By Marcia Allen, Technical Services & Collections Manager

Lately we’re hearing about a great deal of local interest in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In fact, this newspaper recently ran Chris Banner’s review of that 2010 title.  Readers who have read the book know that on one level, it can be approached as the personal account of a woman’s death as a result of cervical cancer.  On another level, there’s the phenomenal extent to which her cancer cells have been used in the last sixty years to combat other ailments like polio.  On yet another level, there are the inevitable ethical questions about the harvesting and the sharing of human tissue without patient consent.  Perhaps it’s the last concern, the ethical treatment of patients, which accounts for so many strong reader reactions about the book’s contents.
I just finished reading this book, and I found that I really struggled to finish it.  It’s not that it was badly written or that the content was dry; in fact, the book was fascinating in a gut-wrenchingly painful way.  I struggled with the revelation of the many awful situations it conveyed.  The appalling series of treatments to which Henrietta, a black woman from Baltimore, was subjected (the radium implants and the heavy doses of radiation that she suffered) were shocking. The fact that various tissue samples (designated as “HeLa cells”) were harvested without the family’s permission during her autopsy, let alone the manner in which the samples were shared and later sold commercially, was repugnant.  And the gradual awareness on the part of the Lacks family that Henrietta’s tissue had attained a state of “immortality” was truly disheartening.
Why the local attention some two years after initial publication?
The K-State Book Network, the all-university reading program, selected this title as the 2012-2013 school year common reader.  Committee members made this choice based on the book’s variety of discussion topics and its easy availability in different formats, among other criteria. The university kickoff ceremony was held early last spring, but there is ample time to attend one of several book-related events yet to occur.
One such event is scheduled for Thursday, September 20th, at 7:00 p.m., in the K-State Union Ballroom.  Attendees are invited to share a visit with the Lacks family.  Another event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 10th, at 7:00 p.m., in the K-State Union Forum Hall.  At that time, guest speaker Yvonne Reid, PhD, Manager and Scientist in Cell Culture Contracts, will address the aspects of biological research impacted by HeLa cells.  Her address is entitled “HeLa Cells and Biomedical Research: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”  A third event will take place on Tuesday, October 30th, at 7:00 p.m., in the Hale Library Hemisphere Room.  The topic for the evening is “Speaking the Silences: Women and Race in Kansas.”  Each of these events is free and open to the public.
Manhattan Public Library is also hosting a related event.  The library auditorium has been reserved on Tuesday, September 18th, at 7:00 p.m., for a discussion of the book.  Dr. Irma O’Dell, Senior Associate Director for Administration/ Associate Professor of the School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University, will be the facilitator for the evening.  This event is also free and open to the public.
If you have not yet read this worthy book, you still have time to do so.  Manhattan Public Library has multiple copies of the Skloot book in a variety of formats.  Beyond print copies, also available in large print format, there are books on cd and a loanable book kit available for book groups.  MPL also has website links that will allow cardholders to download both audiobooks and ebooks of the title.
Again, this is not enjoyable reading, but in an age of explosive medical advancements and ethical dilemmas about sharing information and tissue samples, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a necessary reminder of human dignity and responsibility.  I would strongly encourage you to explore this book and to actively seek answers to your own questions about the contents.

by Susan Withee, Adult Services Manager

The long hot days from late July through August have been known as the Dog Days of summer since ancient times, when the proximity of Sirius, the Dog Star, to the sun at that time of year was believed to cause of the hottest days of the year and all the evil thereof.  This year our Dog Days have set new records for high temperatures and duration, causing us grave discomfort and occasionally short tempers, so this August especially is a good time to pour a tall, cold drink and read something short, light, and quirky.  Try something from this list of books that take unexpected subjects and make them delightfully entertaining.

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield.  For over 500 years the printed word has surrounded us, usually without our appreciating the artistry and graphic nuances of the typefaces we see.  With the arrival of the IBM Selectric typewriter and its revolutionary changeable typeballs in 1961, this began to change.  Suddenly, an ordinary individual was able to change the typeface on a document at will and creative sensibilities were piqued, although at the time our choices were limited to such sober typefaces as Courier or Prestige Elite.  Just over 20 years later, Steve Jobs marketed the first MacIntosh computer with a selection of typeface choices and suddenly “font” became a household word and the creation of new and more evocative typefaces exploded.  Now there are fonts for every emotion and message.  We all have our favorite classic fonts – Helvetica, Goudy Old Style, Albertus – and some fonts have acquired the stature of pop cultural icons.  There are even a few fonts – Papyrus, Brush Script, Comic Sans – that have caused the occasional online “font war” or have been reviled for misuse or overuse.  This amusing and enlightening book will introduce you to the social history of type design and the words we see all around us.

In Praise of Chickens: A Compendium of Wisdom Fair and Fowl by Pulitzer-prize nominee Jane S. Smith offers a sublime escape into poultry lore galore. A bright and sunny book of chicken history and trivia with excerpts and quotations from Aristotle to Twain, filled with antique illustrations and handsome portraits of chicken breeds, this small book is a summer delight.

In London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets, Peter Ackroyd, prolific author, historian, and biographer, tells tales of the thousands of years of history buried beneath the streets of London.  Underground rivers, forgotten prisons, buried monasteries, ancient sewers and canals, Roman galleys, Anglo-Saxon graves, hideouts, tunnels and shelters, creatures of the underworld real and surreal – all appear in their own time and context in this absorbing and atmospheric book.

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey.  If you’re a Person of a Certain Age like me, you may remember diagramming sentences on the blackboard for your sixth or seventh grade teacher (requiescat in pace, Miss Johnston of MJHS).  Diagramming was introduced to American schools in 1877 as a standard technique for teaching grammar and it endured through most of the 20th Century before being largely abandoned.  Sentence diagramming was a way to visually depict the structure of sentences, a cross between puzzle-solving and graphic design.  It was an illuminating and effective way to learn grammar and an oddly satisfying mental exercise.  In this charming and humorous book, author Florey revisits her own memories of sentence diagramming and the challenges, elegance, and clarity offered by this forgotten skill.

Good to Go: A Guide to Preparing for the End of Life by Jo Myers. What?!  A book about dying that’s quirky and light?  Yes, and it’s fun to read as well.  Myers offers practical advice and a basic template for preparing for the end of life, your own or another’s, with acceptance and love.  With chapter headings like “Making an Ash of Yourself” and “Let’s Put the Fun Back in Funeral,” this book offers reassurance and encouragement with tenderness and humor.