St. Michael’s Book Club Schedule 2010
Meetings are held on Monday evenings at 7 p.m. in the home of Jackie Barrows
located in the Highlands at 41 Ridge Road. Since refreshments are provided, a call
to confirm attendance at 253-0462 is greatly appreciated. Please bring friends and
family members to broaden our community of friends.
June 21: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s, and is told
from three points of view. Skeeter, an educated and prosperous young
woman with no real plans for the future, is white. Aibileen and Minny, the
titular help who reveal their stories, are black. A young, white first-time
author — inspired by her own childhood relationship with her family
maid. — sets out to write a novel from the point of view of black maids in
the midst of the civil rights era. Kathryn Stockett's debut novel could have
turned out goofily earnest or shamefully offensive. Instead, it's graceful
and real, a compulsively readable story of three women who watch the
Mississippi ground shifting beneath their feet as the words of men like
Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Dylan pervade their genteel town.
July 26: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
When people think of the Dominican Republic in the twentieth century,
two words most often come to mind: Rafael Trujillo. He ruled the island
nation from 1930 to 1961. His dictatorship was defined by greed, a rigid
control over the Dominican people, and unspeakable brutality. But many
would also have people remember another history of the Dominican
Republic, a history of brave resistance and immense sacrifice. Two
different words come to mind when thinking of this history: Las
Mariposas, or The Butterflies. These were the code names of Minerva,
María Teresa, and Patria Mirabal, three sisters who were key members in
an underground movement to overthrow Trujillo. On November 25, 1960,
the dictator's men ambushed their car, and the sisters were beaten to
death. Since that time, they have become symbols of courage, dignity, and
strength in their country.
September 27: The Queen Mother by William Shawcross
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II,
grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of
the twentieth century.
St. Michael’s Book Club Schedule 2010
October 25: Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was
a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave
ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the
most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown
in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more
than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale,
they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred
Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio
vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom
bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization,
cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the
billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an
unmarked grave.
Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the
“colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white
laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying
hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith
healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and
grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells
November 29: The third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 by
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot.
This is a chapter in life when the traditional norms, rules, and rituals of
our careers seem less encompassing and restrictive; when many women
and men seem to be embracing new challenges and searching for greater
meaning in life.
In "The Third Chapter, "the renowned sociologist Dr. Sara LawrenceLightfoot offers a strong counterpoint to the murky ambivalence that
shrouds our clear view of people in their third chapters. She challenges
the still prevailing and anachronistic images of aging by documenting and
revealing the ways in which the years between fifty and seventy-five may,
in fact, be the most transformative and generative time in our lives,
tracing the ways in which wisdom, experience, and new learning inspire
individual growth and cultural transformation. The women and men
whose voices fill the pages of "The Third Chapter "tell passionate and
poignant stories of risk and vulnerability, failure and resilience, challenge
and mastery, experimentation and improvisation, and insight and new
learning.