Some good books

I've just finished "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." It's extremely interesting. I haven't been reading a lot of nonfiction lately, but this was fantastic. A huge amount of research is being done on HeLa, one of the worlds most commonly used cell lines for studies in everything from cosmetics to cancer. There are something like 300 studies per month published using HeLa cells. They originally came from this 31 year old black woman who was dying of cervical cancer (HEnrietta LAcks). Hers became one of the very first cell lines to cultured for a long period of time. This book is about her, her family, and the development of cell lines and medical research. It's fascinating, but also readable for folks who don't have a science degree. It's also wonderful that she is finally getting the recognition that she deserves. The author is Rebecca Skloot and the book is definitely worth the read. If you go to her website, she has started a foundation to raise money for the descendants of Henrietta where you can donate. The sad truth is that while HeLa is a multimillion dollar industry, there is no recompense for the descendants, who can't even afford health care. Before I read the book, I was outraged, but after reading decided that I don't think things could have gone any differently for the family.

Another book I'm reading is "Mortuary Confidential." It's stories from morticians about their industry. Some are funny, some touching, and some just sad. All in all it's not a bad read, but it was a bit flat. Many of the stories were mostly mildly entertaining, but nothing much more than that.

On the subject of books, mine is coming along slowly. I haven't done much lately, but I have worked out a number of ideas and in the next little while I'll be making some time to make some headway. I'm working hard at spending less time (wasted time really) online.