The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in Read by Theme

Mar 20, 2010 Christy Stewart rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, nonfiction, science, cripplepunk

Through no fault of her own Henrietta Lacks is the most important person where modern medicine is concerned and most people don't know her as anything more than HeLa. Skoolt did a fantastic job of telling the story of Mrs. Lacks and her family along with the journey her cells have taken. I was mostly interested in the science and politics of this story when I began but ended up falling in love with the family that by the end I was reading with a tissue clutched to my chest. ...more

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Apr 15, 2017 Kat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: udate, medical

I quite enjoy a bit of non-fiction occasionally, but it has to be entertaining. And honestly, going into this one, I was quite worried that it would be far too science-y for me - I hated science at school because I just wasn't interested.

But with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot has taken a subject and turned it into a far more emotional story than just the tale of how one woman's cells became the building blocks of modern medicine. The scientific / medical parts are written ...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Ubaidah rated it really liked it

As a biomedical student I had started using HeLa cells since my first year in University. At that moment I only knew HeLa as a type of cells that are used in Cancer study. I never even asked the question : where does this cells come from?
I really like Rebecca Skloot writing style for this book. It is full of new information, but since she wrote it in a fictional manner, it was not overwhelming at all.
I recommend this book to everyone since we are all somehow connected to HeLa. For medical sci ...more

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