Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Thursday April 13th at 1:30 p.m.

Join fellow readers at the Library for an engaging discussion of Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee on Thursday April 13th at 1:30 p.m.

Mukherjee begins this magnificent story in the late 1600s, when a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences, and altering both forever. The discovery of cells and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ecosystem announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID pneumonia-  all could be reconceived as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. 

Filled with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling, The Song of the Cell tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. Told in six parts, and laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, a doctor, and a prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate masterpiece on what it means to be human.

Copies of the book can be found at the Information Desk as well as on Libby.

Click HERE to register.

Adventures in Classic Readings Sponsored by the FOL’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund:

Home by Toni Morrison

Monday March 20th at 6 p.m.

This reading group, facilitated by Dr. Laury Magnus, Professor of English, will feature great classic works — ancient to contemporary — as well as participatory reading out loud of selected passages.

Our next selection will be Home by Toni Morrison. 

Set during the 1950s, Home is the story of Frank Money, a Korean War veteran who has lost his memory and wakes up in the hospital in the States but receives a mysterious summons to return  to Georgia to rescue his sister, Cee.  She, too, has left the home she hated and did so at a very young  age.  Having returned to Georgia, she is working for a white doctor and is in danger of becoming the victim of medical experiments. Though considerably shorter than Morrison’s earlier novels, Home packs its punch through the interwoven stories of brother and sister as well as through Morrison’s stunning, powerful and provocatively beautiful prose. 

As usual, we will share our favorite passages by reading them out loud and then discuss the novel’s main characters, themes, narrative strategies and contemporary relevance. 

Copies of the book will be available at the Information Desk. All participants will receive a complimentary copy of the book provided by the Friends of the Library’s Ruth D. Bogen Memorial Fund (while supplies last). 

Click HERE to register.

Fiction Book Club:

The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

Tuesday March 28th at 7:30 p.m.

Join fellow readers at the Library for an engaging discussion of The Book Woman’s Daughter on Tuesday March 28th at 7:30 p.m.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good. Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive. But the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.

Copies of the book can be found at the Information Desk as well as on Libby.

Click HERE to register.