Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by
Rebecca Skloot
I developed these guides for book discussion. I hope that others can use them.
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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Discussion Questions Links
http://booklust-lisa.blogspot.com/2010/07/discussion-questions-for-immortal-life.html?showComment=1298385782821#c8630468125063198782
http://www.bookmovement.com/app/readingguide/view.php?readingGuideID=12439
http://www-library.ncifcrf.gov/bookclubdis/hela.aspx
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_immortal_life_of_henrietta.html
http://libguides.gallaudet.edu/content.php?pid=61733&sid=474411
(Very thorough, chapter by chapter questions).
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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
What Nonfiction Books Do I Read Next?
For other books on bioethics, try Dewey Decimal # 174
Blum, Deborah. The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.
Dully, Howard. My Lobotomy : a Memoir. In 1960 at age 12 the author was lobotomized. Follow his life thereafter.
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This book explores the clash between a hospital in California and a refugee family over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy.
Friedman, David M. The Immortalists : Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever. As early as the 1920’s men were obsessed with living forever and eugenics and managed to keep organs alive for a time in the lab.
Gold, Michael. A Conspiracy Of Cells: One Woman's Immortal Legacy And The Medical Scandal It Caused. A 1985 book about Henrietta Lacks’ cells.
Goldstein, Lawrence S. B. Stem Cells for Dummies.
Hornblum, Allen M. Acres of Skin. From the early 1950s through the mid-1970s, Philadelphia inmates were used as guinea pigs in a host of medical experiments.
O’Meara, Alex. Chasing Medical Miracles: the Promise and Perils of Clinical Trials.
Parson, Ann B. The Proteus Effect : Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine.
Pelzer, Dave. A Child Called “It”. Surviving a childhood of not only severe abuse by his mother, but the apparent apathy to his plight by his father, Pelzer suffered one of the most severe documented cases of child abuse in California history.
Roach, Mary. Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Weird. Compelling. Odd. Humorous.
Ruse, Michael. The Stem Cell Controversy: Debating the Issues.
Rutkow, Ira. Seeking the Cure : a History of Medicine in America. Travel with the author, a surgeon and historian, through the development of modern vaccinations, blood banks, and more.
Scott, Christopher Thomas. Stem Cell Now : From the Experiment that Shook the World to the New Politics of Life.
Thomas, Lewis. The Lives of a Cell. Essays which appeared in the New England journal of medicine, 1971-73.
Walls, Jeannette. Glass Castle. Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--her frustrated-artist mother, and her brilliant, alcoholic father.
Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid : the Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.
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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
What Fiction Book Do I Read Next?
Belfer, Lauren. A Fierce Radiance. In 1941 Claire, a mother and journalist, investigates the emerging use of penicillin in war and at home.
Erlick, Nelson. Germline. By altering the reproductive cells of an individual, you can forever change the genetic makeup of that person. But who should control such power?
Lehane, Dennis. Shutter Island. When a U.S. Marshall arrives at the asylum for the criminally insane, what starts as a routine investigation quickly takes a sinister turn.
Picoult, Jodi. Second Glance. This eerie and engrossing work delves into a virtually unknown chapter of American history -- Vermont's eugenics project of the 1920s and 30s.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Meet the original mad scientist creator and his ghoulish monster.
Skoot, Floyd. Patient 002. Patients participate in a drug trial that is aborted. The subjects fight to have their drug back.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll invented a drug that would change him into the evil Mr. Hyde.
Wittenborn, Dirk. Pharmakon. A Yale psychology professor stubbles upon a drug for happiness, but his experiments go awry…
Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. A mentally disabled man’s experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse.
You may also try more medical/suspense thrillers by these authors: Robin Cook, Philip K. Dick, Tess Gerritsen, Greg Iles, Dean Koontz, Michael Palmer, & Edgar Allan Poe.
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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
What Do I Watch Next?
The Andromeda Strain. A group of scientists investigate a deadly new alien virus and attempt to stop its spread.
Awakenings. A shy research physician uses an experimental drug to awaken the catatonic victims of a rare disease.
Charly. A mentally retarded man becomes intelligent after brain surgery, but all does not necessarily end well for him.
Erin Brockovich. An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and attempts to bring down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.
Extraordinary Measures. Parents work to find a researcher who might have a cure for their two children's rare genetic disorder.
Flatliners. Medical students do experiments meant to bring them near death experiences.
Lorenzo’s Oil. A boy develops a disease so rare that nobody is working on a cure, so his father decides to tackle the problem himself.
Miss Evers’ Boys. In 1932, Nurse Eunice Evers is invited to work with doctors on the "Tuskegee Experiment" to study the effects of syphilis. She is faced with a terrible dilemma when she learns the patients are denied treatment that could cure them.
One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest. Upon arrival at a mental institution, a man rallies the patients together to take on the evil Nurse Ratched.
Silkwood. The story of a worker at a plutonium plant who was contaminated and psychologically tortured to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.
slw/Mar 2011
