Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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

Boy Who Hated Valentine's Day

Boy Who Hated Valentine's Day
by Sally Whittman and Chaya Burnstein
children's fiction, ages 6-9

Ben is seven years old. This is an age when Valentine's day and mushy stuff is not cool. Ben remembers that last year someone teased him about Valentine's day being for babies and he is NOT going to make that mistake again! He hatches a scheme that doesn't go quite the way he planned it.
This is a good book that elementary school children can relate to. I recommend it for school and public libraries.

Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been
by
Melanie Benjamin

adult historical fiction

The author has done a lot of research on Lewic Carroll, Oxford, and the girl that inspired Alice in Wonderland. She has written a realistic novel that speaks of the conventions of the day and the proper upbringing of an Oxford Don's daughter. Alice is always being told to be "prim and proper and for heaven's sake, don't run or soil your dress. Be a lady at all times".
One of the fascinating plot points is a photograph that was taken by Lewis Carroll of the real Alice. She is dressed up like a wild, tattered, gypsy child. One can only guess how this photo managed to be taken. Alice must have slipped out of the grasp of her governess for a while.
Alice leads a life of boring parties, sedate catered affairs, and later, managing a household, but does she sometimes dream?
Because of the lasting popularity of Alice and Lewis Carroll, I recommend this book for larger public libraries.

Fresh Air

Fresh Air
by
Charlotte Vale Allen

A reclusive website editor needs to break out of her routine. She gets an opportunity when an African American girl moves in next door as part of a summertime Fresh Air program for inner city children. She becomes good friends with the girl and the mother of the host family. In doing so, she faces her past - her childhood as the daughter of a famous actress, growing up without a father, and more. This is a very comfortable, nicely paced book.

Why Does the Coqui Sing?

Why Does the Coqui Sing?
by
Barbara Garland Polikoff
children/YA fiction

I had the privilege of traveling to Puerto Rico this year and I thought that in preparation I would read a book set in P. R. Thirteen year old Luz has grown up in Chicago, but her ancestors are from Puerto Rico and Italy. Her mother remarries a man from Puerto Rico and they move the family "home" to Puerto Rico. Luz is not too keen on moving to this strange land of which she has heard her whole life. She becomes reacquainted with her grandfather and other relatives, but still feels like a fish out of water. Slowly she learns what her family has known about the charm of Puerto Rico and she starts to feel a part of it like the tree frogs and the horses of the land.
This book had been discarded from my local library, so I left it in Puerto Rico for someone else to read. I home they enjoy it as I did.

Uncyclopedia

In case my fellow librarians are looking for some WRONG, SARCASTIC answers to reference questions, here is a site for you.
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

For example, search for "St. Patrick's day" and it gives you a picture of Patrick Swayze.

Search for "garbage" and it says "do you want Europeans"?

Frindle

Frindle
by Andrew Clements
read by Keith Nobbs
audio compact disc
children's fiction, grades 4-8

Nick isn't a troublemaker by habit or intention, but sometimes being a thinking boy gets a lad in trouble. His fifth grade teacher keeps insisting that her students look words up in the dictionary. He reads the introduction to the dictionary and learns about how words enter the language. He then embarks on a mission to have a new word enter the language. Instead of a pen, he now calls that writing object a "frindle". Will his word catch on?
This book came out in 1996, so there is no "viral internet" but a word moves through language in the more or less traditional route (word of mouth, media, etc). This is a fun and fascinating study of student teacher interactions and how words come into use. I suspect that it is on a number of reading lists, but it is probably more fun for the teachers to read than for the students to read. I thought it was a great listen as an audiobook, but I am afraid that my opinion is tainted since I am a grownup. I would recommend this to scholarly students, but not to reluctant readers.

Masquerade

Masquerade
by
Nancy Moser
adult Christian romance fiction

A young woman from a respectable Victorian family must leave England, as her father has lost the family's money and a suitor from New York has agreed to court her. Charlotte wants more out of life than a boring marriage, though. So she and her maid switch identities as they disembark in NYC. Can she and her maid be true to their own personalities even though they are in disguise? Will they find the love they desire? Does wealth buy happiness?
This is a pleasant but unoriginal plot. If you are looking for a quick, but forgettable read, then try this book.
P. S. I think this is an unfortunate title that can be confused with many other books with the same title. Three hundred three titles with the word "masquerade" show up in my library's catalog.

Sunset of the Sabertooth

Magic Tree House # 7 Sunset of the Sabertooth
by
Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca
children's historical/fantasy fiction, ages 5-8

Once again Jack and Annie travel through time in search of artifacts to help Morgan, the sorceress. This time the children end up in the ice age and must escape from a bear and a tiger with the help of a woolly mammoth and some Cro-Magnon people. Now on to book 8!

Clockwork Three

Clockwork Three
by Matthew Kirby
unabridged book on compact disc
ages 9-12

This is a book that reads like a fantasy book, but really doesn't have anything magical or mystical happen in it. I kept wondering when the outrageous science fiction/fantasy stuff would happen, but the "what-if" part of it was very realistic. I guess if I had to categorize this I would say it is alternative history since the events that take place did not actually happen. Or did they? I suppose they could have. This book is set in mid 1800's Boston. It features some characters with extraordinary talents in music and science and herblore and larger than life people, such as a mysterious medium and a huge Russian bodyguard.
This book follows three down and out young people (ages 11-13). Frederick, Hannah, and Giuseppe are all in need of miracles.
Frederick is an apprentice clockmaker who wants to make the best automaton ever. He is also looking for his mother who gave him up to an orphanage. He fears that he
will never make master status with out this.
Hannah is the breadwinner for her family after her father is disabled by a stroke. It would take a miracle of medicine or faith to get him back on his feet.
Giuseppe is an violin-playing orphan boy from Italy who is sold into indentured servitude to a harsh master who runs a gang of street buskers. His tale is something straight out of a Dickens' novel.
As the plot develops these three young people meet and have adventures.
Some of the story dragged, such as the scene describing the opera in painstaking detail, but by the end of the story I did not want to stop the CD and needed to know what would happen next. The book and audio would probably have benefited from some condensing to leave just "the good parts version" (to quote the grandfather from the "Princess Bride").
I found the most fascinating part of this audiobook to be the interview with the author afterward. His character of Giuseppe was based on a true story that was published in the New York Times about orphan buskers. Even if someone doesn't want to listen to this entire book, it is worth listening to the interview in the end.