The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
(OverDrive Listen)

Book Cover for "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"
Your Rating: 0 stars
Star rating for

Average user rating: 4.1 stars
User ratings:
5 star
 
(26)
4 star
 
(17)
3 star
 
(10)
2 star
 
(2)
1 star
 
(2)
Lexile measure:
1140L
Status:
Checked Out

Also in This Series

More Details

Published:
Books on Tape 2010
Format:
OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
02/02/2010
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780307712530
Accelerated Reader:
UG
Level 8, 18 Points
Lexile measure:
1140

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Copy Details

LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection50

There are 23 holds on this title.

Citations

APA Citation (style guide)

Rebecca Skloot. (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Rebecca Skloot. 2010. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Books on Tape, 2010.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Rebecca Skloot. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2010.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.

Staff View

Grouped Work ID:
d01697dd-cba6-c4e6-eb26-cd115e7bb0c4
Go To Grouped Work

API Extraction Dates

Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Apr 23, 2014 15:22:16
Date Updated:
Nov 18, 2017 05:37:22
Last Metadata Check:
May 12, 2025 14:34:53
Last Metadata Change:
May 11, 2025 05:33:23
Last Availability Check:
May 12, 2025 14:34:53
Last Availability Change:
May 12, 2025 14:34:53
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
May 15, 2025 15:26:21

OverDrive Product Record

sortTitle
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
crossRefId
249962
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/261/509/0E/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/261/509/0E/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780307712516
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780307712530
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780307712516
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780307712530
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
mediaType
Audiobook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Rebecca Skloot
id
2615090e-0b42-40c2-abd3-6e05aaa66413
title
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
starRating
4.4
dateAdded
2010-03-08T16:31:28.78-05:00
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=426&titleID=249962
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Wake County Public Libraries (NC)
          • id: 1893

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • duration: 12:31:01
      • fileName: ImmortalLifeofHenriettaLacksDoctorsTookHerCell-556
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 360495434
      • identifiers:
            • audience: retailer
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780307712516
            • audience: library
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780307712530
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 2/2/2010
      • samples:
            • source: Part 1
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Skloot, Rebecca
      • bioText:

        Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many others. She is coeditor of The Best American Science Writing 2011 and has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She was named one of five surprising leaders of 2010 by the Washington Post. Skloot's debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, took more than a decade to research and write, and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. It was chosen as a best book of 2010 by more than sixty media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, People, and the New York TimesIt is being translated into more than twenty-five languages, adapted into a young reader edition, and being made into an HBO film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She lives in Chicago. 

      • name: Rebecca Skloot
      • role: Narrator
      • fileAs: Campbell, Cassandra
      • name: Cassandra Campbell
      • role: Narrator
      • fileAs: Turpin, Bahni
      • name: Bahni Turpin
imprint
Random House Audio
publishDate
2010-02-02T00:00:00Z
edition
Unabridged
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
fullDescription
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Financial Times, New York, Independent (U.K.), Times (U.K.), Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Globe and Mail
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
gradeLevels
      • value: Grade 8
      • value: Grade 9
popularity
17121
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/L1BLQAAAA2a/products/2615090e-0b42-40c2-abd3-6e05aaa66413/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
    • shareInLibby:
        • href: https://link.overdrive.com/share?q=atADAAWUhr4
        • type: text/HTML
id
2615090e-0b42-40c2-abd3-6e05aaa66413
starRating
4.4
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/261/509/0E/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/261/509/0E/{2615090E-0B42-40C2-ABD3-6E05AAA66413}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Biography & Autobiography
      • value: Science
      • value: Sociology
      • value: Nonfiction
publishDateText
02/02/2010
mediaType
Audiobook
shortDescription
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Financial Times, New York, Independent (U.K.), Times (U.K.), Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Globe and...
sortTitle
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
lexileScore
1140
crossRefId
249962
classifications
    awards
        • source: Audio Publishers Association
        • value: Audie Award Nominee
        • source: Notable Books Council
        • value: Notable Books for Adults
    publisher
    Books on Tape
    bisacCodes
        • code: BIO015000
        • description: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology
        • code: SCI008000
        • description: Science / Life Sciences / Biology
        • code: SOC028000
        • description: Social Science / Women's Studies

    Formats

    OverDrive Listen
    Need Help?
    If you are having problem using our eCollection, please visit our support center.