LAB GIRL

by Hope Jahren
 
One gauge of a great book, I believe, is how long it stays with you after you’ve finished reading it.  Another is how many excerpts you read out loud to your significant other.  A third is how many times you talk about it with everyone you know who likes to read.  A fourth is how many times you recommend it to your friends and family.  By all these standards, Lab Girl is a great read.  (It just missed making it onto my 5 Best Books of 2018 list, published in December’s L&L Review.)
 
In this non-fiction narrative, Jahren describes her upbringing in Minnesota, her admiration for her father who taught physics at the local community college and her decision to become a scientist.  She deftly writes about: her first job in a hospital lab; the first lab she set up on her own; and, what it’s like to run a lab, including always having to write grants for funding.  Within these stories, and with a very light touch, she tells what it's like being a woman scientist and the challenges that entails.  Her writing is clear and concise and never fails to draw you in.
 
Interestingly, Jahren alternates chapters: one is a narrative of the story of her life as a scientist and the next is a short description of some aspect of paleobotany.  What?  Who even knows what paleobotany is, right?  Jahren cleverly chooses to write about characteristics of plants and trees that reflect some aspect of the human story that she has just finished describing in the previous chapter.  Sounds weird, right?  It isn’t!  She does it beautifully.  You will love this book.  It is a treasure and I recommend it wholeheartedly! (Liz)