Lab Girl

by Hope Jahren

Lab Girl is a book about work and about love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren's remarkable stories: about the discoveries she has made in her lab, as well as her struggle to get there; about her childhood playing in her father's laboratory; about how lab work became a sanctuary for both her heart and her hands; about Bill, the brilliant, wounded man who became her loyal colleague and best friend; about their field trips - sometimes authorised, sometimes very much not - that took them from the Midwest across the USA, to Norway and to Ireland, from the pale skies of North Pole to tropical Hawaii; and about her constant striving to do and be her best, and her unswerving dedication to her life's work.

Visceral, intimate, gloriously candid and sometimes extremely funny, Jahren's descriptions of her work, her intense relationship with the plants, seeds and soil she studies, and her insights on nature enliven every page of this thrilling book. In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.

• ISBN10: 0349006172
• ISBN13: 9780349006178
• Publish Date: 5 April 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Fleet
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 80000
• Language: English

Reviews

[merryfaith]

Great memoir. I loved how she weaved in her personal life and struggles with biopolar disorder with geobiology experiments and facts and often used them as metaphors. Plus, I just learned a lot about plants and trees and the life of a scientist without being bored in the least, so there's that. Skip the audiobook if you can - I made it about an hour and a half and returned it to my libby app and grabbed the ebook to finish it. Other reviewers have noted that the audiobook was a slow and hard listen for them too, so good to know it wasn't just me. The source material really is phenomenal, though.

[Beth C.]

Growing up in a family where her father was a scientist (THE scientist in town) and used to take her to the lab with him, Hope Jahren knew from the time she was small that she wanted to be a scientist as well. She struggled and persevered, and has more than accomplished her goal - and this book is not only about how she got there, but about the plants she has studied along the way.

Jahren details her struggles not only with established scientists (mostly male), but also with the devastation wrought by mental illness. Interspersed throughout are chapters discussing plants and trees, to some degree used almost as a marker to coincide with where the author was in her own life at the time. The first few chapters of the book took a little getting used to, with the alternating between her story and that of the plants, but once I got the hang of it, it truly was an interesting way to write a memoir.

The chapters about the plants and trees are much more interesting than I'm making them sound - the writing is truly lovely. I learned so many things I hadn't known before, and I honestly felt almost like I was reading an ode to all things green. Those chapters more about the author were honest and occasionally brutal, particularly once her mental illness begins to manifest.

Overall, this is a story about struggles, perseverance, fortitude, and luck - both human and plant. It's also about the beauty of life, regardless how it's lived. I would definitely recommend this book, and I think it would be a great one for book clubs to read and discuss.