The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 384 pages.
Skloot writes a very interesting book that is part science, part history and part personal story of her writing the book and the difficult and unususal relationships she developed with the family of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks's cells, the HELA line, have lived on for decades after her death. Her husband and her never knew that the cells had been taken and have spent years feeling as if they had been used and lied to by the medical community. Skloot runs into all sorts of problems trying to research this and there is no happy ending for all involved, but it is an interesting, compelling and many-layered book that is well worth the time. One of my staff picks for June.