The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Meredith shared a tip "This will definitely get conversation going in a book club! Explores the difficult life of Henrietta living in rural America in the ‘50s and how her cells went on to help develop polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, cloning, gene mapping, etc. A true story of race, ethics and scientific discovery."

ashley_kate_292 shared a tip "As a woman in science, patient advocacy should always be a top priority. Her life and suffering has changed the modern medicine world because of her cancerous cells. We still find HeLa cells all over the biotech industry, and not many people understand the history of them. My heart goes out to her family who have fought so hard to be recognized and compensated for Henrietta’s contribution to medicine and science."

julie_zantopoulos shared a tip "Such a moving book. I read it in 2020 and it opened my eyes to a lot of the medical field and the relationship between African Americans and medicine/big pharma that I was previously ignorant to. Great read."

ALT11 shared a tip "This is the best nonfiction novel that I have ever read. The storytelling is unconventional with 3 separate stories that interweave together. When one part of the story starts to get heavy, it is interrupted with something new! This really keeps the story consistently interesting and you (the reader) on the edge of your seat 5/5"

ALT11 shared a tip "This is the best nonfiction novel that I have ever read. The storytelling is unconventional with 3 separate stories that interweave together. When one part of the story starts to get heavy, it is interrupted with something new! This really keeps the story consistently interesting and you (the reader) on the edge of your seat 5/5"

AbbyClose shared a tip "I absolutely loved the writing style of this book, it is multitasking in telling the story of Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and the author's fascination and discovery of Henrietta's story. I would recommend this book to anyone who even vaguely enjoys reading about either history or science."

cassandra_hamilton shared a tip "Astonishing account of the medical violation of Henrietta Lacks' cells in the name of scientific advancement. A good companion piece to this story is Medical Apartheid. Read!"

heather_8098 shared a tip "This book was excellent. I do have to say there was a lot of technical science in it but the over all story was well written. It made me cry, think and be thankful for what I have received in my life."

caitlin_boucha shared a tip "Read it for a project for school but I reread it because it was so good. Such a difficult book to read but so important for an aspiring scientist, especially a young woman!"

anessa_bower shared a tip "I could not put this down. The incredible injustice this woman faced that was then passed on to her children was mind blowing. The medical jargon was very clearly laid out for anyone to feel informed and not confused."

kira_k_5900 shared a tip "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was incredibly written! It provides the necessary information while also adding little snippets of humor from Rebecca Skloot's experiences to lighten the mood. A little tricky for sensitive audiences, but overall a great read that I would absolutely recommend to science and history lovers."

evaah shared a tip "I truly Love this book I find myself rereading there is a lot of names scientists history and events science and a lot more. I recommend! It’s a book that I could read again."

michelle_estella_us shared a tip "It's so sad how people use other people that they deem less than themselves to make advances in the world without asking permission or giving credit or credit is to. I'm thankful this book has been written to give voice to the voiceless."

gracemnicholson shared a tip "Biographies are such an underrated genre, and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is most certainly an underrated book in this genre. Such an interesting, engaging read. I highly recommend to those into biographies, science, and women’s issues."

kerry_hill_6826 shared a tip "As biology/science major in college and years working in pharmaceutical field, this book was fascinating to learn the historical significance of HELA cells. What a profound legacy Lacks has left on our world."

ashley_mcmullen shared a tip "Loved this book. A very important, little known story about a woman whose cells literally went on to create a polio vaccine and the HPV vaccine. And it happened in MD, in an area I know well!"

rhonda_buzanowski shared a tip "Blows my mind how people and there biological "waste" is exploited. In the end she did get recognition, i was reading a science/biology paper the other day that referenced HeLa cells, just shameful she wasnt around to know all the amazing things her cells have done."

marcos_cruz_188 shared a tip "Hard to pick a favorite part, what I actually appreciated most was how the author intermingled the science with the human narrative of Henrietta and her family. Often times in the pursuit of knowledge we have processes in place to correct for our cognitive biases but often forget we are subject to our everyday human biases. In other words, Science's is not immune to scientists being prejudicial and we got a front row seat to how a discovery change the lives of literally everyone except those"

cera_7020 shared a tip "Phenomenal! Henrietta's cells are a legacy. How they were obtained, used, and sold provides great discussion regarding medical ethics and raises the question of what belongs to us?"

m.isnt.here.rn shared a tip "Looking for Academic Reading? This is not your book. BUT!! Here is a great story about the Women & Family behind the HeLa Cells and their revolutions"