I read this book nearly four years ago and wrote a mini-review on Goodreads. Here it is in its entirety:
I saw Rebecca Skloot on The Daily Show months ago. Her interview with Jon intrigued me, so I added her book to my “to read” list.
I’ve always been fascinated by science. This book is a great combination of non-fiction, science, and science fiction. Skloot writes in such a way that a person without a background in science can understand the impact that Henrietta Lacks’s cells had on medical progress. She presents the family as real people, not just numbers or faces. The Lacks family has been deeply affected by the knowledge that Henrietta’s cells have been used to find cures for various diseases. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until Skloot’s book was published that they received any recognition at all.
This book reads almost like a sci-fi novel; it deals with medical research but also the ethical issues of race during the mid-20th century. It is truly fascinating what science can do. Henrietta’s name needs to live on, just as her cells have.
About the Author
“Rebecca Skloot is an award winning science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many other publications. She specializes in narrative science writing and has explored a wide range of topics, including goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, food politics, and packs of wild dogs in Manhattan. She has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She and her father, Floyd Skloot, are co-editors of The Best American Science Writing 2011 . You can read a selection of Rebecca Skloot‘s magazine writing on the Articles page of this site.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , Skloot’s debut book, took more than a decade to research and write, and instantly became a New York Times best-seller. She has been featured on numerous television shows, including CBS Sunday Morning, The Colbert Report, Fox Business News, and others, and was named One of Five Surprising Leaders of 2010 by the Washington Post. The Immortal Life was chosen as a best book of 2010 by more than 60 media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, O the Oprah Magazine, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, People Magazine, New York Times, and U.S. News and World Report; it was named The Best Book of 2010 by Amazon.com and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. It has won numerous awards, including the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, and two Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year and Best Debut Author of the year. It has received widespread critical acclaim, with reviews appearing in The New Yorker, Washington Post, Science, and many others. Dwight Garner of the New York Times said, “I put down Rebecca Skloot‘s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time …It has brains and pacing and nerve and heart.” See the press page of this site for more reactions to the book.”
(from Goodreads)