National BestsellerWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for AutobiographyA New York Times Notable BookGeobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. In these pages, Hope takes us back to her … that drive every scientist. In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father’s college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work “with both the heart and the hands.” She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together.
Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books
Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, TIME.com, NPR, Slate, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews
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Like Hope Jahren, I am a lab girl of a certain age. I didn’t go on to get my PhD and start my own labs, but I have worked in plenty of them. By the time I started as a chemist in the labs, the majority of the lab techs were women. The PhDs were still predominately men, but there was a tide of female scientists coming into the workforce in the early 2000’s. This book was fascinating both for the science, and the personality of the author. I can relate to her, even knowing she is way smarter and more driven than I will ever be. Jahren highlighted her struggles as well as her triumphs. Actually, she downplayed the triumphs much more than most people would. Even if you aren’t a female scientist, her life story is so interesting and relateable, this book is compulsively readable.
This is a brilliantly written life story about becoming a scientist (or becoming what you are meant to be). There is fascinating information throughout about plants and trees and scientists. I loved this book from beginning to end.
It covers so many facets of her life and career plus educates us in fascinating detail about working in a hospital lab filling saline bags with meds, searching for research grants, building labs, experiencing bi-polar breakdowns, and the trials of a difficult pregnancy and birth plus the magical details in the life of plants. Her writing style is lyrical and full of scenes that had me catching my breath and saying, WOW!
The secret life of plants and of two unforgettable scientists revealed in assured, breathtaking prose. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this memoir and did not want it to end. Every chapter feels essential, and it’s because I was so invested in the author and her story, and how the natural world she explores mirrors our own lives in myriad, unimaginable ways.
I love the way the author weaves scientific instances with plants into the work. The metaphors and explanations of scientific instances in relation to the story is amazingly descriptive and relatable.
I wouldn’t have predicted that I would love a memoir about a geochemist and her lab work, but that’s exactly what happened. Her website uses the hashtag #HopeJahrenSureCanWrite and that’s absolutely true. Give this one a shot — you may fall in love with the book as well.
If you like scientific biography you will love this book; if you don’t like scientific biography you will love. This is just as informative as other books in the genre but explores a far different style. Try it, you’ll like it.
This is a great read–telling the world what it takes to be a great researcher in an important, but often ignored area.
This book was informative. Good study on plant life and how it effects us. Not much action. Interesting and different. Made me see my garden in a better light.
This is the best book I have read so far in 2020!
I enjoyed this narrative of life as a woman scientist. It was a fun read and didn’t overlook the others involved in her pursuits.
This is a fun read, but shows that women can make it in science. Thank you Hope, for inspiring us all.
I loved every page of this story. If you love science with unpredictable genius types, then go for this one. Her backstory makes such a fertile ground for the rest of her college, grad, and post-grad science work to grow in. I’ve read this one 2x and will read again next year just because it’s fun and inspiring in a nerdy, tree-loving, botanical way.
I’m going to plant a tree this spring!
An amazing feat of memoir and science and beautifully written
Wish I would have had the author for college botany. I learned more from the book. A really good read.
I greatly enjoyed Hope Jahren’s tales of her life.
A great book about real science in the real world of real people. The little essays are utterly precious. One of the genuine tragedies is that the author, a female biologist, finds herself unable to have more than one child (she is evolutionarily unfit…) because she is bipolar, and would have to go off her essential psychotropic medications. Again. The first time was too horrible to repeat.
This was a non-fiction book with a very interesting format. The author alternated chapters that were autobiographical with chapters of science about trees. It sounds strange, but it worked for me and I found the book very enjoyable.
Beautifully written! And brilliant! I adored every word of it!