Henrietta Lacks, Would that we'd known you when...

"No dead woman has done more for the living." -- from a review in The Guardian

And yet she was dead for 20+ years before we acknowledged her.

Without a doubt, this one will stick with me.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, is so good I'm not going to attempt a full review. (The New York Times actually did two, following up its original with a sequel.)

Look, this blog is intended to give advice about what to read, or not. My advice on this book is: READ IT.

And while I'm crazy about libraries, I recommend buying this one, because chances are very good you'll want to take your time with it - it's not hard to follow, but there's a great deal to the story, and you'll probably need some time to absorb it. When you finish it, I'll bet you'll want to share it with several friends and family members.

I hope you'll buy a copy for those you know who are interested in writing, science, medicine, or law. Like I said, there's a lot to the story.

Read it.

Update: In September 2015, somebody who almost certainly didn't read the book tried to ban it. Obviously, not gonna happen - the movie hits HBO on April 22, 2017. 


  Update, 2017... And now it's a movie!