The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: The best book I've read in quite awhile

You know that feeling you get when a book captivates you from the very first page? For me, it’s pretty much all-consuming. I’ll miss my stop on the train, never hearing the conductor bellow out my town. I’ll stay up, even though I’m exhausted. When I’m reading something I really love, I just want to lose myself, utterly and completely, in the pages. (Sometimes I go into the bedroom and shut the door, telling my teenagers they can disturb me only if there’s blood involved.) That kind of reading can be almost bittersweet — sometimes, as I near the end, I consciously try to slow down so I don’t finish too quickly. I’ve been lucky enough to have the feeling twice recently — first with Brady Udall’s new novel, The Lonely Polygamist, which doesn’t come out until April (sorry), and then with Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, reviewed in this week’s issue.

How about the rest of you? What’s the last really terrific book you read?