Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Nov 04, 2011

Kemper rated it:

The doorbell rang the other day and when I answered it, there was a very slick guy in a nice suit standing there and a limousine parked at the curb. He started shaking my hand and wormed his way into the house.

“Mr. Kemper, I’m John Doe with Dee-Bag Industries Incorporated. I need you to sign some paperwork and take a ride with me. Don’t worry, I’ll have you home in a day or two,” he said. Then he pulled a document out of his briefcase, set it on the coffee table and pushed a pen More...

37 comments like (224 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Laura rated it:

Fascinating and Thought-Provoking.

Strengths:
*Fantastically interesting subject!
One woman's cancerous cells are multiplied and distributed around the globe enabling a new era of cellular research and fueling incredible advances in scientific methodology, technology, and medical treatments. This strain of cells, named HeLa (after Henrietta Lacks their originator), has been amazingly prolific and has become integrated into advancements of science around the world (space tra More...

7 comments like (38 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2011

Petra X rated it:

This is an all-gold five star read.

Its actually two stories, the story of the HeLa cells and the story of the Lacks family told by a journalist who writes the first story objectively and the second, in which she is involved, subjectively. The contrast between the poor Lacks family who cannot afford their medical bills and the research establishment who have made millions, maybe billions from these cells is ironic and tragic. It has been established by other law cases that if the fami More...

18 comments like (67 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2010

Liz rated it:

When I was a graduate student in the field of Ethics, one of my favorite pedagogical strategies, as both a teacher and a student, was the case study. A good case study can make an abstract ethical issue more concrete. A really good case study can turn a deeply contentious issue into an opportunity for thoughtfulness and compassion; right and wrong (to the extent that those concepts even belong in the study of ethics) are nuanced by descriptions of circumstances or values or human need that can m More...

3 comments like (55 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Jeanette rated it:

4.5 stars

There's something here for everyone. Some people comment on the human interest aspect of the story with regard to the Lacks family. Other people mention the cell science. For me, the most interesting thing was the history of informed consent, or the "Lacks" thereof. (Go ahead and laugh now at my clever wordplay. You know you want to.)
It's hard to believe the bizarre ways people's bodies were used for medical research, with or without their consent. Even w More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Mag rated it:

It reads like good crime fiction. It chronicles the life of the woman whose cancerous tissue became the first tissue in history which could be successfully grown as culture and used in various, and countless, experiments from vaccine research to cloning. Her tissue was so successful in fact that it became virtually immortal, surviving in various environments and proliferating at prodigious rates. Yet, very little was known about the woman herself, her life, her family, her history, and this More...

12 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2011

K.D. rated it:

I am not sure how is it in other countries but here in the Philippines, if you bring your car for repair in a service center and the serviceman says that he replaced a part, you how to do in you should find that replaced part inside your car. I think it is their proof that they actually replaced that part and also for you to decide how you want to dispose, resell, reuse or recycle it. Normally, this practice bothers me because I have a very small space for junks at home and I do not know what to More...

21 comments like (29 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2010

Jude rated it:

it's as if the writer wanted the story the way i would want it, and self-observes the arc of her own education the way i would, so the emotional style resonated at a profound level: a combination of passion, humility & fearlessness that makes me trust the her completely, that makes me grateful she is the person who chose this story - or that it chose her.

& then there's the story - the science. the race & class issues, the muck of medical ethics before patients were real people and bl More...

4 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Rach rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

My thoughts on this book are kind of all over the place. I feel for the Lacks family, I really do. It's hard to read about the poverty and lack of education and the cavalier approach towards informed consent in the early days of Johns Hopkins Research Hospital. The fact that the HeLa cell line is the foundation of so much valuable research is rightfully a source of pride for the family of Henrietta Lacks. I don't think they will ever see monetary compensation for their mother's cancer cell l More...

9 comments like (44 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2010

rmn rated it:

This is a phenomenal book. If it doesn't win every non-fiction award for 2010 than whoever votes for non-fiction awards should have their library cards taken away from them*.

The author, Rebecca Skloot, does a masterful job of seamlessly weaving in the scientific story of Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells and the effect they have had on medicine and medical ethics with a real human interest story about Henrietta and the struggles of her family. Skloot does this without coming across a More...

1 comment like (22 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2011

Jamie rated it:

3.5 stars. A good book about the famous HeLa cell line that has contributed so much to science, interlaced with the story of the original donor, Henrietta Lacks, and her family. Skloot objectively discusses the legal and ethical issues involved when research is carried out on tissue samples taken from human subjects.

Do you own every piece of your body? Should you be informed whenever a bit of it, however small, is taken away and experimented upon? Are you entitled to compensation if More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2010

Will rated it:

On October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a thirty-one-year old black woman, died after a gruesome battle with a rapidly metastasizing cancer. During her treatment, the doctors at Johns Hopkins took some cells from her failing body and used them for research. This was not an unusual thing to have done in 1951. But the cells that came from Ms. Lacks’ body were unusual. They had qualities that made them uniquely valuable as research tools. Labeled “HeLa”, Henrietta’s cells were reproduced by the billio More...

6 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2010

Khaya rated it:

I blew through this fascinating audiobook, practically manufacturing housework to do so that I'd have an excuse to plug myself in (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration; there was plenty of housework to do without my having to manufacture any). I would recommend this book to just about anyone seeking a great read -- even if you're usually more of a fiction person, this non-fiction book offers plenty of interesting characters and storylines as well as being informative and provocative in the way More...

8 comments like (15 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2011

Gail rated it:

This book is so great on multiple levels but here's two:

Level 1: It's just a fascinating story. Period. The birth of today's multi-billion (trillion?) bio-tech industry started with a few immortal cells that came from the cervix of one poor black woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks. Her family didn't know her cells were taken for decades. They never received a dime of all the money made off of them. As in, to this day. And that's a damn shame.

Level 2: Rebecca Skloot is More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 10, 2011

Dianah rated it:

This is an absolutely fascinating account of a line of cells that would
proliferate to such a degree that they became immortal. Shaved from a
tumor in a poor black woman in the 1950's, cultured without her knowledge, and grown to amazing proportions, HeLa cells would change the face of science and medicine forever. Pivotal in the search for disease obliteration, HeLa would prove invaluable because it simply would not die. Yet, Henrietta Lacks did die, in pain and obscurity, and her More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 15, 2011

Austin is currently reading it

This book so far is very interesting. It is a very good read. It has definitley contributed to my personla enlightenment. I have learned a lot about african-american culture in the 1950s. Also learned more about how far segregation went. This included all the way to hospitals. Only certain hospitals trerated african-americans. The hospital that treats Henrietta Lacks is John Hopkins. This is one of the few that treated african-americans. A lot of hospitals would not treat african-americans even More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Moonbutterfly rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

22 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 20, 2011

♥ Marlene♥ rated it:

Finished this book last night.
I did not know beforehand what this book would be about so when I started reading about cells and tissue matter and cancer I thought to myself. O no, This is not a book for me! The next morning I woke up and felt a pain and immediately thought "do I have cancer?" Yes I am a bit of a hypochondriac, I admit it. lol.
Anyways, I did find it very interesting cause I had the worst biology teacher ever (or maybe it was me come to think of it, worst pup More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

This could have been an incredible book. Henrietta Lacks' story is finally told--and Skloot makes very clear how important Lacks' cells have been to the last 60 years of science and, paradoxically, how much Henrietta and her family suffered because those cells were taken from Henrietta without her consent.

But in her effort to contrast the importance and profitability of Henrietta's cells with the marginalization and impoverishment of Henrietta's family, Skloot makes three really big More...

7 comments like (26 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Kate rated it:

I finished this book over vacation. Not exactly a beach novel, but an enjoyable read non the less, about Henrietta Lacks, her cells, her family, and medical ethics. I'm really glad Rebecca Skloot wrote this book and would gladly pick up another book from her in the future. Her reporting is wonderful and accurate, even if it is a bit exhaustive in certain parts.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Keisha rated it:

I think this book just changed my life.

This story is upsetting and unbelievable as it stands, but when you put it in context of time, attitudes, and other experimentation done on poor people, Black people, prisoners and more it almost makes sense. Many of the things we take for granted today and argue over- such as vaccines, gene therapy, cosmetics testing, cell research, medication, etc would not be possible if Doctors had not stolen cells from Henrietta Lacks in the 1950's.
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Ruth rated it:

This remarkable book seems as if it could only come from pure fantasy, yet it is an amazing and true story of one woman's life and how in her death she touched the world. It begins in the 1940s, telling the story of the life of Henreitta Lacks, a young black woman, barely in her thirties. Mother of five children and pregnant again, she sought medical help from Hopkins hospital complaining of a "knot in her stomach that hurt a lot". She was received in the public ward of the hospital More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Lanier rated it:

July 26, 2011 - Quito Ecuador
Finished this amazing book while stuck in Crack-Ass, Venezuela Airport!
Sad, but powerfully important read for all in scientific research, law, civil rights and other areas of interests.

More later, back to sleep....

6-24-11
page 55
Well written, intriguing ethical, moral, scientific debates that will hopefully be resolved sooner rather than later.

39—41
HeLa cells, stolen from a dying poor black woman of con More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2010

Leslie rated it:

I listened to this as an audiobook. What a fascinating story. I love how the author became intrigued by the story of the HeLa cells, and the fact that it took her 10 years to do the research for the book.
There are so many things to consider when thinking about this story: how far we have come in terms of treatment modalities for cancer, the ethics of medical research, privacy of information, informed consent, providing information to patients in language that they can understand. P More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Cornerofmadness rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 08, 2010

Katherine rated it:

Others have summarized the key points of this book better than I could. It's a fascinating story weaving so many different skeins, as it veers between Henrietta's story, the work of the scientists studying her cells, the fate of Henrietta's family, and the author herself.

A secondary mystery in the book concerns Henrietta's oldest daughter... what was wrong with her and what happened to her? When you find out, it's devastating emotionally - and also a damning indictment of the instit More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 16, 2011

Karla rated it:

I love the writing style of Rebecca Skloot. She made every part of this book interesting. It was hard to put it down. This book was fascinating! This is a story about Henrietta Lacks, her family, and the use of her cells for medical research.

The Lacks family had no clue that samples of Henrietta's tissues were taken when she went to Hopkins hospital for cervical cancer. Her cells were sent to Dr. George Gey, head of tissue culture research at Hopkins. At that time, consent was More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 03, 2011

Diana rated it:

The field of sceince is ever revoloving. Each day advances are being made that in some form impact our lives. However, these new treatments and advancements are usually just seen through an end product, a result; who these advances were tested on or how they started is rarely looked at. The people behind the science go unknown.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, weaves science, history, life and one family's anger and pain in one complete and well written story. You travel back in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Del rated it:

In this carefully written biography, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African American woman whose life provided one of the most important contributions to science in the 20th century. When Henrietta was admitted to John Hopkins for cancer treatment in the early 1950s, doctors took cervical cell tissue and were able to produce the first culture of living cells outside the human body. Those cells have flourished and still exist today. What's more, they have provided the b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews