‘Lab Girl’ is Big Read Ozaukee book, kick off is Oct. 2

The Niederkorn Library in Port Washington is hosting the 2020 Big Read, featuring the memoir “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren.

Although the program generally includes a variety of face-to-face book discussions and other activities, the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing the sponsoring libraries to run almost all the programs online this year, Niederkorn Library Director Tom Carson said.

The Big Read kicks off with a 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, talk by Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Handelsman, who is a Vilas research professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor,  previously was an advisor to President Barack Obama as the assistant director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Science is the theme of this year’s programs. “Lab Girl” is a memoir of Jahren, a geobiologist, and is described as a celebration of the curiosity and passion that drive scientists, as well as a story of the friendships she finds along the way.

The book is an appropriate choice, Carson said, because “we’re in the middle of a science era.”

A limited number of free copies of the book are available at the participating libraries — the Niederkorn Library in Port as well as the libraries in Grafton, Cedarburg and Mequon.

Other Big Read activities are:

• “Citizen Science in Your Garden,” a Zoom event at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1. The program is intended to help people learn how to observe and document life in their gardens and include ways to monitor monarch butterflies, bumblebees, fungi, birds and seasonal changes.

• A take-and-make program, “Mini Zen Gardens for Adults” will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6. A free bag of craft supplies may be picked up from the Niederkorn Library by registered participants the week before, with instruction given via BlueJeans on Oct. 6.

 The class is limited to 20 participants, and registration began Sept. 15.

• A Plant Based Cooking Club will meet from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, at Cedar Creek Park in Cedarburg. Participants are asked to bring a copy of one or two favorite plant-based recipes, as well as a picnic supper and chair. Pre-registration is not needed, and the program is weather dependent.

• “Grow Your Own Herb Plants” will be held Monday, Oct. 12. Participants may pick up a planting kit from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day at the Cedarburg library.

• An online book discussion on mental health will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, and 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14.

The program, held during Mental Health Awareness Week from Oct. 4 to 10, is inspired by the fact Jahren suffered from bipolar disorder and discusses what it was like to deal with it as a female scientist and academic.

• Discovery kits for children will be offered from Oct. 13 through 16 at the Mequon library. Kits are intended for early elementary-aged children and their caregivers to work on together.

• “Science and Ethics 101” will be discussed online at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, by Elizabeth Buchanan, director of the Office of Research Support Services and a research scientist for the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. Buchanan was also the endowed chair in ethics and director of the Center for Applied Ethics at UW-Stout.

• A virtual discussion of women in science will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19.

• An online book discussion of “Lab Girl” will be held from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19.

• An in-person book discussion of the book will be held from 6 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20. The session will focus on the difficulties Jahren faced as a woman in a male-dominated field and one of Jahren’s central themes —”America may say it values science, but it sure as hell doesn’t want to pay for it.” Only nine people will be allowed at the discussion.

• Two Zoom book discussions on the book will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, and 9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23.

• An online book discussion centering on family and friendship will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29.

A complete list of events and registration options can be accessed at wjnlib.org/nea-big-read-ozaukee/.