creek Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Book Clubs
- Online:
- This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
June 16: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
July 21: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
August 18: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
September 22: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
October 20: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
November 17: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
December 15: The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson
January 19, 2021: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot