The El Retiro Library Book Group

Talks About Great Books!

Meets first Tuesday of the month at 10:30a.m.

Just read the book prior to the meeting! 

	I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron Tuesday, November 1, 2011 A collection of essays offers a humorous look at the ups and downs of being a woman of a certain age, discussing the tribulations of maintenance and trying to stop the clock, menopause, and empty nests.
	The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Her name was Henrietta Lacks,  but scientists know her as HeLa.  She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, 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.  HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.  Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after he death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent.  The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
	Half Broke Horses; A True-life Novel by Jeannette Walls Tuesday, February 7, 2012 A true-life novel about Lily Casey Smith (the author's grandmother) who at age six helped her father break horses, at age fifteen left home to teach i frontier town, and later as a wife and mother runs a vast ranch in Arizona where she survived tornadoes droughts, floods,the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy -- but despite a if of hardscrabble drudgery still remains a woman of indomitable spirit.
	The Unbroken: A World War II Airman's Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand Tuesday, March 6, 2012 On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Force bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared -- Lt. Louis Zamperini.  Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humour.
	Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Tuesday, April 3, 2012 Japanese American Kabuo Miyomoto is arrested in 1954 for the murder of a fellow fisherman, Carl Heine.  Miyomoto's trial, which provides a focal point to the novel, stirs memories of past relationships and evens in the minds and hearts of San Piedro Islanders.  Through these memories, Guterson illuminates the grief of loss, the sting of prejudice triggered by World War II, ad the imperatives of conscience.  With mesmerizing clarity he conveys the voices of Kabuo's wife, Hatsue, and Ishmael Chambers, Hatsue's first love who, having suffered the loss of her love and the ravages of war, ages into a cynical journalist now covering Kabo's trial.  The novel poetically evokes the beauty of the land while revealing the harshness of war, the nuances of our legal system, and the injustice done to those interned in U.S. relocation camps.