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Lab Girl
by
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 stories: about her childhood in rural ...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 stories: about her childhood in rural ...more
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Hardcover, 290 pages
Published
April 5th 2016
by Knopf
(first published March 1st 2016)
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Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life.While it may be a beautiful life in many ways, it has not been an easy one. Anne Hope Jahren is a geobiologist currently working at the University of Oslo. This represents a bit of homecoming, as her ancestors emigrated from Norway to Minnesota. Her father was a science teacher at a community college. She writes about having t ...more
I love "Lab Girl".....love, love, love, LOVE this book!!!!!!
I have a new crush on 'both' Hope Jahren, ( Geochemist and author of "Lab Girl), and Hope's lab partner, Bill!!!
I'm moved - inspired - speechless - breathless- ( teary-eyed throughout this entire reading experience). I'm grateful -- altered having read Hope Jahren's memoir!!!!
5+++++ stars from me!!!!!!!
Tidbits....( since I couldn't begin to say enough wonderful things found on EVERY PAGE)
.....OMG.... anybody who is 'close' to me ( rea ...more
I have a new crush on 'both' Hope Jahren, ( Geochemist and author of "Lab Girl), and Hope's lab partner, Bill!!!
I'm moved - inspired - speechless - breathless- ( teary-eyed throughout this entire reading experience). I'm grateful -- altered having read Hope Jahren's memoir!!!!
5+++++ stars from me!!!!!!!
Tidbits....( since I couldn't begin to say enough wonderful things found on EVERY PAGE)
.....OMG.... anybody who is 'close' to me ( rea ...more
So yesterday, I had to take down a smaller tree in my yard. I knew what was happening as I pulled on the root, seeing the main taproot, the one my tree had grown straight down and spent it's lifetime trying to maintain. Then came the side roots, the ones put out for stability, called runners. My tree had suckers, green shoots coming from the runners, still living, still choosing life, even though its main source had died. Taking down that tree of mine was an emotional experience. I'll never look
...more
A high 4 stars. I can't possibly describe what Lab Girl is about or review it with any linearity, because this is a tangled web of strands of memoir, natural history, philosophical musings and random thoughts. Here are my own thoughts in no particular order:
-This is an ode to trees and plants.
-This is a love letter to friendship generally and to Jahren's friend and lab partner Bill in particular.
-This is a reflection on the potency of motherhood.
-This is a peek into the lives of quirky people tr ...more
-This is an ode to trees and plants.
-This is a love letter to friendship generally and to Jahren's friend and lab partner Bill in particular.
-This is a reflection on the potency of motherhood.
-This is a peek into the lives of quirky people tr ...more
I really wish Dr. Jahren had confined herself to talking about her work, which was interesting and inspiring. The rest of the book, especially the personal aspects, was tedious and full of endless whining. In my experience (having worked in R&D for over 25 years) women are judged on their merits as scientists. If you’re good, you’re taken seriously. Finding funding for academic research is a separate problem that affects scientists of both sexes. I also disliked her implication that there’s only
...more
3.5 When I first started reading this I was more interested in the chapters, which alternated with her personal story, on the trees and plants. That changed though as I read on. Loved her story too, her beginning passion for the sciences, her childhood and going with her dad to his lab, her first jobs which I found eye opening, and her wonderful long term friendship with Bill. He would become her lab partner, the person she bounced ideas off of and shared triumphs and disappointments with. The t
...more
I am not a scientist, but I loved this memoir about science.
Hope Jahren is a botanist who is passionate about her field. Lab Girl is a beautifully written book about her life — her childhood in Minnesota with taciturn parents; how she developed a love of trees and plants; her early experiences in laboratory work; the ongoing struggle to get research funding; her battle with anxiety and depression; the longtime friendship with her lab partner, Bill; and how she eventually met her spouse and becam ...more
Hope Jahren is a botanist who is passionate about her field. Lab Girl is a beautifully written book about her life — her childhood in Minnesota with taciturn parents; how she developed a love of trees and plants; her early experiences in laboratory work; the ongoing struggle to get research funding; her battle with anxiety and depression; the longtime friendship with her lab partner, Bill; and how she eventually met her spouse and becam ...more
Fascinating, fast, often moving look at the twining between trees and the life of a hugely accomplished plant scientist. The tree details were excellent throughout, and I enjoyed Jahren's quick, lucid writing, and the way she details the hustle she and her long-term colleague Bill exhibit in putting their careers together. If one is interested in work in the sciences, this is a clear-eyed look at the many short-comings and beautiful moments that can come with it. The writing has some odd beats (
...more
Apr 09, 2016
Iris P
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Iris P by:
Snotchocheez
Lab Girl
★★★★★ 5 Stars!!
I think something really special happens when a scientist has the ability to use the written word to successfully communicate and explain to the rest of us what they do.
It's like in Baseball when the pitcher also happens to be good at batting. It's not in their job description, we don't expect them to, but when it happens is extremely exhilarating! I don't know if Hope Jahren likes baseball, but I found her writing utterly exquisite.
As the daughter of a father who was a p ...more
★★★★★ 5 Stars!!
I think something really special happens when a scientist has the ability to use the written word to successfully communicate and explain to the rest of us what they do.
It's like in Baseball when the pitcher also happens to be good at batting. It's not in their job description, we don't expect them to, but when it happens is extremely exhilarating! I don't know if Hope Jahren likes baseball, but I found her writing utterly exquisite.
As the daughter of a father who was a p ...more
"For trees that live in the snow, winter is a journey. Plants do not travel through space as we do; as a rule they do not move from place to place. Instead they travel through time, enduring one event after the other, and in this sense, winter is a particularly long trip. Trees follow the standard advice given for any extended travel within a rustic setting: pack carefully."
I came away, after reading Lab Girl, awed and delighted. How amazing to be able to walk along side the mind of a scientist, ...more
I came away, after reading Lab Girl, awed and delighted. How amazing to be able to walk along side the mind of a scientist, ...more
I found this in an Independent Book store one day, not by actually seeing the book, there was a note on a card attached to an empty shelf.
It said, “Lab Girl by Hope Jahren - THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN A LONG WHILE – Buy it!”
So I asked where it was and the gal behind the stacks ran off, returned, and placed it in my hand, “You'll love it I promise.” Her enthusiasm caused me to not hesitate and pay full retail on the spot.
This is not just a Memoir as far as memoirs go. It is well written with ...more
It said, “Lab Girl by Hope Jahren - THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN A LONG WHILE – Buy it!”
So I asked where it was and the gal behind the stacks ran off, returned, and placed it in my hand, “You'll love it I promise.” Her enthusiasm caused me to not hesitate and pay full retail on the spot.
This is not just a Memoir as far as memoirs go. It is well written with ...more
Mar 16, 2017
Michael
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
california,
ecology,
biology,
memoir,
academia,
non-fiction,
georgia,
science,
geology,
hawaii
A rare and emotionally engaging close-up look at the development and practice of science, its empowerment and challenges, and the ability of Hope Jahren to transform influences from her father and her questing personality into a successful career in fields that could be called eco-geology and paleoecology. From her time helping her father manage the physics lab where he taught at a community college in suburban Minnesota, she came to appreciate the outlook of scientific inquiry, feel empowered i
...more
“Because I am a female scientist, nobody knows what the hell I am, and it has given me the delicious freedom to make it up as I go along.” This memoir puts so many things together that it shouldn’t work, yet somehow – delightfully – does. With witty anecdotes and recreated dialogue, Jahren tells about her Minnesota upbringing, her long years in education, her ultimate specialization in geobiology/botany, crossing the country to take up academic posts in Atlanta, Baltimore and Hawaii, her long-ti
...more
Sep 20, 2019
carol.
marked it as don-t-count
Feeble attempt at reading a story about a female scientist, which might have been up my alley. The beginning was a challenge. I felt like the narrative was jumpy, although that might have been Jahren's attempt at an 'overview.' She eventually seems to settle and go for chronological order, but suffered enough from Daddy-Worship-Syndrome that I lost a contact in the back of my head. To make matters worse, somehow the pages got crimped and the library now insists that I owe them $22 for this book.
...more
Hope Jahren is a paleo-botanist. She studies growing plants as well as ancient ones. She has been working as a scientist her entire life, and her dedication to the profession shines through every single page of this book.
Chapters about her own life alternate with chapters about botany. At first, this is a bit disconcerting, as the alternating chapters have little to do with each other. It is like reading two books at once, with their chapters intermingled. In addition, there seems to be very lit ...more
Chapters about her own life alternate with chapters about botany. At first, this is a bit disconcerting, as the alternating chapters have little to do with each other. It is like reading two books at once, with their chapters intermingled. In addition, there seems to be very lit ...more
True confession. I never wanted to read Lab Girl when it first came out because I am phobic about needles and by word association I think of triage when the word lab comes up. Growing up, I visited chemistry labs on many occasions because my dad worked at a pharmaceutical company for his entire career. I grew up fascinated with chemistry sets- making volcanoes out of kitchen products, looking under a microscope, and later when I advanced to high school chemistry classes, identifying esters and t
...more
May 20, 2018
Olive Fellows (abookolive)
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
favorites-all-time,
favorites-2018
My god am I a sucker for an emotionally resonant and movingly written literary memoir.
I enjoyed Hope Jahren's Lab Girl. Still, I wanted to like it more than I did. Jahren's memoir follows her pursuits of science along with all the achievements and disappointments. Another engaging aspect of the book is the complex relationship Jahren forms with a fellow student (now her lab manager), Bill. That said, I really wanted to hear more about the science, about her actual discoveries rather than how she happened to move from this to that university. Perhaps I went into reading this with
...more
4 stars
Didn't expect to like this, despite the handful of glowing reviews from my friends. (For some reason I thought this was going to be a plant-centric H is For Hawk, which was okay, but not a book I'd care to revisit.) Hope Jahren's lovely affirmation to the scientific world, Lab Girl, is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in plants and trees and flora of all types. How she took botanist vignettes (e.g. plants that sweat, hackberry husks made of opal, the South's kudzu inf ...more
Didn't expect to like this, despite the handful of glowing reviews from my friends. (For some reason I thought this was going to be a plant-centric H is For Hawk, which was okay, but not a book I'd care to revisit.) Hope Jahren's lovely affirmation to the scientific world, Lab Girl, is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in plants and trees and flora of all types. How she took botanist vignettes (e.g. plants that sweat, hackberry husks made of opal, the South's kudzu inf ...more
This is less a review than it is a caveat: My experience of “reading” the book was really more of a two star affair— however, I listened to it, and feel pretty confident that I would have enjoyed it more in the written word. The author reads the book herself, and during the parts that are supposed to be sad, she's reading in one of those choked-up/half-crying voices which is beyond annoying. But, what with lady scientist solidarity and such, I'm rounding up.
...more
Clue 1. Happy, exuberant state.
Clue 2. Read 290 pages in one sitting.
Clue 3. Desire to tell everyone about book.
Clue 4. No interest in picking up another book until euphoria subsides.
Analysis?
Yes, I read a fabulous book today. Hope Jahren combines the stories of her life with alternating and connected stories of the plant world to create a brilliant book. Five stars.
Clue 2. Read 290 pages in one sitting.
Clue 3. Desire to tell everyone about book.
Clue 4. No interest in picking up another book until euphoria subsides.
Analysis?
Yes, I read a fabulous book today. Hope Jahren combines the stories of her life with alternating and connected stories of the plant world to create a brilliant book. Five stars.
The book is not bad, it is OK. It spreads itself thin.
It is an autobiography of one specific woman, a woman both ordinary and exceptional. The book depicts the life of a female botanical research scientist at the turn of the 21st century, a central issue being the difficulty in attaining adequate research grants to survive on. It is about friendship. It is about choosing where one's main interests lie - family or job. What I think it does best is draw the author's fervent passion for plants, re ...more
It is an autobiography of one specific woman, a woman both ordinary and exceptional. The book depicts the life of a female botanical research scientist at the turn of the 21st century, a central issue being the difficulty in attaining adequate research grants to survive on. It is about friendship. It is about choosing where one's main interests lie - family or job. What I think it does best is draw the author's fervent passion for plants, re ...more
Hope Jahren's love of science comes through loud and clear in her memoir. She grew up in a rural Minnesota home where there was not much family interaction. The highlight of her day as a child was spending the afternoon in her father's science lab at the local community college. Jahren is presently a professor of geobiology at the University of Hawaii. Her memoir chronicles her personal history and the challenges of running her own laboratory. It also contains short chapters giving fascinating i
...more
A strange book, for sure. There's mention of Hope's schooling, her family, her friendship with Bill over 20+ years, her husband, her son, some interesting details of plants and trees, her labs.....but nothing about her work, research, lectures, scientific presentations, etc. Although this is a memoir of her working life, there's very little of her work included. For example, we're told in detail of a multi-day car trip to a conference....but not a word about the talk she gave at the conference o
...more
I grew up spending my free time in my fathers lab and later I was married to a scientist. We celebrated together with deep appreciation and wonder when he purchased his first mass spectrometer. Our children grew up wandering about his lab, helping out during summer time breaks. We have a tremendous love and appreciation of the outdoors, camping, travelling, hiking, collecting.
Ah, I thought, here is the perfect book for me to read!
Though I consider myself to be a broad minded intellect I can't un ...more
Ah, I thought, here is the perfect book for me to read!
Though I consider myself to be a broad minded intellect I can't un ...more
Full disclosure: I knew Hope in high school, lost touch after graduation and reconnected 20+ years later (see? it's possible for good to come of Facebook!), so I'm not going to even pretend to be objective.
But if were to pretend, I might point out that this book is about trees and science and love and sheer bloodymindedness and may or may not have made me cry. ...more
But if were to pretend, I might point out that this book is about trees and science and love and sheer bloodymindedness and may or may not have made me cry. ...more
Dec 06, 2016
Carolyn
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-autobiography-memoir,
science
Hope Jahren's memoir is a fascinating insight into what it takes to be a successful research scientist in America today. She writes of the struggle to establish herself in a male-dominated world and the constant fight for recognition of ideas that don't fit in with the conventional view. She also touches on her struggle with bipolar disease and it's effect on her work, her life and motherhood. She describes the constant fight for funding and making do on a shoe-string, which will resonate with r
...more
This book is both wonderful and idiosyncratic; I found it full of surprises. It's a mixture of various aspects of Hope Jahren's life. In different parts it is the author's life story, a description of a deep and unusual friendship, the trials of being an academic and researcher, and a monument of her devotion to ecology and botany. Hope Jahren is an unusual person, overflowing with warmth, wit and originality. Her story makes for a fascinating and delightful read.
I am going to finish this by s ...more
I am going to finish this by s ...more
The title evokes a vision of some woman's whacky science adventures as a lab assistant. The book blurb tells us that Hope Jahren is a scientist who has opened 3 labs blah blah blah relationships. The results for me were a little unexpected but overall positive. A combination of eccentricity, obsession and real friendship. Jahren has written primarily a memoir interspersed with some science-y anecdotes about plant life. It was also a love letter to her coworker and lifelong companion.
Jahren start ...more
Jahren start ...more
I finished this memoir a few days ago and in trying to get my thoughts together for a review, I read what my GR friends said about the book, and I realized it's all been said and said so much better and eloquently than I could.
So I'll just say I loved it. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author , and she does an excellent job. I loved hearing about her life and passion as a scientist, her illness (bipolar), her quirky friend Bill, her marriage, motherhood, and yes, I even loved the scien ...more
So I'll just say I loved it. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author , and she does an excellent job. I loved hearing about her life and passion as a scientist, her illness (bipolar), her quirky friend Bill, her marriage, motherhood, and yes, I even loved the scien ...more
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monroe Public Lib...: Lunchtime Book Club for February | 1 | 7 | Jan 07, 2021 10:44AM | |
| Favorite discoveries | 2 | 8 | Jan 01, 2021 12:32AM |
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HOPE JAHREN is an award-winning scientist who has been pursuing independent research in paleobiology since 1996, when she completed her PhD at UC Berkeley and began teaching and researching first at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then at Johns Hopkins University. She is the recipient of three Fulbright Awards and is one of four scientists, and the only woman, to have been awarded both of
...more
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