Library Resources for the 2010 UC Summer Reading Program
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Copies of The Immortal Life.... are available on special displays in Cabell Library on the Monroe Park Campus, and in Tompkins-McCaw Library on the MCV Campus this summer.
VCU Libraries book checkout information
Publisher Weekly review, February 2010:
Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace. It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women—Skloot and Deborah Lacks—sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah's mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line—known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta's death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloot's portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Author
Rebecca Skloot, official Web site
Henrietta Lacks Foundation, a non-profit organization
The Making of a Bestseller: Rebecca Skloot and a Great Obsession, Politics Daily, March 27, 2010
Interviews
The Gift of Immortal Cells, CBS News, March 16, 2010
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, C-Span, March 19, 2010
The "Immortal" Henrietta Lacks, Science Weekly, June 21, 2010
Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a sign-interpreted discussion, Greater Talent Network, July 19, 2010
Rebecca Skloot, Colbert Report, March 15, 2010
Medical Research Issues
Bioethics Resources on the Web, National Institutes of Health
Immortal Cells, Enduring Issues, Johns Hopkins Magazine, June 2, 2010
Henrietta Lacks: the mother of modern medicine, Guardian.co.uk, June 23, 2010
Additional Resources
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Sequel, The New York Times, March 23, 2013
DoubleX Audio Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Slate.com, June 18, 2010
Henrietta's Dance, Johns Hopkins Magazine, April 2000
Henrietta Everlasting: 1950s Cells Still Alive, Helping Science, Wired Magazine, January 25, 2010
Henreitta Lacks' "Immortal" Cells, Smithsonian.com, January, 02, 2010
How One Woman's Cells Changed Medicine, ABC News, January 31, 2010
The Immortal Henrietta Lacks, CBS News, March 14, 2010
Seeking Henrietta, TheScientist.com, January 29, 2010
Modern Times: the Way of All Flesh, BBC Documentary, 1996
Cancer Research
Cancer, MedlinePlus
Cervical Cancer, Medline Plus
Cancer Resource Guide, VCU Libraries
Stem Cell Research
A Century of Stem Cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine, YouTube, September 20,2009
Stem Cells, MedlinePlus
Stem Cell Information, National Institute of Health
Course Reserves
Several books and articles are available on reserve. Check Reserves Catalog for the course "University College" to review the list of options.
Ask Us!
Donna E. Coghill
First Year Student Programs Librarian
James Branch Cabell Library
804-828-6554
Shannon Jones
Associate Director for Research and Education Services
Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences
804-828-1096