When we hear the words "summer reading" we instantly groan and wonder what overly horrible book we're going to have to trudge through that summer. When I learned that I was required to read The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks before I started my freshmen year in college I was distraught. I thought that I was finally going to get through the summer without having to read a book that was going to haunt me for the rest of my college career. When I received the book in the mail a few weeks later, I pulled it out of its crinkly brown bubble wrap bag and felt its heavy weight in my small hands. I couldn't believe that I was going to have to get through this before the fall, in my mind I had already pegged the book as a bore. It sat for weeks on my desk, taunting me. Finally I picked it up and cracked it open. As I started to read I began to find myself enjoying the switched perspectives between Henrietta's and HeLa's lives. I was entranced and two days later, with tears in my eyes I slowly closed the finished book and laid it back on my desk. Skloot not only changed my perspective on summer reading, but opened my eyes to a whole new world where Henrietta's cells were stolen from her and used to create vaccines for many different diseases. I couldn't even begin to imagine this happening, but it had. Without Henrietta's cells (A.K.A. HeLa) there would be a lot more sickness in the world. Skloot's structuring of Henrietta and HeLa's stories made it easy and engaging to read, embedding the boring parts about how cells are cultured between two chapters of incredible discovery about Henrietta's and her children's lives.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good eye opener. As well as to anyone who just wants something interesting to read about.
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