The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

wonderfully addictive and spellbinding (2010-09-03) : 5/5
from the first page I was hooked and stayed up too late many a night because I didn't want to put it down.
shameful medical practice (2010-09-02) : 3/5
I found the beginning of this utterly captivating, very hard to put down. Skloot does a good job of addressing the science behind the subject without making it too technical. The part where the story derails is when the family gets involved, particularly the time spent with Mrs. Lacks' daughter, Deborah. The author seems to focus more on the struggles of Deborah and her apparent disabilities, maybe in a human-interest sort of way, but I felt that it began to become a bit more exploitative. I think it is very important to shine a light on the unethical way the black population was treated by the medical profession and how shameful it is that the Lacks family has not benefited in any way from the massive scale of production of the HeLa cell line. If this book had merely contained the first half, or left the drama of the second half out or at least shortened it some, I think this book would have appealed to me more as a whole. I would certainly recommend this to friends, but with a disclaimer of the soap-opera like drama that comes in at the end.
Very delayed shipment. I'm completely dissatisfied with Amazon's shipping service (2010-09-01) : 1/5
This was a book order for my son. He started school on the 25th.
Item was ordered on the 23rd of August.
Amazon sent shipping information to FedEx on the 23rd of August.
FedEx did not receive the actual item from Amazon until August 30th.
Today is 9/1/2010 and shipment estimated to arrive 9/4/2010.

Amazon's systems should have alerted someone that an order is too late. Someone at Amazon should have called me the customer on the front side to notify me of the delay, and the plan to fix the issue.

I will not be using Amazon for purchases going forward. Amazon should learn about QUALITY customer service from companies like Wal-Mart.



12 stars (2010-09-01) : 5/5
I as others have stated can't believe that this is her first book. I was moved to tears because once again we african americans have been deprived of our rightful place in history/research. I wonder with the politically hateful climate we find our in today, how many white folks have benefited from this research. I daresay that not many would turn down treatment developed from this research. will be giving this book as a christmas gift. should be added to black history and research classes.
Doesn't live up to the hype (2010-08-31) : 3/5
Well researched and an intriguing story, but the book is bogged down and mired in unnecessary details and asides. The author's passion for the subject shines through, and her strong, clear sentences help, but overall, the book was a let-down.