W M M itibaren Kāchelun, Tehran, İran itibaren Kāchelun, Tehran, İran

ok, you have to forgive the embarrassing title. and forget that the writing isn't very strong. the principles here were life-changing. it was the first time i encountered the idea of intention, and it was so simply explained that it's never left me. again, forget about critiquing it. it's not trying to be dickens or whatever. just enjoy and watch your life literally change.

I rarely give books 5 stars, but this one deserved it & more! I devoured it in a day and a half. The characters are totally believable, full of flaws and good like we all are. The situation is horrible, but somehow Emma Donahue makes it bearable. Incredibly well-written with an amazing story. Highly recommend!

This is a really interesting read. Henrietta Lacks was a young black women who died from cervical cancer in the 1950's. Her cancerous cells were harvested by Johns Hopkins Medical Center after what served as informed consent at the time. They became the basis for most of the cell research done for the next 50 years. Her poor motherless children and husband lived for many years without any knowledge of the contribution that their mother/spouse made to medical research and of course, with no compensation. The book was researched by a medical journalist and she develops a very close but intimidating relationship with the family who are struggling with poverty, addiction, lack of medical coverage and mental illness. She does a very good job of giving us an insight into the family history and current surviving members. She also covers the science of the HeLa Cells in a very fascinating way. I found this book both moving and thought provoking. A great book for book club discussion.