Announcing January 2023 NNLM Reading Club: Year-in-Review

Posted by Kristi Torp on January 4th, 2023 Posted in: Blog, Consumer Health, Health Disparities, Health Equity, Health Literacy, Opioid Use Disorder, Public Health, Public Libraries, Substance Misuse
Tags: #addiction, #NNLMReadingClub, #racism, #YearInReview, genetics

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January 2023: Year-in-Review

As we begin a new year, the NNLM Reading Club would like to reflect on the past year. This January, we share highlights and even offer updates of past content by adding new, exciting resources to previous health-topic themes. We are open to feedback and are in the beginning stages of organizing a user feedback survey. One of our goals is to continually improve to better meet the needs of those who use our resources. The survey is forthcoming, but for now, please enjoy this year-in-review from the NNLM Reading Club in 2022!

For information on each of our three featured books, free downloadable book club discussion guides, customizable promotional materials and more, and a summary of our club’s 2022 highlights, visit https://nnlm.gov/nnlm-reading-club.

New Selections:

• “Her Hidden Genius: A Novel” by Marie Benedict is a powerful new novel that shines a light on a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA, a woman whose world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her but whose relentless drive advanced our understanding of humankind (Amazon). From Human Genetics: “DNA & U”

 

• “Take My Hand,” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is inspired by true events that rocked the nation. It is a searing and compassionate novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients. Perkins-Valdez is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Wench” (Amazon). From Racism and Health

 

• A recent release, “Canary in the Coal Mine: A Forgotten Rural Community, a Hidden Epidemic, and a Lone Doctor Battling for the Life, Health, and Soul of the People” by Dr. William Cooke tells the story of one doctor’s courageous fight to save a small town from a silent epidemic that threatened the community’s future―and exposed a national health crisis. When Dr. Will Cooke, an idealistic young physician just out of medical training, set up practice in the small rural community of Austin, Indiana, he had no idea that much of the town was being torn apart by poverty, addiction, and life-threatening illnesses. But he soon found himself at the crossroads of two unprecedented health-care disasters: a national opioid epidemic and the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak ever seen in rural America. “Canary in the Coal Mine” is a gripping memoir of the transformation of a man and his adopted community, a compelling and ultimately hopeful read in the vein of “Hillbilly Elegy, Dreamland, and Educated” (Amazon). From Addiction & Recovery: Community Health; Social Determinants of Health; Rural Health