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What Members Thought
The hubster and I had dinner with one of our favorite couples last night, and I started trying to describe why they should read Henrietta Lacks. This isn't my normal sort of reading in any way. I don't really love nonfiction. I have successfully avoided almost everything scientific (with the possible exception of medical interest stories and information) since undergrad. And yet this is a fantastic read. Cellular biology writ large, through both the science and the human aspects of what the fiel
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I started reading this early in the morning in the Syracuse airport. I read it on the plane, and those twenty minutes during the descent when they made us turn off all electronic devices, even readers, was awful. I got fifty percent through by then. Happily, I had nothing better to do for the rest of the day, so I kept reading, all afternoon and all evening. I'm not sure how I would have managed if I'd had to set it down! I could hardly stand to go to sleep that night, since I hadn't finished, b
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Important history of the woman behind HeLa, and well-researched. However, I was heartily tired of how all of the black people in the book that spoke were characterized as "yelling." Seriously, I realize that white Americans and black Americans may have different ways of communicating and expressing emotions, but everybody was not yelling all the time. Although this journalist really went the extra mile to uncover the story, the cultural divide shows in her writing, and it annoyed me to no end.
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I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book--science, sadly, isn't usually my thing, but this book was a page-turner. Skloot did an amazing job of painting a picture of this family and showing us what happens at the intersection of science, class, race, and poverty.
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Oct 30, 2011
Loretta
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
my-book-club-reads
Brilliant, beautiful, necessary book. I loved it, my book club loved it, and I am so pleased my invisible friends recommended it to me as I otherwise would likely not have picked it up, as I am still somewhat afraid of non-fiction (although improving by leaps and bounds).
Cannot recommend this enough. One of my tops reads of the year, and maybe ever.
Cannot recommend this enough. One of my tops reads of the year, and maybe ever.
I enjoyed this one - it took me a long time to read and I'm not quite sure why. Well, after the initial 'I have uterine cancer' fear it engendered(as far as I know I don't have cancer). A nice combination of history, science and biography and ethics and an overview of the progression of bioethics over the last few decadess as well as the family of the woman.
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Fascinating and well-researched account of HeLa and mid-century medical research. Reading this book is as depressing as it is important.
Dec 14, 2011
Corinne
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
economic-justice,
racialjustice
Nov 12, 2012
Cristella
rated it
liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
audiobooks
