Lab Girl

Hardcover, 290 pages

Published Nov. 11, 2016 by Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN:
978-1-101-87493-6
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4 stars (7 reviews)

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world

Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, …

10 editions

Unexpected representation in the ECT field

5 stars

Content warning Mental Health issues, sexism, post-partum issues (Ableism in reviewer's life also mentioned)

Review of 'Lab Girl' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Maybe all scientists should start their academic careers as literature majors. Inculcating a love of the written word at such an important stage in their intellectual development will lead to better technical papers, better public communication, better science advocacy. Most importantly to me, maybe it will lead to more science memoirs like this one.

This is, at its core, a science memoir. We have a girl falling in love with science, a young woman having that love reciprocated by science in college, and an adult living in a fulfilling and equal relationship with science. But, possibly because of that competing love of the written word, the memoir is broken up into illustrative anecdotes and is really tightly written in a really distinctive voice.

These anecdotes are broken up by chapters in which no person appears, and the good doctor points her professional knowledge right at us and lets us have …

Review of 'Lab Girl' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What I loved:

Some fascinating facts about plants, about scientific process - the physical process of creating science with your own hands.

A beautiful story of friendship between a woman and a man - literature needs more examples of non-romantic close friendship. The faithful sidekick Bill is the best

Lyrical language. It is precise and direct, yet flows like water

What I didn't like:

Too much family life/feelings/childhood memories

Narration of the audiobook - this book is better read than listened to, as the author makes it sound heartbreakingly sad all the time, even though it is not a sad book at all