PULLMAN, Wash. – A non-fiction book that touches on cancer, race, scientific advances, gender, ethics, genetics, class and poverty has been chosen as the 2012-13 common reading book for freshmen at Washington State University.“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the bestselling first book by science writer Rebecca Skloot, earned several prestigious awards in 2010, the year it was published by Crown Books. This month, it emerged as the top choice of WSU Provost and Executive Vice President Warwick M. Bayly to be the next common reading book on the Pullman campus.
“The selection committee members are very happy with Provost Bayly’s decision and feel that ‘Henrietta Lacks’ will be an excellent book for freshmen and the basis for an exceptional year of programming in the Common Reading Tuesdays faculty expert lecture series,” said Susan Poch, co-director of the Common Reading Program and associate dean of the University College at WSU.
Nearly 30 books were nominated for the 2012-13 academic year, the sixth of the program. The selection committee, made up of faculty, staff and students, spent five months reviewing them in details.
Members recommended three books as finalists for the provost’s review. The other two are “The Big Thirst,” by Charles Fishman, and “Travel as a Political Act,” by Rick Steves.
“Choosing the next year’s common reading book is a formidable task but one that I thoroughly enjoy,” Bayly said. “I wish to thank everyone who nominated a book this year, as the field was quite diverse and interesting.
“From the final three,” he said, “‘Henrietta Lacks’ raised many topics that are very relevant to society and will stimulate great intellectual discussions between freshmen and our research faculty. I look forward to another great year of outstanding programming and classroom usage around the book.”
Skloot’s book examines many aspects of Lacks’ life and details how her cells became, essentially, immortal. Lacks, a poor African-American Southern tobacco farmer and mother of five, died of cervical cancer in 1951 at age 31. Without approval, doctors took cancerous cells from her body; they went on to become the basis for unimaginable medical uses as well as financial gains.
Known as HeLa cells (derived from the first two letters of her first and last names), they became the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. They “were vital for developing polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses and the atom bomb’s effects; help lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions,” according to a book summary.
Her survivors, in East Baltimore, Md., have seen none of the profits made on HeLa cells. In fact, they didn’t know of their existence until 20 years after Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave. Skloot’s book tells of how they wrestle to this day with the legal, moral and ethical issues surrounding the cells and how they are used.
Details about availability of the book to new WSU students and to faculty are yet to be determined. As information becomes available, it will be posted online at http://CommonReading.wsu.edu.