Lab Girl

A Memoir

By: Hope Jahren

Narrated by: Hope Jahren

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, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.

Jahren’s probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her acute insights on nature enliven every page of this extraordinary book. Lab Girl opens your eyes to the beautiful, sophisticated mechanisms within every leaf, blade of grass, and flower petal. Here is an eloquent demonstration of what can happen when you find the stamina, passion, and sense of sacrifice needed to make a life out of what you truly love, as you discover along the way the person you were meant to be.


Music for the Audio Edition:
Composed by Katelyn Sweeney Ching
Margaret Kocher, Cellist
Katelyn Sweeney Ching, Pianist
Mark Robinson, Audio Engineer
Copyright 2016

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.