Sunday, September 2, 2012

Immortality of Henrietta Lacks




I know you are all busy, but it would be great if you looked at some of the great extras online. Rebecca Skloot has a terrific website, with lots of interesting goodies: extra photos, videos, audio, and much, much more. I don't know if I've ever seen so many extra resources on an author's website. There's even a Jeopardy game! When you click here, you can find pictures that weren't published in the book, the original BBC documentary referenced in the book, and video from the 1950's of HeLa cells growing in the lab.

Watch a video of the author discussing the structure of the book [here].



There's  a nine-minute video with the author, Rebecca Skloot and some of the Lacks family.
(CBS Sunday Morning)

Don't have that much time? Here's a shorter video from ABC News.

Or watch a 2 1/2 minute book trailer:




COMING SOON

  • Oprah Winfrey has purchased the movie rights for the book. Alan Ball (True Blood) has been hired to produce it and a screenwriter is working on the script.
  • Rebecca Skloot's new book will focus on the human-animal bond and explore some of the biggest, and as yet unanswered, questions at the heart of animals’ roles in our lives. She worked for more than a decade in veterinary medicine, first as a nurse for animals in general practices and emergency rooms, and later as a technician in veterinary morgues and neurology labs. In writing her book, she will weave personal stories — her own and others’ — with science, medicine, ethics, and history.