5 comments about Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine.

1. I have not read this eye-opening type of book in years. It is to the point, and nothing left out!



2. Glenn Beck is at the forefront of the Republican purity purge. He's constantly denouncing this or that GOP politician for deviations from his ideological line. Recently, he extended this into the past, attacking Teddy Roosevelt as a RINO because he once made an inoccuous comment about being in favor of wealth as long as it was acquired by means that weren't socially destructive (apparently Beck is in favor of socially destructive behaviour as long as it produces wealth for someone).
   
   And yet, he's done the reverse here: he's tried to claim an icon of the Left as being on HIS side. Tom Paine, whose objection to onerous taxes was a) that the burden fell too heavily on the poor (so he proposed hiking taxes on the rich, including a top land tax of 100%) and b) that it was spent on court placeholders and the war machine instead of being used to help the unfortunate ("defense", meaning offense, is the one area Beck WOULDN'T cut if he were in power). Paine practically _invented_ the redistributive purpose which is precisely what Beck and his ilk hate so much about tax.
   
   The Beckbots lap this stuff up. They've never read any Tom Paine: they've been told about Common Sense by someone who didn't understand it, and they don't know that he wrote anything else. Even the First Part of The Rights of Man would probably be too egalitarian for them; if they ever read Part Two (OMG socialism!), or The Age of Reason (ZOMG atheism!), let alone Agrarian Justice (OMFG communism!), their heads would explode. One might think that, once Mr Beck had told them the name, they'd at least look it up on Wikipedia. Do they have no curiosity at all? Are they actively afraid of learning anything?
   
   The Right can't have Thomas Paine, Mr Beck. You might as well try to claim Karl Marx.



3. The title says it all. The first half is written by the author with the second half written by Thomas Payne. We have heard that common sense isn't so common and this book outlines why. Straight and to the point Glenn points to all the ways we went wrong and what we need to do to fix it.



4. I like to think of myself as an independent thinker. This book does a great job of breaking down some pretty big problems with government and society. If you are a parent or younger than 40, I finished the book with a bit of different perspective. I actually am not a fan of Mr. Beck, never seen his show. However he does seem to make some very valid points, especially about the economic troubles facing our nation. So, it's a fast read and if you are open minded, it's interesting and does make common sense.



5. Glenn is 'Right-On' when it comes to our federally elected lawmakers and many of their appointed cronies. He falls a little short organizing or suggesting appropriate action(s) voters might rally around to clean up, or clean out, everything he finds destructive within our political process. Surely this creative and popular American could do more to suggest equal amounts of solution to each of his criticisms.
   
   Don Quigg - author: Runaway Debt, Flat Taxes & Voter Apathy - A Troubling Mix ISBN: Runaway Debt, Flat Taxes & Voter Apathy

No comments about American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us.

5 comments about America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story.

1. I was delighted that a book I learned about from Diane Rehm's interview December 22, 2009 with Bruce Feiler, is such an extraordinary read.
   
   Well organized, so that each chapter could stand on its, with a personal narrative woven throughout, Feiler draws the major American cultural and historical events connected to Moses -- in Egypt, at Pesach, around the Golden Calf, and at Mt. Nebo. Particularly challenging to some will be the reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps because we are still so close to him so that living witnesses abound, and perhaps because, as Feiler notes, there is a considerable cultural mythologizing practice going on around the memory and meaning of MLK. For most of his other material, there is enough historical distance so that even those who disagree with his interpretations can, nonetheless, read, ponder, and go away being little disturbed.
   
   He draws the Puritans close and the Beecher family even closer. He reenacts the midnight winter passage across the Ohio River and tries to live into the contemporary meaning-making around the Underground Railroad. There are, of course, many other cultural connections and claims made upon Moses; but Feiler beautifully focuses his lens on a handful of significant periods and events in American history.
   
   I'll probably preach and teach from insights and facts crammed into this book for the next twenty years. I highly recommend this book for reflective reading, for group study, and for consideration in your family's or community's next iteration of the haggadah.



2. Feiler traces the uses to which the character Moses has been put during the entire American experience - from the Pilgrims to the Civil Rights movement. His prose is eminently readable and enjoyable, and his history is accurate. More impressive, his research strategies exceed the traditional techniques of library search; he goes into unusual places (like the crown of the Statue of Liberty or a home on the Ohio River that was a stop on the Underground Railroad) and emerges with novel and frequently amusing insights and anecdotes. This is a wonderful book that every American ought to read.



3. I haven't finished reading the book yet, but I'm really enjoying it.
   I've found out a lot about the Liberty Bell, some of the historic buildings, and the
   Underground Railroad, to name a few. It's a good read and is well researched,



4. Bruce Feiler is a fine, readable writer, and there are plenty of enjoyable snippets of history that you'll find in his book. His recounting of the Underground Railroad and his following a bit of the trail personally was a highlight. The flaw here is that his central thesis doesn't seem to hold a whole lot of weight. Feiler seems to practically bend over backwards to certify the high importance of Moses in American history. Sure, Moses' influence is important, but so are a myriad of other historical and fictional characters. I could make just as strong a case that Mickey Mouse or John Locke have served as the lynchpin of Americana. Revisionist history is fine when you have plenty of logical evidence to try ans support your these, but I just didn't feel that Feiler's thesis held up to scrutiny. Still, there are many fine parts of this book if you'd like to read up on some random bits of American history that sort of/kind of tie in with Moses.



5. This book is very unique. It's thought provoking and timely content is inspirations, evocative, and fascinating, told in great easy to understand details that is very satifying.

5 comments about The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down.

1. He hates "mrs edwards" and I really dont know how thw Edwards can get along without this guy because he pretty much did everything for this family. I want to know who is wiping John Edwards ASS now?? Terribly written and constantly whining about all he did.....he was a glorified butler....and poor mrs edwards...in one breath he loves her and prays for her but jeeeesh what a shrew he makes her out to be even before she suspects her husband of cheating...(I think Elizabeth always suspected her husband of infidelity) with many woman .... he happen to knock up this idiot (rielle)..



2. Regardless of Andrew Young's involvement in John Edward's cover up, his story about the whole ordeal is interesting and gives insight into the ego involved in politics. It is a shame more "insiders" don't feel more loyalty to the American public rather than to the politicians.



3. This book left this reader wondering why we continuously elect narcissistic, spineless, and morally bankrupt people to be our leaders. John Edwards and his wife are brilliant but vain, ruthless, self absorbed, and lacking any empathy for the common man. The author knew all of this long before we did but he continued to be an embarrassing and shameless lacky for Edwards and Elizabeth. You can only wonder why.
   
   This book is well written and gives the reader real insight into what it takes to be a successful politician in this country. Unfortunately, what it seems to take is a larcenous heart and access to huge sums of money. At the Federal level too many of our leaders believe Machiavelli when he wrote "The end justifies the means".



4. I could not stop listening!!!!Besides the book itself giving a fascinating first hand look at the man John Edwards as well as politics in general, the reader of this audiobook is one of the best I have ever heard. Even my friends who don't like audiobooks, who happen to listen to this in my car comment on how captivating this reader is.



5. I am not sure I believe everything that Andrew Young has written. I am only about a third of the way through, but it sounds like he is just trying to make money and dish a lot of negative things about the whole D.C. scene, yet trying to seem like he was so naive. It makes for fairly good reading, but I would not put a whole lot of faith on the system into it.

5 comments about A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror.

1. I'm very happy with the product as shipped but I'm getting sick and tired of these stupid reviews!



2. I have just started to read this book ,but so far I find it tells the story very well. Kind of like I remember in my school history lessons. The review of our early history to the present is so good. Eveyone should know the hard ships and valor our ancestors went through to make this good country for us to live in. Not like they are trying to buy into socialism as of today.



3. A Patriot's History of the United States is the best compilation I have seen to date. It is factual and well written.



4. This books gives you the real and true american history. This is stuff our kids are not learning in schools today. This is a must read for everyone in the family to see how our culture has changed what they are teaching our kids in schools and how the portray our history.



5. This is an awesome book. I have learned so much about American history that I never knew before. My husband taught high school history for nearly 40 years, and I surprised him with facts about our country that he was unaware of. I would recommend this book to Americans of all ages. Learn about your country so you can help to preserve it as the greatest nation on earth.

5 comments about Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government.

1. How ironic that the so-called intellectual elite of this nation fail to see the reality of the failure of liberal policies .



2. I've developed an appreciation for Glenn Beck's view of government, his respect for the role of our founding fathers, and his challenge to citizens to become responsibly involved. Consequently, I sought this book. I haven't been disappointed.



3. I read Beck's "Common Sense" and realized that what he advertises as "common sense" is emotionalism devoid of any substantive historical reference. His is a corruption of reality -- an appeal to others whose knowledge suffers as much as his. Beck obviously never studied Thomas Paine, the very anti-Christian founder whose name he stole for self-aggrandizement.
   
   A great historian wrote, half a century ago, that anti-intellectuals(like Beck) can never understand that better-educated people arrive at different conclusions than "common sense" people, because they have more information. Beck is gimmick-appeal. Like so many demagogues before him, he relegates those with substantive educations to "book-larnin," "uhleetist," "ivry tire," google-eyed bookworms. Beck and his ilk represent a far greater threat to this republic than any religious or political zealots anywhere in the world.
   
   Knowledge is found quietly on a long and winding road that Beck has never traveled.
   
   NYOD
   :)



4. Regardless of your political Party, Glenn Beck makes a lot of sense if you can remain open to actual input from a guy I now feel has gotten bad press. Great Read!!!



5. As usual, Glen Beck has written a book with documented, history related, information to help refute the mistruths that are being broadcasted by the current progressive movement in our government. It's a must read. He has made millions of us aware of the dangers to our Constitution, Freedom, and American way of life. Thank God someone has had the courage to speak out - thank you Glen Beck.

5 comments about Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour.

1. When the fight is over about just how overpriced this is---let me know and I'll buy it. Otherwise, I'll simply go to the library. I'm sure it's as good as advertised---but it simply costs too much.



2. This is a compelling entry in modern World War II scholarship, a cross-genre look at several pivotal Americans in London during a critical time in the early period of the war.
   
   Pulling together accounts from a myriad of sources, Olson paints a vivid picture of the intrigue, machinations, courage, and hardships faced by Londoners as they rose up to confront the Nazi bombardment and rally American support for the war effort. Interestingly, not everyone suffered equally, as Olson notes, and some who were selfish and privileged before the war were just as selfish and privileged during it.
   
   Very readable, I would recommend this for anyone interested in the period.



3. Outstanding Research and presentation. Facts that l had never heard before, and presented in page turner fashion.



4. There are plenty of books that focus on WWII, but Citizens Of London is one of the few I've read that aims to look at the subject from a fresh vantage point: the book looks at the impact of a few high-powered Americans in Britain during the war, but before American involvement in it. The men include the well-known crusading journalist Ed Murrow, the wealthy and politically talented Averell Harriman, and the most obscure of the group, John Winant, the U.S. Ambassador. Later chapters focus on Eisenhower, who performed some similar tasks once the U.S. had entered the war. In essence, Winant, Harriman and Murrow were on the scene in Britain before America entered the war, trying to build relationships both with elites as well as with the British public by educating them, by educating the Americans about their plight, and by advocating on their behalf during the darkest days of the war. These men were famous men in England at the time--they were practically rock stars, mobbed by adoring fans--and they were instrumental in establishing relations between the two peoples. Lynne Olson does an excellent job of letting us know what these men were about and making them seem like real people--even though they had some similarities (such as having affairs with female members of the Churchill family!), the three men were very different people. I rather liked the book's treatment of Winant, an unsung figure in this chapter of history, and I was able to relate to him on many levels.
   
   So, if this book is so great, why not five stars? Well, I do feel that it could have been a bit shorter. Some of the latter chapters ignore the concept of the book entirely and mostly give general history on the latter stages of WWII, which I already knew. So, that brings it down just a bit for me. All in all, though, I would highly recommend the book to my fellow students of history. These men helped save the world. Honor their memories, and get this book!



5. Citizens of London is another fine work of World War II history by Lynne Olson. The book primarily focusses on three Americans who lived in London during the war: US Ambassador John Gilbert Winant, diplomat Averell Harriman, and broadcaster Ed Murrow. I knew quite a bit about Harriman and Murrow but little or nothing about Winant. All three men were influential in helping to form and nurture the "special relationship" between the US and Great Britain that eventually led to the Allied victory. The three had numerous personal interconnections, including liaisons with members of the Churchill family, Harriman and Murrow with the Prime Minister's daughter-in-law Pamela and Winant with his daughter Sarah.
   
   The most important parts of Citizens of London deal with the events of World War II. There can never be too many retellings of the hammering the British withstood during the war, and Olson's is one of the best. But even more important is the new information (at least its new to me) about the innumerable stresses and strains of the alliance between the US and Britain. As an ardently Anglophile American, I take great pride in the "special relationship", and it was eyeopening, to say the least, to read Olson's descriptions of the arguments and debates that took place between the British and American leadership during and after the war. The Americans felt the British looked down on them, while the British feared that US policy aimed to permanently weaken them. Beyond the chronicles of the lives of the three main characters are the stories of many others, both British and American, who played important roles during the war years. I remember Eric Sevareid and Charles Collingwood as elderly newsmen, so it was fascinating to read about their younger years. I was also touched to read about the many interactions between British civilians and American servicemen and the friendships that resulted. I almost cried when I read about English villagers offering strawberries and cream to Americans on the way to the D-Day landings or US soldiers in Normandy who were anxiously questioning Eisenhower about the fates of English towns which had been hit by Nazi V-1 bombs, or of the many letters sent by Americans on the battlefriend back to their friends in Britain.
   
   Citizens of London is an excellent recapitulation of an heroic time. If the story turns out to be darker and more convoluted than the legend would have it, it does not obscure the fact that two nations facing a common foe came to be partners and friends.

5 comments about On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System.

1. Paulson's view on the events are surely the best insight to what actually took place. The other accounts (journalists) out there in books are only a second hand account of the story. Paulson was a principle in the unfolding of the economic blow up and even if jaded would be best told by him. Very interesting and insightful from the number one player in this game.



2. Many of my readers know that I am: (a) Reading every single book that comes out on the economic crisis of 2008, and (b) Reviewing every single credible book that comes out about the crisis of 2008, and (c) Writing my own book about the economic crisis of 2008 - one that I want to be a truly thoughtful and credible synopsis of what really, intrinsically, fundamentally caused the crisis. I have read so many books at this point that many go in one ear and out the other. However, a handful of books, whether I agreed with all of their prescriptions or not, have been so descriptively valuable I can not imagine what my project would look like without them. Hank Paulson's new 453-page On the Brink is all of that, and then some.
   
   As a participant in and observer of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, one of the things I yearn for is more color behind what specifically and mechanically caused the events of September 2008. I believe a worldview is required that can make heads or tails of the TARP, specifically, and overall government response, generally. I am still fine-tuning my beliefs about what exactly should have been the proper response. As is often the case, there is an abundance of simplicity being applied to this mess that is neither intelligible nor useful in this dialogue. There is also an abundance of wicked ideology being applied that is dangerous and at the heart of why I feel this project is so important. It is easy for those of my market-driven, conservative ideology to dismiss everything Hank Paulson did as "statist". It is easy for a vulgar writer of a rock n' roll magazine to determine that Paulson was a tool of a vast Goldman Sachs conspiracy to take over the solar system. I do not know which one of the two mind-numbingly retarded conclusions are more ridiculous, but I do know that readers of this review hoping that I will paint Paulson as the major antagonist of this drama will be very disappointed. And as for the Oliver Stone-nutters, well, let's face it - you probably don't read me anyways. Not for long.
   
   The vast majority of the first few chapters are loaded with ammunition for what has long been a major thesis of mine about the crisis: We are being naive to minimize the role Fannie and Freddie played in causing it. I learned more from Paulson's book about the specific mechancis behind Fannie and Freddie's dreadful role in our financial crisis, and I actually mean a lot more here than merely the abysmal social policy the two institutions represented. I also mean what the real connection was behind the placement of those two parasite organizations into government conservatorship in early September and the subsequent failure of Lehman Brothers and AIG in mid-September. I really do not know where to start. If Fannie and Freddie had never existed, ever, I very much doubt that any housing bubble would have ever taken place, and therefore no housing implosion would have taken place. And once these two disastrous entities were allowed to exist, if they had not been continually built up by the powerful Congressmen who were being paid off by them, I do not believe the crisis would have ever taken place. And if once these powerful institutions had achieved their sweetheart status in our nation's capital they had then been forced to compete with private institutions for capital (apart from the insidious "implicit" guarantee of government money), I am certain that the crisis would have been averted. And if once they had functioned with total monopoly status for decades, governmental oversight had reined them in, muting the sociopathic forces in Congress that called for them to expand their lending practices more and more, I am sure the disaster would not have taken place. But by September of 2008, we were so deep into this pile of you-know-what, that it is hard to see what the options were. The placement of Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship in September of 2008 is hardly controversial. What I am offended by is that these beasts were ever given the right to life. And what I am unbelievably offended by is that now, eighteen months after the initial action to seize these companies (which already existed by government charter and had already indebted themselves to the tune of trillions of dollars with an "implicit government guarantee"), policymakers continue to prop up these dysfunctional entities, adding more funds (unlimited funds, to be exact), rather than selling them off bit by bit and setting the stage for fully-privatized models to assume control. It can be done, and it must be done, but to do so means letting go of one of the most religious tenets of government policy of my lifetime: the role of government in setting social policy through manipulation of the housing market. Anyone who reads Paulson's early chapters on Fannie and Freddie will come away disgusted, not by what happened in July and then September of 2008, but by the entire Fannie/Freddie fiasco.
   
   I told my wife when reading Paulson's book that I was waiting to read one of these many books that feature a play-by play of the week of September 12, 2008 without feeling physically ill. Paulson's book kept the tradition alive, for indeed, that horrfic nightmare of a week was told in passionate detail by Paulson, and my visceral reaction remains one of genuine physical discomfort. I have to wait until my own expanded commentary of the crisis to elaborate, but I truly believe that the obsession many of us have in criticizing the TARP is incredibly misguided. Some of the more cartoonish commentaries on the crisis that have said, "there wasn't really a crisis; we all would have been okay; the whole thing was made up" - reflect an incredible ignorance about the global financial system. I want to believe somewhere deep down inside of me that Paulson and his crew calculated that some company was going to have to die, and that the financial system's medicine would need to begin. But I don't really believe that. I think they let Lehman die because they actually believed the damage would be contained, and when they saw what was happening to the worldwide financial system when it did, the panic bells began ringing without a break. We are never going to know what would have happened had no version of TARP been passed. I do not believe that the motivation of the Treasury Secretary was to expand the role of government in our lives; I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he believed (and still believes) that there was no choice at all if we were to avoid financial armageddon. I do not believe him that at the time he argued before Congress for the imperative need of TARP, his intention was for it to be used to purchase toxic assets, and then within a week or two of its passing realized that capital injections into the financial firms was the more prudent way to go. The reality is that I think they knew all along that this is what the TARP was going to be. The chapter in which Paulson tells us of McCain calling the emergency meeting in D.C. to discuss TARP makes me almost glad that he was not elected President (and amused at how badly his political strategists were out-maneuvered). The attempt by lawmakers to add on their particular agenda item to the bill paints the political process at its worst possible light. And most of all, the mere history of the passage of TARP leaves a breathing, thinking human being absolutely mystified at the political environment we are in today. The Democrats do not let a day go by without villainizing the horrors of the Wall Street bailouts, yet the reality is that this was a bill fervently supported by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, Hilary Clinton, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, and basically every single Demoractic lawmaker of consequence from top to bottom. Somehow, some way, the Democrats have managed to sponsor, rally behind, and pass the infamous bill known as TARP, and simultaneously condemn it, lambast it, and rhetorically crush it, all with the media as a willing accomplice to their crime.
   
   99% of what I intend to say about TARP has to do with why it never should have been necessary to begin with (because yes, government created this crisis), and why it should never be allowed to create the aftermath it is creating (things of the "do not let a crisis go to waste" variety). Only 1% of my thoughts on TARP have to do with how Congressmen and women voted that day. I believe that the attempts by leftist progressives to use this bill as an excuse to further the role of government in the nation's financial systems is hardly a surprising consequence. And as Jonah Goldberg has said, perhaps this "crap sandwich" should have caused some lawmakers to vote differently. But it is rather short-sighted to leave it there. Had the credit markets broken altogether, the country's financial system would today be fully and completely nationalized. The efforts of conservatives who value individual liberty need to be focused on never, ever again allowing the perfect storm of government policy to create such a crisis. It can be done. The paradigm that Paulson and his men imperfectly navigated through in the fall of 2008 was not the paradigm we want to live in. Let's change that paradigm, and more intelligently understand the financial crisis we went through.
   
   Ultimately, the idea that TARP was a bailout of Wall Street is pure, unadulterated nonsense. But that rhetoric is set in stone, and nothing is going to change the national perception at this point. The nation's financial companies could have been allowed to go into bankruptcy, as many surely would have (deservedly so). Depositors with over $100,000 of cash would have lost their funds, but depositor losses would look like a walk in the park compared to the losses of bondholders. And that, my friends, is what the bailouts of 2008 were about - a bailout of the debtholders of the world's financial system. Why this was the case, and what it means, will be explained in my ongoing commentary. Why Paulson and others were willing to let TARP be branded as a bailout of Wall Street firms when, in fact, the common equity of those firms was decimated, is a true mystery. The vast majority of Wall Street executives actually involved in running their firms into the ground were long gone by September of 2008. The largest bailouts had nothing to do with Wall Street firms at all, but were in fact an insurer (AIG) and two mortgage companies (Fannie and Freddie). Every one of the nine firms that took the initial draft of TARP money have paid it back at huge, huge profits to the taxpayers. What TARP did in hindsight was not to bailout Wall Street but actually allow it to be far more villainized in the American conscience than it ever needed to be. The farming industry which has been pillaging the American taxpayer in ways that would make Wall Street blush for three decades is actually considered a force of heroism. The automakers may be scoffed at, but they are hardly hated. TARP made all this possible. And I suppose what I would suggest to my readers is that TARP was the worst thing that ever happened to Wall Street, not the best. But as for the vote that took place in September of 2008 (and again a few days later in early October), I will not condemn the lawmakers who voted for the legislation that their Treasury Secretary told them would be necessary to save the system from collapse. The situation warrants more nuance than many are capable of granting it.
   
   Paulson's book is shocking in the extent it goes to at portraying George W. Bush as engaged, thoughtful, and courageous. Paulson surely knows Bush would have made an easy sacrifical lamb, and he went the exact opposite direction. With no benefit to Paulson whatsoever, I find that intriguing. The book is anything but defensive, and in fact, he makes it very clear in the book's powerful concluding chapters that he does not apologize for how he formulated the government response to the crisis. I believe Secretary Paulson and I would have vast ideological differences if I were ever allowed to dialogue with him directly about this crisis. But I hold him in high regard as a man and as a patriot. I do not question his intentions. You will not either if you give his book a fair read. I commend it to you wholeheartedly.



3. Great job in explaining the complexities and the crisis nature of the near collapse of the world financial system. Great understanding of Hank Paulson and the near impossible job of working with congress to avert the collapse. Our congressional leaders do not have a clue except for their own personal self serving personal political agendas. One gains a greater respect for the team that Paulson assembled to deal with the crisis.



4. Paulson doesn't waste the reader's time with politically-correct posturing, nor does he play the blame-game and president-bashing so popular among the less mature. He states the facts as he sees them from his unique, hands-on perspective, and presents his analysis therefrom. This is an instructional read, not fluff. It holds the reader's interest.



5. An interesting insight as to how government works at the height of an emergency. A good read.

5 comments about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

1. Henrietta Lacks was born to an impoverished family of in rural Virginia in 1920. Her family worked on the same tobacco fields that their slave ancestors did during the preceding century, and after her mother died she grew up in her grandfather's dilapidated log cabin that served as slave quarters. She left school after the sixth grade to pick tobacco for ten cents per day on the farms of local whites. Henrietta had her first child with her first cousin Day at age 14, and they eventually married and moved to a small town outside of Baltimore during World War II so that Day could work at Bethlehem Steel for less than 80 cents an hour.
   
   In early 1951, Henrietta went to the gynecology clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital after feeling a "knot" in her womb. After she was taken to a "Colored" examination room, the gynecologist on duty found a firm mass on her cervix that seemed cancerous, but was unlike anything he had ever seen. He sent a slice of the mass for analysis, and Henrietta was soon diagnosed with cervical cancer.
   
   Henrietta returned to Johns Hopkins a few weeks later, where she underwent treatment for cervical cancer. She was given a generalized consent form that gave permission for her doctors to perform any operative procedures necessary to treat her illness. However, she was not told that one of the staff gynecologists was collecting specimens of clinic patients with cervical cancer for a clinical study, and biopsies of healthy and cancerous cervical tissues were taken from her during her initial procedure. The cancerous cells, which were named HeLa after the first two letters of Henrietta's first and last names, proved to be the first human cells that could be grown indefinitely in a nutrient broth, and the Johns Hopkins researchers were overjoyed at this long awaited success.
   
   The treatment she received at Hopkins was state of the art, but was unsuccessful, due to the aggressive nature of her primary tumor, and she succumbed to her illness several months later. The researchers wanted to acquire more specimens from her tumor ridden body by performing an autopsy with biopsies. Her husband, after initially denying a request for an autopsy, was misled into agreeing to allow the Hopkins pathologists to perform a limited autopsy, after he was told that the doctors wanted to run tests that might help his children someday.
   
   The HeLa cell line was provided to scientists and organizations worldwide for minimal cost, as neither the researchers nor Johns Hopkins profited from the first immortal human cell line. However, a number of companies made millions of dollars by mass producing HeLa and selling them at a much higher cost. HeLa was used in numerous important biomedical studies, including the development of the Salk polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-1950s, cancer and viral research projects, and studies of the effects of weightlessness and space travel on the human body by NASA.
   
   During this time Henrietta's husband and children were completely unaware that her cells had been harvested for medical research by the Hopkins doctors. By that time most of them were living in poverty in Baltimore, and were unable to afford basic health insurance. Articles about HeLa began to appear in medical journals and in the lay press, but it wasn't until 1973 that the family accidentally learned about the HeLa cell line. The family was contacted by Johns Hopkins, so that their cells could be analyzed and compared to those taken from Henrietta 22 years earlier. Once again they were misled into believing that the purpose of these tests was to determine if any of her children also had cancer, which caused Deborah, Henrietta's oldest surviving daughter, many years of anguish.
   
   Once Henrietta's name was released in the media, the family was besieged by journalists and others wishing to profit from her story, causing her husband and children to become distrustful and wary.
   
   Rebecca Skloot became interested in Henrietta Lacks after hearing about the HeLa cell line and its forgotten host as an undergraduate student. She spent many months and countless hours attempting to contact the Lacks family, and she slowly but painfully gained the trust of Deborah and her siblings, after she promised to tell the family's story alongside the history of HeLa.
   
   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fantastic achievement, given the hurdles that Skloot had to overcome to obtain information from the Lacks family, Johns Hopkins, and the other key actors in this story. In addition to an in-depth history of this ordinary yet quite remarkable family, she provides just the right amount of information about HeLa and what it meant for biomedical research, along with information about informed consent from the 1950s to the present, the effect of race on medical care in the United States and the views of African-Americans toward medical experimentation, and the biology of cancer. The book is meant for a lay audience, but it would be of interest to those with a formal medical background. I found the book to be a bit overly sentimental and personal at times, but this is a very minor criticism of a fabulous book.



2. The life of Henrietta Lacks unfolds into a powerful story about a woman, wife and mother who has received little recognition for what her cells have given the medical community. Her family remained relatively unaware of her contribution until the medical community started approaching them about obtaining their DNA and cells. I would definitely recommend to every woman out there and others interested in the continuing life of a woman who died long ago.



3. A WONDERFULLY DONE STORY ALBEIT A TRUE ONE. A masterful job by "Boo" Skloot. The Brilliance of the scientists superimposed on the ignorance of some of the Lacks family. It must have been an arduous task for the authr. She has created a great read.
   Marty Friedman



4. I grew up in East Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland. I lived about ten blocks from Johns Hopkins Hospital and always heard older people talking about others, especally African americans, who were missing due to experiments at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I also remember going to Harriet Lane for medical care and never liked the dark feeling I always had when going there. I also remember that my Mother never allowed the doctors to do anything to her children without her thoroughly discussing it and thinking about. I asked her why and she said because she knew a lady a long time ago that came to JHH and strange things happened to her. Because of this book, I now know why. I applaud the author for being brave and caring enough to write this story. Its a scandal and a shame that JHH never came to the family to help them really understand what happened to their Mother before the events written in this book became public and provide them with the compensation they should have gotten years ago for this. I hope that many people read this book because it tells the truth about how medicine today has been able to advance due to the innocence and ignorance of one black women, Henrietta Lacks.



5. I found that i could not put this book down! It was thought provoking and well written. Very good insight into the history of medicinal research in the U.S. and how people are used in this country without their knowlege to "further the common good". Paints a very good picture of how the less fortunate among us can be used to further the quality of health care in the United States without being able to afford the benefits that they helped create!! A very timely book for the current health care debate!

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