Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot






Genre: Non-Fiction


Pages: 345


ISBN: 9781400052189


Format: Trade Paperback


Rating: 3/5 Stars


Read: August 2011 - Work Book Club




I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would. This is about a black woman who had cervical cancer in the 1950's and the doctors took a sample of her tumor and watched as her cells miraculously grew (and continue to to this day). There are a lot of scientific terminology in here but it is not too hard to follow. I loved how Skloot really dug into the family and revealed a real person behind the HeLa cells. The best parts of the book of our when Skloot goes into the past and see the family and of how they felt about what was happening to the cells of their mother/friend/wife/cousin/Aunt etc.










We have all heard about HeLa cells but no one really ever thought behind it and really, who would have if it is not truly linked to us? I mean, now, reading the book, it seems like it is linked to everyone as a whole because of the things that come from it. All that research being conducted on so many different things gave cures and better insights to diseases and so on. HeLa cells have a enormous impact on our lives as a whole without us even knowing and Skloot's book finally gives life to what is such a great scientific history,present and future to us all!

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