This was an incredibly fascinating and sad tale of a woman, her cells, and her family. Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins for a check-up, complaining of having a "knot on her womb." A few months later she was dead from cervical cancer. Unbeknownst to Henrietta (and the rest of her family) the doctor sliced off a little bit of the tumor with the intent of using the cells for further research. These cells went on to be known as HeLa and there isn't (or doesn't seem to be anyway) a single part of medicine that these cells haven't influenced. This is also a sad story of what it was like to be black in the 50s and the type of medical treatment one could receive. Skloot does her best to keep herself out of the narrative and treats her subjects as directly and honestly as possibly. Fascinating stuff and easy to read for someone not accustomed to medical or science-related terminology.