Recommended Reading:

Prior to my Auntie Ann's visit we spoke on the phone, discussing train reservations, etc. She asked me what I wanted from home and told me Maggie had recommended peanut butter. I concurred with the peanut butter suggestion, but couldn't come up with much else until a few days later it hit me: books in English! I skyped my auntie again and asked her to please bring me any books she'd read and thought I needed to read. I wanted anything--fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction... Anything worth reading in the English language.

It's not that I can't read in Spanish (obviously I can), or that I don't enjoy it; but it is true that I'm slower, and depending on the book there are still lots of new words. Sometimes I let those words slip by, guessing from context, but usually the teacher within scolds me and so I have to keep a dictionary handy. Curling up with a good book that I can just lose myself in has still got to be English.

About a week before my aunt arrived, I got a box full of books in the mail (too heavy for the suitcase). I was thrilled. Half-broke Horses, Jeannette Walls, was the first one I read--highly recommended. I devoured it in a little over a week. And I've just finished the second of the batch: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--a book we should all read.

It is the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells, taken from a cervical cancer tumor without her knowledge. Those cells never died. They revolutionized tissue research and were key to the discovery of many of today's cancer drugs and other medical advances including polio vaccine. They continue to be an integral part of scientific studies today and earn millions of dollars each year. Nevertheless, her family knew nothing about their existence until more than twenty years after Henrietta's death and the beginning of her cells' immortality.

The book is the result of ten years of reporting, researching and relationship-building between the author and the Lacks family. It is an incredible story--in some instances weirder than fiction--that brings to light myriad issues from ethics in science and medicine to patient's rights, race, and poverty. It is the history of one woman and her family inextricably intertwined with that of the greater panorama of scientific advancement.

Fascinating.

For more information about the book and the Lacks family see the author's FAQ page.