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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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion Questions
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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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
Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, 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
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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)
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion
Questions
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)
Discussion
Questions
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)
Availability of Library
Copy
Discussion Questions
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)
Discussion
Questions
