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 as maudlin, preachy, overly technical, guilt ridden, condescending, or just plain boring.

She deftly weaves two legs of one story together, darting in and out with ease and keeping the reader interested in learning the science and caring about the people. She does this all while doing her best to avoid passing judgment or creating villains. Like a good journalist, she simply reports the facts of a fantastically and seemingly thoroughly researched book and lets the reader interpret them as they will.

In all, this is not only a terrific science book that is not afraid to tackle gray areas of ethics and leave them unanswered without getting preachy, not only a gripping human interest story with more than one human we are interested in, but also a socioeconomic look at the educational opportunities and struggles of poor, disadvantaged people across several generations of our country. Most of all though, this is a uniquely American story.


*Seeing as how Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed won the last Pulitzer for history, perhaps voters should have already had their library cards taken from them because that book was so bad I wouldn't even use it as a doorstop and besmirch the dignity of my door.