Lab Girl - Hope Jahren

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

It's really not fair for someone to be both an incredible scientist AND an amazing writer. This is Hope Jahren's memoir of growing up loving science and how she came to run her own labs, interspersed with reflections/information about plants, trees, and soil. I didn't always get what she was talking about, but it did make me appreciate the complexity of nature anew. Also these sections always hard really interesting tie-ins with her next chapter about her life.

As a thoroughly non-sciencey person, I wasn't sure how interesting I'd find her memoir, but turns out I was VERY interested. I feel like when we were kids we got the impression that "scientist" was a real job that was mostly mixing chemicals and using microscopes, but Hope is an honest to goodness Scientist, aka an academic researcher. To me it sounded super boring - lots of tests, menial tasks, watching and waiting, and always trying to get grants - but I loved how much she loves it. She really just LOVES science, plants in particular, and I respect that.

Probably my favourite aspect of this book is her relationship with her lab partner of more than 20 years, Bill. He's a super weird guy who lives in holes and vans sometimes, and he and Hope just kinda found each other as kindred spirits. And they've been working together ever since, even moving to different states and cities together. Hope eventually starts her own family, but Bill remains a huge part of her life because they're best friends! I kept thinking, "It's so nice that they included a nice portrayal of a platonic intersex friendship," and then I remembered that it's real! How they support each other and stay loyal to each other was just wonderful.

Anyway, I thought this book was super beautiful and I enjoyed it so much. It's a lot more fascinating than it sounds.