Reading Diversions Book Club 2008

This is a list of books read by the Reading Diversions Book Club in 2008. You can find many of these and more in the Scientific Library's Reading Diversions collection.  Please contact either Robin Meckley (x5840) or Tracie Frederick (x1094), if you would like to join the group or if you have questions.

• Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs
  Thursday, February 28, 2008, Conference Room B, Building 549

• The Family that Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
  Thursday, April 10, 2008, Conference Room B, Building 549

• The Ghost Map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world
  Thursday, June 5, 2008, Conference Room A, Building 549

• Never Let Me Go
  Thursday, July 10, 2008, Conference Room B, Building 549

• A Clone of Your Own?: the science and ethics of cloning
  Thursday, August 14, 2008, Conference Room B, Building 549

• Tears of the Cheetah : and other tales from the genetic frontier
  Thursday, September 18, 2008, Executive Board Room, Building 549

• Polio: an American Story and
  An American Summer
  Thursday, October 23, 2008, Conference Room A, Building 549

• Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It and
  The Last Town on Earth
  Thursday, December 4, 2008, Conference Room A, Building 549

Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs   
Author: Morton A. Meyers, M.D.
Description: From penicillin to Viagra, Dr. Meyers offers an entertaining look at the surprising role serendipity played in some of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century. (Source: Books in Print)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, February 28, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room B, Building 549
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The Family That Couldn't Sleep : a Medical Mystery   
Author: D. T. Max
Description: For two hundred years a noble Venetian family has suffered from an inherited disease that strikes their members in middle age, stealing their sleep, eating holes in their brains, and ending their lives in a matter of months. In Papua New Guinea, a primitive tribe is nearly obliterated by a sickness whose chief symptom is uncontrollable laughter. Across Europe, millions of sheep rub their fleeces raw before collapsing. In England, cows attack their owners in the milking parlors, while in the American West, thousands of deer starve to death in fields full of grass. Learn the cause of these strange conditions-including fatal familial insomnia, kuru, scrapie, and mad cow disease-in this spellbinding story by essayist and journalist D. T. Max. (Source: Books in Print)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, April 10, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room B, Building 549
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The Ghost Map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world    
Author: Steven Johnson
Description:It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure-garbage removal, clean water, sewers-necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action-and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in. (Source: Books in Print)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, June 5, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room A, Building 549
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Never Let Me Go    
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Description:At first this story appears to be the recollection of life at an exclusive English boarding school through the memories of a former student. The narrator's reminiscences of childish pranks, secrets, rule breaking, and friendships seem innocent enough. However, as the tale unfolds, it becomes clear that the school and its students are very different from the norm. In fact, the children have been created and indoctrinated to fulfill a specific purpose that results in the eventual death of every student. The narrator is reunited with two other former students in adulthood; as their destiny approaches, they begin to ask questions about their lives. The answer to those questions takes them back to the head of the school, who divulges the sad and awful truth. Ishiguro goes to the heart of an ethical dilemma. (Source: Books in Print)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room B, Building 549
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A Clone of Your Own?: the science and ethics of cloning    
Author: Arlene Judith Klotzko
Description: In a lucid and engaging narrative, Arlene Judith Klotzko, a bioethicist and lawyer, explains that the technology to create clones of living beings already exists. Inaugurated in 1996 by Dolly, the sheep, the first mammal clone formed from a single adult cell, Dolly was the culmination of a long scientific quest to understand the puzzle of our development from one cell into a complex organism--the outcome of a "fantastic experiment" envisioned six decades before her birth. The human fascination with cloning goes beyond science and its extraordinary medical implications. In riveting prose full of allusions to art, music, and theatre, Klotzko explains why the prospect of human cloning triggers our deepest hopes and our darkest fears and forces us to ponder what it would mean to have a "clone of our own." (Source: Cambridge University Press)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room B, Building 549
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Tears of the Cheetah : and other tales from the genetic frontier    
Author: Stephen J. O'Brien, Ph.D.
Description: Dr. Stephen J. O'Brien, Laboratory Chief of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at NCI-Frederick, narrates fast-moving science adventure stories that explore the mysteries of survival among the earth's most endangered and beloved wildlife. Here we uncover the secret histories of exotic species such as Indonesian orangutans, humpback whales, and the imperiled cheetah-the world's fastest animal which nonetheless cannot escape its own genetic weaknesses. Among these genetic detective stories we also discover how the Serengeti lions have lived with FIV (the feline version of HIV), where giant pandas really come from, how bold genetic action pulled the Florida panther from the edge of extinction, how the survivors of the medieval Black Death passed on a genetic gift to their descendents, and how mapping the genome of the domestic cat solved a murder case in Canada. (Source: Books in Print)
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Executive Board Room, Building 549
Author Talk: Monday, September 22, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Auditorium, Building 549
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Topic: Polio
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, October 23, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room A, Building 549

Non-fiction Option: Polio: an American Story    
Author: David M. Oshinsky
Description: This book, which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History, "tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines -- and beyond." (Source: Books in Print)
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Fiction Option: An American Summer    
Author: Frank Deford
Description: Set in 1955, this touching novel is told through the voice of 14-year-old Christy Banister, a sweet, slightly naive young boy who is new to his Baltimore neighborhood and in need of guidance as he makes his way through adolescence. At the start of the summer, Christy meets 23-year-old Kathryn Slade. Once a beautiful young woman, Kathryn is now a quadriplegic after a battle with polio that nearly cost her life when she was 17. However, despite Kathryn's physical limitations, she and Christy develop a strong friendship. The friendship, wisdom and vitality bestowed by Kathryn serve as a guiding light to Christy, as he struggles with familial betrayal. At the same time, Christy helps to give Kathryn new joy and six weeks of hope. (Source: Books in Print)
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Topic: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
Meeting Date and Location: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference Room A, Building 549

Non-fiction Option: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It    
Author: Gina Kolata
Description: In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, delves into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease. Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it. (Source: Books in Print)
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Fiction Option: The Last Town on Earth    
Author: Thomas Mullen
Description: Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, "The Last Town on Earth" is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval. Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town' s founder, it is a haven in another sense- as the first place in his life he' s had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly illness striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities. When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired- and apparently ill- soldier presents himself at the town' s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value- love, patriotism, community, family, friendship- not to mention the town' s very survival, is imperiled. (Source: Books in Print)
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