I just got started on “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. Loving it!
I just got started on “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. Loving it!!
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Yes, it’s just amazing.
Great book!
Gosh, that one was depressing!
Depressing because of what happened to Henrietta, but uplifting to think of all the cures and medicines developed, thanks to the HeLa cells
If I am remembering correctly, not just her, but her whole family.
@Karen Yes, they actually found the same strain of cells in family members and have been testing everyone who can trace their DNA heritage to her. Of course now Hopkins treats them all like royalty
Good book. Sad part of American history
Love that book!
Fascinating book!
I loved this book! One that will forever stick with me
I liked it as well, but some fellow readers did not care it as much. It did drag on a bit but the story of Henrietta was interesting and sad.
What a story!
This book was so interesting and tragic.
One of my favorites!?
I read it after learning about HeLa cells in school. Amazing story!
Very interesting and sad story. Loved it.
Some of the best nonfiction I’ve read. I could not put it down!
It is wonderful. I bought thinking that it was more of a science book, but was surprised by the depth of the story.
I loved this book. It shook me to my core, but relished it. Tell us what you think when you finish.
That is a great one!
On my to read shelf in my bookcase!
Great book. So interesting.
Quite the story and very sad.
So good!
It took me months to finish this book. It was very interesting but also very difficult to get through. I did not care for Oprah’s version. It did not capture this book at all.
I am so glad I read the entire book. It is an incredible story.
One of the best books I’ve ever had to read for school!
Sad and frustrating, for sure. Enjoy!
What an amazing story. Oprah did a great job in the movie
Such a great book
LOVE
Very interesting book.
Great book!
Great book! Amazing facts!
Wonderful book
I am reading it for almost a year! I have to keep putting it down it’s so heartbreaking.
Excellent! The movie was good too.
Oooh, I haven’t seen the movie! Thanks for the tip!
GREAT BOOK!!!
Didn’t see the movie but the book was an eye opener
Amazing story, and it’s true!
Fascinating book. I didn’t really care for the film though.
It was an amazing and enlightening read
Really good, and so well researched.
Loved this story!
Such an amazing story!
Wonderful!!!
Excellent book.
Great book! And the. Author did well by the family
On my TBR list!
This was fascinating and I think it should be required reading in school.
As a scientist, I would love for all researchers to read this book!
Loved it!
One of my all-time favorites. I loved the mix of science and biographical insight.
An amazing story!
I have that on my summer reading list!!! A must read for sure.
Very interesting book any book tha leads to further research is a win. Great movie also.
Such a amazing story! ?
It is a wonderfully told account
It’s a fascinating book! Our Book Club at our RV park in Florida read it a couple of years ago.
Great book about a woman who saved so many lives even as she lost hers. What a heroine.
and she is still saving lives every day!
Great book. I still haven’t seen the movie because I’m worried they messed it up!
It wasn.’t great. You didn’t miss anything
They didn’t. The movie was honest and truthful.
Great book.
Sooooo good!
We live in Baltimore and many of Henrietta’s family members still live here. Hopkins has worked hard to make amends and honor her, and there is now a beautiful portrait of Henrietta at the National Portrait Gallery. The artist put many significant touches into the painting https://www.npr.org/2018/05/15/611389741/henrietta-lacks-lasting-impact-detailed-in-new-portrait . If you want another very interesting medical story, check out Partners of the Heart by Vivien Thomas. Thomas was the black lab technician who worked with Dr. Alfred Blalock as Blalock developed the field of cardiac surgery, including his pioneering “blue baby” surgeries. In the era where blacks served as janitors at the hospital, Thomas was creating the tools that Dr. Blalock and Dr. Helen Taussig needed to operate on infants and save their lives.There are portraits of the two men hanging at the entrance to the Blalock wing of Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Taussig’s portrait is also there
It is a great read.
I loved it too!
Such an amazing true story!
So interesting and informative, loved it
Great , eye-opening book.
So interesting!
It’s amazing!
excellent book
Everyone loved it in book club.
I just bought it, but haven’t started it yet.
It’s wonderful!
It’s a great book!
Excellent read.
Thanks for the recommendations – it’s now on my list.
Fabulous book!
Fantastic story . It was shameful and criminal how she and her family were treated. Her HeLa cells were the birth of so much of our modern medicine. It is way past time her contribution is acknowledged and the family gets something for it.
I JUST put it on my goodreads “to read” list. Thanks for the reminder.
It is an awesome story…loved it, also
It really makes you think about medical tests and what might be done with your cells.
Amazing story. Excellent writing
Great book.
http://smithsonianmag.com/ Famed for “Immortal” Cells, Henrietta Lacks is Immortalized in Portraiture
It was a great book. I really enjoyed it.
Excellent book. Critique of science and medicine, US race and privilege, and unregulated capitalism.
It is a very interesting story. Lots of abuses were depicted but just think her cells are still being used in research today. That to me is amazing.
Great book.
Amazing story
I read it last year. I always read the privacy policies at doctor offices and refused parts of them, but now I read them even more thoroughly.
It is a excellent book.
Excellent read!
Hi
I really enjoyed that book. I have a hard time convincing people it’s good.
Excellent book. I couldn’t put it down.
Awesome book! Really made me think…..
Was a wonderful but disturbing true story.
Great read!
Amazing book!
I’m so glad her story is out. We owe Henrietta Lacks a lot! Enjoy the book!
excellent account of how this woman was treated and the development of HeLa cells. I have shared my copy with many, including my mother, who enjoyed it at age 96!
Wonderful book our book club read?
You may also like, “The short and tragic life of Robert Peace”—I’m bad with titles so I may got some of the wording wrong. Excellent book.
Yes! Loved that book. It was like a love letter to his late friend, and a tough lesson on how education doesn’t make up for lack of role models.
Such a fascinating book!
Read it twice, once for myself and then later for my book club. Excellent writing and research.
Amazing true story!
Excellent excellent book!
Excellent book!
It’s on my list this summer.
That is such a good book!
We just picked that one for our next book club read! Cannot wait to start it!
Wonderful book. Read Radium Girls after you finish. It was great, too
I finished Radium Girls not too long ago. Horrific story but a great read.
It was great to read them back to back, and understand how medical research has occurred over the years.
@Denise yes…definitely!
Add Partners of the Heart by Vivien Thomas – also a true story, written by a black man who was Dr. Alfred Blalock’s lab technician and partner in developing the field of cardiac surgery.At Hopkins, Thomas invented a lot of the tools that Blalock and Dr. Helen Taussig used in pioneering the “blue baby” operations that saved countless children who might otherwise have died (I have a cousin who is now an 75 year old grandfather thanks to them all)
@Robyn my library doesn’t have it. How disappointing. I’ll have to keep looking
I know you can find it on Amazon, perhaps a partner or university library will have it. The story was told in the movie Something The Lord Made. One thing that was remarkable for the time was that Blalock, who was a world class and well respected surgeon, fought for Thomas to be his aide and even in operating rooms, despite the fact that he was a black man. The portraits of the two men, along with Helen Taussig, hang in the same hallway at the entrance to the Blalock wing at the hospital, which was unheard of at the time Thomas was awarded his honorary doctorate. Interesting story, too, is that Hopkins could not/would not award an honorary medical doctorate, so Thomas was given a doctorate of laws
There are several biographies about Vivien Thomas, just not the autobiography. I will keep trying
When I got to the part of the radium treatment, I knew that would be up next. 🙂
I loved this book!! It had a big impact on me. Oprah’s movie left a lot of the story untold.
Great book
Didn’t like
Really? Why not?
I really enjoyed this book & recommended it several friends.
Wow what a story,huh?
Great book. I didn’t like the film.
Crazy this went on
I bet nobody who reads it will do those saliva dna geneolody tests! Nope. Such a great book.
Great book – my friend and I just discussed that we were surprised it didn’t make the list.
A memorable book
Amazing book!
Loved it.
Loved it
Loved it
It’s on my TBR list and keep hearing great things about it.
That book is in my top 3 of best books. The myriad of emotions you go through reading it, it’s like a rollercoaster.
Hard (and sad)to believe it is non fiction
Great book!
Amazing story.
I read this book last fall, then got several friends to read it. It haunted me for weeks. It still does.
I read it for book club. It is outstanding. Very informative. Very sad how the family was taken advantage of.
Agreed! What really upsets me about the way the medical/scientific community treated the family is that it was systemic to the medical community. That’s pretty much how they treated all black families.
Loved it
One of my faves
Excellent book.
Great book…
Loved that book!
Loved it!
I loved that book so much. So interesting.
Enjoyed it and it was unbelievable what the medical field got away with in terms of recognition and monetarily.
It is also a present day issue; not resolved.
So true.
An amazing story!
That was our One Book One Richmond selection at U of R one of the years I was at school there. Awesome book!
really liked that bk!
Such a great book…..I’ve recommended it to complete strangers (cause reading in public places elicits questions). Watched 10 minutes of the movie and changed channels.
That was a very interesting book.
I had no idea about her until I read the book!
So sad it happened to her.
The journalist did an amazing job with this important story. The movie didn’t do the book justice!
I was, by turns, furious and awed when reading this. Very compelling.
I loved this book!
Fantastic book in many ways!!!
Loved this to death. This was such an informative read. We did it in our book club gr8 so many responses.
This was the first e-book I ever purchased and read after I retired. Love the combination of bio/history/science.
Barbara, I agree whole heartedly. Great you found it a great book as well.
I never heard of this until your post! I ordered it & can’t wait to read it. Recently finished Radium Girls – I find stories dealing with ethics along with history & medical science very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
U just finished it and was floored. What a hoor.
Such an informative and engaging book. Most of all, an important story which so many of us probably had not known.
Great book! Amazing story
It was our community One Read book, and was great. Not so sure about the movie – haven’t watched it, but so much of the book wouldn’t translate well into a movie. Documentary, maybe.
We have a book club at theHealth Center for Colorado State University. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the Radium Girls are 2 of the books on the list.
Amazing, truthful story!
I listened to this one. Amazing.
Great book
Incredible story! Loved it!
Loved it
Great one!
Great book, but so sad.
Great book. I loved it.
Eye opening book
So good!
frustratingly sad movie – but I’ve found that truth is always stranger than fiction
This book was very good.
A wonderful book!
It was so interesting! Loved it!
This is a great book. It should be taught in school.
Great book!
Important story. Didn’t anyone get distracted with the details?
the story line does jump around and relations get mixed up, but such important look into how those magical cells replicate and have been used for cures and healing of so many different illness.
Didn’t worry about confusions. I was so busy following Henrietta’s horrir.
Good read
tried to read it 3 times and then gave up…tho the story is important
Fantastic read.
It’s incredible how unfair they treated her family.
Still happening.
Good one! Enjoy!
On my list!
Ooh yeah that’s soo good. The movie left out a lot.
Incredible book!
Amazing read!!
Great book and movie
I have the book- may be next on my ‘to read’ list!
I didn’t enjoy the movie that HBO did on the book. How does the book compare to the movie?
The book is much, much more detailed and in-depth of the lives of her family, how the author wound up working on this story in the first place, and the relationship that evolved between the author and Henrietta’s daughter. I think seeing the movie without having read the book there would be a lot of confusion around what was going on with the daughter (Deborah I think was her name). In the book the emotional stress and intensity all of this had on her and the whole family is far more tangible and makes it clearer. Also, there is fascinating information on the medical side, along with historical tidbits, etc. that I found reader friendly and not too technical.
The book is so very good!
I enjoyed reading this book, very interesting!
I didn’t expect to like it but I did.
Wonderful book!
Amazing book.
I loved loved that book! It will make you mad too!
It is eye opening and enjoyable.
It is one of the best books!
This book is outstanding on so many levels! What a story…that most of us do not know!
Read the book. Eye opening.
Amazing.
Oh that’s a good one. And Oprah is so good in the movie!
It is a great book. An eye opener.
Shocking!
What a great book.
It is truly amazing. Enjoy
I almost bought this at goodwill today….I knew I was gonna regret not getting it!
It is an amazing, shocking story.
A great book to read! Check out the movie as well.
I felt for that woman; change seems so slow in medicine.
And because of the profit motive, I’m pretty sure it will take an act of legislation to change anything.
Fascinating story. And I often had to remind myself that it is nonfiction.
It’s amazing. The movie doesn’t do it justice.
Great book, and a true story
One of my all time favorite! So well written
Wonderful!!
I remember it was the first nonfiction that I read after A Million Little Pieces and noticing the pages and pages of sources in the back.
Great book, really interesting.
It’s on my “to read” shelf; sounds great!
It is phenomenal. I discovered a whole new genre of narrative non fiction with this book.
Also reading it for our library book club.
What is the name of the movie?.
The same name as the book.
It was a TV movie
Same name, I think.
Excellent read!
Great impact on me.
Amazing research writing!
Very good story. And it is true.
Is that on the list? I thought they were all novels. It’s a great book though.
It may not be on the list but in terms of non-fiction biographies, this ranks high in interest, compassion, history and thought-provoking insight. It tore me up,it made me laugh, it made me think and it gave me hope.
Good book. I loved it!
Yes, i enjoyed it immenseley
That’s one of my favorite medical biographies
I can’t wait to read it!
Really interesting read!
Fascinating! Loved it!
Memorable!
Wonderful book.
It is a great book!
Was so informed and glued to this title.
Super read!!
Just finished reading “Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane” by Lisa See. Beautiful story. Highly recommend!
On sale today on amazon kindle version for 2.99
oh well missed it
@Karen. The kindle version is still 2.99 today … Sat, Sept 8 ?
I also really enjoyed the book. Revealing and thought provoking.
An incredble amount research! And I loved all the stories with the story. Truly, an amazingly work!
This is an amazing story! Absolutely loved it!
This was a book club read. We’ve been meeting for years but all of us agreed this was our all time favorite book sadly the movie that came out didn’t focus on Henrietta much , more her daughter. And the family is still getting ripped off up to today.
I teach this to my senior English classes. Amazing.
Loved this book,just unbelievable!
Great book!
Fantastic book! Sad and amazing story.
Don’t forget to watch the movie as well! Book and movie are both excellent.
Was wonderful and very disturbing what was was done.
I picked that up at the library very good!
Well researched, detailed – yet an amazing story that is very readable.
Great book!!!
Great read!
I think this is one of the best books I have ever read!
And on sale $2.99 on kindle right now.
LOVED it and found it amazing!
Me too, Elizabeth!
Haunting in so many ways.
Loved it! Just finished it!
It is in my TBR list.
I read it several years ago it is an important read.
Great book!!!
A “MUST READ”!!!
SO good. See the movie w/Oprah too!
Such a stunning book!
Amazing amazing story
It IS amazing and an education in itself!
Great book!
That is one amazing book and one amazing lady. True story!
A big must read!!!! Love the documentary!!! Amazing story!
Truly compelling read. I couldn’t put it down.
Wonderful read not great movie. The family stories are very different. At times not as compelling as all the wonderful achievements from these cells.
I never did see the movie but I’m sure glad I read the book!
A great book. I recommend it to everyone.
It is a great book. I was at a fast food place reading while eating. A complete stranger came over, asked what I was reading, and could I recommend anything for her book club? My response was….The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. You gotta love readers!
Love this narrative nonfiction style of writing.
I heard about this in nursing school but read the book when it came out. Amazing.
Fabulous book, but such a sad story. I am still outraged by how this woman and her family were treated by the medical and scientific communities.
Powerful!