Fiction book club to meet at Westfield Memorial Library

(August 17, 2011) – Start reading the book now! On Wednesday, September 7 at 7 p.m. the Fiction Book Club at Westfield Memorial Library discusses “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. The library is located at 550 East Broad Street.

From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory.

Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab.

Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of the stories of Henrietta’s family, slowly gaining their trust while helping them learn the truth about her. With their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --condensed from Tom Nissley (amazon.com)

The program is free and open to Westfield Memorial Library and MURAL cardholders. (MURAL cardholders belong to libraries that are part of the Middlesex Union Reciprocal Agreement Libraries. Check our website to see if your library participates.) To register for the program, visit the library’s website at www.wmlnj.org, click on the Online Calendar, or call 908.789.4090 x7951.

Founded in 1879, the Westfield Memorial Library—the community’s destination for discovery and ideas—engages minds, entertains spirits and facilitates lifelong learning for people of all ages. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and closed on Sunday until September 18.

For more information call 908.789.4090, visit the library’s website at www.wmlnj.org, and sign up for the monthly e-newsletter “Library Loop,” or stop by the library at 550 East Broad Street for a copy of the award-winning quarterly newsletter “Take Note.”

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