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What Members Thought
This book was hard to read, not because it wasn't well written, but because of the subject matter. It was well presented, but reading about cancer - tough for me - reading about exploitation for scientific research - also tough - exploitation of black people - incredibly difficult to hear, but so easy for me to understand.
The author did a good job and making non-fiction into something that could be read by all. Some say it wasn't scientific enough, I say it might have been a touch too scientific ...more
The author did a good job and making non-fiction into something that could be read by all. Some say it wasn't scientific enough, I say it might have been a touch too scientific ...more
I thought this story was incredible. First off, I love it when details of one book I read relate to another I read soon after, so the fact that Henrietta gets random treatment for her cancer right after I read The Radium Girls was really interesting.
The way all of these story threads came together really worked for me - the abuse of African American patients as research subjects, the way the cell research developed, the story of Henrietta’s children and then how the process of learning about He ...more
The way all of these story threads came together really worked for me - the abuse of African American patients as research subjects, the way the cell research developed, the story of Henrietta’s children and then how the process of learning about He ...more
This is a new classic book for those interested in history. Alternating between the history of cell growth developement and the history and the lacks family was a great way to tell a story like this. The way research took off and helped so many people while the lacks family struggled to get by. The only draw back for me was that I wish there was more scientific depth to the the history of cell culture developement and advances in medicine. This book has something for everyone. History, science a
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Amazing. Anyone who's ever been interested in or simply benefited from science and/or medicine NEEDS to read this book. So basically, anyone and everyone. Everyone needs to read this book. Fascinating, horrifying, thought-provoking. I read this on my Kindle and immediately bought a hard copy from Amazon, because I know I'll need this in my collection so I can go back to it, re-read sections, highlight certain parts, reference it, etc.
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Skloot did a great job weaving the medicalese and science-speak with the voices of the different Lacks family members. The frustration and anger felt by the Lacks' was palpable. There is a lot of information to think on and a segue into a book about the philosophy of medical morality would be cool right about now. If you know of one, please send a recommendation my way!
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Unfortunately, Skloot too often strays from the intended premise of the book and instead rehashes the minutiae of her own experiences.
outstanding and astounding...wonderful research, humanizes the subject.
Jan 08, 2011
Rachel
marked it as to-read
Feb 21, 2011
Heather (DeathByBook)
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2011
Susan
marked it as to-read
Oct 19, 2012
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Apr 19, 2013
Deidre
marked it as history-and-justice-tbr
Jul 05, 2013
Keriann
marked it as to-read
Sep 13, 2014
Jen
marked it as to-read
Jan 10, 2015
Linda
marked it as to-read
