Lab Girl

A Memoir

By: Hope Jahren

Narrated by: Hope Jahren

National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Autobiography, 2016.

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime collaboration, in work and in life; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see and think about the natural world.

Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she's studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book might have been a revelatory treatise on plant life. Lab Girl is that, but it is also so much more. Because in it, Jahren also shares with us her inspiring life story, in prose that takes your breath away.

Lab Girl is a book about work, about love, and about the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren's remarkable stories: about the things she's discovered in her lab as well as how she got there; about her childhood - hours of unfettered play in her father's laboratory; about how she found a sanctuary in science and learned to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands"; about a brilliant and wounded man named Bill, who became her loyal colleague and best friend; about their adventurous, sometimes rogue research trips, which take them from the Midwest all across the United States and over the Atlantic, from the ever-light skies of the North Pole to tropical Hawaii; and about her constant striving to do and be the best she could, never allowing personal or professional obstacles to cloud her dedication to her work.

Jahren's probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her insights on nature enliven every minute of this book. Lab Girl allows us to see with clear eyes the beautiful, sophisticated mechanisms within every leaf, blade of grass, and flower petal and the power within ourselves to face - with bravery and conviction - life's ultimate challenge: discovering who we are.

©2016 Hope Jahren (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I'd been a scientist." (Ann Patchett)

Marvelous book

When I like a book, I try to stretch out my listening experience as long as possible, but this book is so engaging that I finished listening to it over one weekend. All sorts of subjects are melded: science research of course, depressing statistics about difficulties of funding, academic department dynamics, and a memoir of an amazing work relationship spanning two+ decades. I will never look at the tree-line I planted behind my house in the same way. It is more of a marvel than I knew.

Still deciding if I liked this or not

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The author probably should not have read this herself. It was overly emotional and sometimes uncomfortable to listen to.

Any additional comments?

I thought this book would be a first-person story about a woman scientist. It was, but it was far from the story of a typical academic scientist. On the one hand, she overcame a lot of adversity. On the other hand, some of her behavior toward students and others was pretty inconsiderate, to put it mildly. I was wondering if this would be a good book to give young women considering a scientific career. It is not; it is likely to scare them off. The life described has some aspects that are typical of science (the long hours, the tough battles to be funded) but some that are not. There were interspersed botany lessons that were interesting in and of themselves. They seemed to be intended to be metaphors for the life struggles described, but sometimes they missed the mark and just left the listener feeling slightly odd themselves.

Excellent read, very thought provoking

Hope is a very talented and articulate writer and Storey teller. I would definitely recomend this book to anyone, especially those interested in nature interactions.

Don't listen while driving

Would you consider the audio edition of Lab Girl to be better than the print version?

No, the print version is much better. The passion for her topic comes through better in the print version. The author sounds dead bored in the audio edition.

What other book might you compare Lab Girl to and why?

The first thing book that comes to mind is Carl Sagan's Cosmos because of the depth of information and details (though of space, not of botany). Another is The Language of Flowers because of the narrator's passion for growing things.

What didn’t you like about Hope Jahren’s performance?

She speaks in a flat monotone. I almost fell asleep at the wheel and had to turn it off.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Fabulous

Loved, loved, loved this intimate portrait into the life mind and heart of a female scientist and her cohort fellow scientist in their journey to uncover and discover the mysteries of plant life and their own lives. This is one that I will listen to again and again.

Pure poetry

A good mix of memoir and science content, though heavier on the memoir. Jahren's writing is nothing less than poetry. I thought she was a good choice for narrator, though the way she pronounces "root" like "ruht" was a little jarring, as often as the word comes up. But that is a trifling complaint for as much as I loved this book and Jahren's delivery of it.

Charmed

Everyone should read this book. Some will love it others will not. By the end I was charmed & educated beyond what I thought possible about our natural world. Before I was charmed I was amazed by the poetry of her writing.

Good book

Great reading voice. The information about trees very interesting. The personal stuff sometimes very interesting other times not.

Phenomenal Science Writing

This book blew me away most unexpectedly! Wow, not just well written, compelling science, but a very human story of acceptance and love and hope.

A modern female scientist's perspective

An amazing story which relates some of the trials faced by the scientific community as well as the struggles of a female within that community. Hope also shares her compelling passion and love for plants.