What Rebecca's Reading
- 'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite A “serpent-handling” West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.
- A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court How much is a tweet worth? And how much does a Twitter follower cost?
- A dollar badly spent: New facts on processed food in school lunches In a collaboration between The New York Times and the Investigative Fund, reporter Lucy Komisar delved into the billion-dollar business of the national school lunch program and found some unsettling news.
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November 10, 2010
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Wins 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has just been announced as the winner of this year’s Wellcome Trust Book Prize:
Ten years in the making, ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ (Pan Macmillan) – a beautiful but harrowing work of non-fiction by Rebecca Skloot – has won the second Wellcome Trust Book Prize. Taking readers on a journey of scientific discovery, the book tells the story of a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, became one of the most important tools in medicine.
The prize honors one book each year “on the theme of health and medicine. It brings together the worlds of medicine and literature, appealing to literature lovers and science enthusiasts.”
Read the full announcement of the award, and why the jury chose The Immortal Life online here.

The Henrietta Lacks Foundation
The Henrietta Lacks Foundation strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without their knowledge or consent.