In the month of July, San Jose Public Library will be hosting two Cancer Prevention Workshops with a focus on women over the age of 50.  These bilingual workshops

are about the prevention and detection of breast cancer and cervical cancer, as well as how you can take care of your health. 

Đến để học hỏi về các phương pháp phòng ngừa và khám phá bệnh ung thư ngực và cổ tử cung, và cách giữ gìn sức khoẻ.

Mặc dù lớp đặc biệt dành cho phụ nữ trên 50 tuổi, nhưng mọi người đều có thể đến tham dự.

En este taller bilingüe, las mujeres aprenderán sobre la prevención y detección de cáncer del seno y cáncer del cérvix, y los pasos necesarios para mantener su salud. 

Cancer Prevention Workshop for Women (Vietnamese/English)

Lớp Giảng Về Phòng Ngừa Bệnh Ung Thu Phụ Nữ

Berryessa Branch Library

Saturday, July 21st, 2012 - 11:30am

Cancer Prevention Workshop for Women (English/Spanish)

Taller bilingüe para mujeres, sobre la prevención y detección del cáncer.

Alum Rock Branch Library (Dr. Roberto Cruz - Alum Rock)

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012 - 6:30pm

If you are interested in reading more about this topic, you may want to look at some library books about Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer, and/or  cancer prevention. 

According to the American Cancer Society, About 1 in 8 (12%) of women in the US will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime.  The library is offering several informative Cancer Prevention Workshops this spring and summer.  Learn about the prevention and detection of breast and cervical cancer, as well as steps you can take to care for your health.  Workshops will cover topics such as:

•  What is cancer?
•  Breast cancer and breast cancer risk factors
•  Importance of early detection
•  Cervical cancer and cervical cancer risk factors
•  Preventing cervical cancer
•  Services offered by the Cancer Detection Program: Every Woman Counts

Designed for women over 50, these programs are open to everyone and will be held at the following locations:

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, May 20, 2012 2:00 pm Room 255
• Berryessa Branch Library, July 21, 2012 11:30 am (English & Vietnamese)
• Dr. Roberto Cruz-Alum Rock Branch Library, July 25, 2012 6:30 pm (English & Spanish)

In addition, Tully Community Library is also offering related programs in Spanish and Vietnamese:

• Breast Cancer Education Class in Vietnamese, June 12, 2012 12:00 pm
• Breast Health Education in Spanish, June 13 and July 11, 2012 12:00 pm

Join us for these informative programs regarding women's health.

NASA finds planet that is closest yet to Earth's twin. It is called Kepler-22b and it is orbiting a home star that is almost a solar twin, some 600 light years away. Kepler-22b's year is almost the same length as the Earth year: 290 days instead of 365. Read more about it on NASA's home page.

Cornell University and Israel Technion - Institute of Technology are going to build an applied science camp in New York. The 20-million-square-foot, 11-acre Roosevelt Island campus will incorporate green landscaping and will serve as a center for entrepreneurship and technology innovation to rival California's Silicon Valley.

Cupertino Teen Angela Zhang won national science competition and a $100,000 scholarship. "I created a nanoparticle that's kind of like the Swiss Army knife of cancer treatment in that it can detect cancer cells, eradicate the cancer cells and then monitor the treatment response. So the major aim of the project was to personalize cancer medicine," said Zhang. She conducted her research at Stanford University School of NMedicineSheSheShe conducted her research at Stanford University School of Medicine while studying in high school.

Okay for Now (AR 11.0, Level 4.9) by Gary D. Schmidt follows some of the characters in The Wednesday Wars (AR 12.0, Level 5.9). However, if you have not read it, you will still be able to follow the action! This entertaining book is for anyone who has been judged based upon their appearance or their family. If you look at the tags for this book, you will find that this book certainly has something to offer everyone.

This novel follows the life of Doug Swieteck, who was a bully in the earlier book. Doug is moving to Marysville, New York, because his father lost his temper and his job. Doug hates it in Marysville.  However, everything starts to change when he follows a girl, Lil, into the library and discovers James Audubon's Birds of America. He relates to the pictures and discovers a new-found talent.

Doug learns that a person's looks and associates can affect perceptions. When others first see him, they assume he is a hoodlum. However, Lil's friendship allows him to get a job. Slowly, everyone starts to change their perceptions until a setback occurs. Doug is once again wrongly judged. Find out what happens!

Despite an emotionally, physically abusive father, Doug is a character you will come to respect and love.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is perhaps the best-reviewed non-fiction book of recent years. In the official trailer for the book, the author, Rebecca Skloot, says that the book she started out writing is not the one she ended up with. And, fortunately, the reader gets to take this journey with her.

At first, the reader follows the author as she exposes an amazing tale of medical science and ethics. In 1950, doctors at Johns Hopkins harvested a poor, dying black woman's cancer cells without her knowledge or consent. Those cells, multiplied by the billions and used in labs worldwide, have led to an astonishing number of medical breakthroughs, from the polio vaccine to modern chemotherapy treatments. Some in the medical field became very rich from these discoveries, made under questionable ethical circumstances.

But the story turns slowly into a family saga, one filled with tragedy, loss, and longing. The author becomes entwined in the complicated lives of Henrietta's children and grandchildren. Henrietta was a sharecropper most of her life, and the family still suffers from slavery's legacy of poverty, racism and ignorance. The beauty of the story is witnessing how the family finally comes to some sort of redemption as they uncover, with the help of the author, Henrietta's incredible gift to all of us. Available from San José Public Library as an e-book, downloadable audiobook, audiobook, and in print, it is San Jose State University's Campus Reads Fall Book Selection for Fall 2011.

We have often been advised that chicken soup is the best aid when we have a cold. The advice is once more confirmed in the new book, Ah-choo!: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold.  Author, Jennifer Ackerman, participated in a research project and knowingly got infected by a common cold virus. She looked into the medicine and business of the common cold and made her findings interesting and accessible in this book. Here are excerpts from several reviews of this book:

“In the hands of gifted science writer Ackerman, the cold is addressed with dry wit while she covers every detail from soup (chicken, of course) to nuts (folk remedies)” – Booklist review

“In addition to detailing exactly how the virus works, Ackerman delights in busting the many myths, and confirming a few truths, that have been around for millenia.” – Mclean’s review

“It wasn't a hard-hitting science book, but Ackerman made the common cold a bit more accessible to everybody whether you know a lot about science or not. “ – Goodreads community reviews

There are several other health books that are recommended by reviewers as timely, informative and good to read:

Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie

“Pollution is no longer just about belching smokestacks and ugly sewer pipes—now, it’s personal. The most dangerous pollution, it turns out, comes from commonplace items in our homes and workplaces.” -- Product description.

“This is one scary book. Using a variety of test methods, the authors determined individual ‘body burdens,’ or the toxic chemical load we carry. The innocuous rubber duck, for example, offers a poison soup of phthalates that ‘permeate the environment and humans.’" – Booklist review

Goodreads community reviews.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

“This is a brilliant, riveting history of the disease that Siddhartha Mukherjee, a cancer researcher and physician, calls "the defining plague of our generation." – Entertainment Weekly review

“The eminently readable result is a weighty tale of an enigma that has remained outside the grasp of both the people who endeavored to know it and those who would prefer never to have become acquainted with it.” – Booklist review

Goodreads community reviews

Treat Me, Not My Age: A Doctor’s Guide to Getting the Best Care As You or a Loved One Gets Older  by Mark Lachs

“In this book, renowned geriatrician Mark Lachs takes readers on a grand tour of adult medicine, showing how we can navigate a complex and confusing system to make the best choices for ourselves and our loved ones.” – Production description.

“Here one can find invaluable guidance on how to pick a good primary care doctor, choose the best nursing home, avoid hospital system 'cracks you didn’t even know you could fall through,' and even stave off age-related illnesses.” – Booklist review

Goodreads community reviews