The nonfiction I couldn't shut up about

A heartbreaking account of a medical miracle: how one woman’s cells – taken without her knowledge – have saved countless lives. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of race, class, injustice and exploitation. ‘No dead woman has done more for the living . . . A fascinating, harrowing, necessary book.’ – Hilary Mantel, Guardian With an introduction Sarah Moss, author of by author of Summerwater . Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells – taken without asking her – became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta’s family did not learn of her ‘immortality’ until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences . . . Rebecca Skloot’s moving account is the story of the life, and afterlife, of one woman who changed the medical world forever. Balancing the beauty and drama of scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our bodies are made of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an extraordinary journey in search of the soul and story of a real woman, whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world. Now an HBO film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.

A New York Times forensic science bestseller, "this quirky, funny read offers perspective and insight about life, death and the medical profession."* For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. "Delightful—though never disrespectful" ( Time Out New York), science writer Mary Roach's Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die? "You can close this book with an appreciation of the miracle that the human body really is." —* Wall Street Journal "Acutely entertaining, morbidly fascinating." — Forbes "One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year. . . . Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting." — Entertainment Weekly With an Epilogue by the Author

"A fascinating history of…[a craft] that preceded and made possible civilization itself." —New York Times Book Review New discoveries about the textile arts reveal women's unexpectedly influential role in ancient societies. Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous economic force, belonging primarily to women. Despite the great toil required in making cloth and clothing, most books on ancient history and economics have no information on them. Much of this gap results from the extreme perishability of what women produced, but it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture. Elizabeth Wayland Barber has drawn from data gathered by the most sophisticated new archaeological methods—methods she herself helped to fashion. In a "brilliantly original book" (Katha Pollitt, Washington Post Book World), she argues that women were a powerful economic force in the ancient world, with their own industry: fabric.