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Lab Girl Hardcover – Deckle Edge, April 5, 2016

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Hope Jahren (Author)
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Hope Jahren (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 406 customer reviews
#1 Best Sellerin Environmental Science
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf (April 5, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1101874937
  • ISBN-13: 978-1101874936
  • Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (406 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsBrimming with love for science and disdain for students
By Leila Elizabeth on May 20, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Jahren is a beautiful writer. Her chapters on soil and trees and plants were gripping and eye opening--even for this scientist reader. Yet this book, which might better be considered a platonic love story to Bill, her long time lab partner, rather than a book about the life of a scientist, was tainted by the gleeful disdain that Jahren and Bill show for many other people. I would give the book five stars if she'd just stuck to the plants and Bill.

At one point Jahren compares the intelligence of her graduate students to her dog-- and the dog wins. She refers to another quiet student on a trip as "warm-blooded cargo," because of his uselessness as a driver. What really sealed the deal for me was the road trip. 5 Days before a conference, Jahren and Bill decide they want to attend. They decide to drive cross country, taking two graduate students with them to share in the driving (not to enrich their education or anything). One day, Jahren does not heed multiple warnings and directs the graduate student driver to go straight into a snow storm. Predictably, the van flips when they hit some ice. Lessons Jahren learned: 1) When you pee into bottles make sure to cap them. 2) Wear a seat belt. The student driver, understandably shaken, asks to be dropped off at the airport so she can fly home, but Jahren and Bill yell at her and refuse, calling her a quitter. They drag her to the conference in the banged up van so that Jahren can deliver the talk that was so important that it was never mentioned again in the book. When they return, Jahren nobly claims responsibility for the busted university van (as she should-- she was in charge!). How selfless.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, But Not Compelling
By DJY51 VINE VOICE on March 16, 2016
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Jahrens is an acclaimed scientist who struggled more than she should have had to, to be recognized in the scientific community. I would have thought that any of the sciences would function like a meritocracy and I would have been wrong. I had two scientists at my house last week, both male, who confirmed her perception.
There were many holes in Jahrens story that I would have liked to have seen filled in. Her story begins in her father's lab, where she spent countless hours, nurturing her love of science. After this beginning, she doesn't mention her father again, nor does he come to her college graduation. There is no mention of a rift, and her isolation doesn't make sense.
There are many interesting facts you'll learn about plant life, most notably, that trees can communicate over distances as far as a mile. But more time is spent with the minutiae of science - talk of labeling vials, organizing materials, scavenging equipment, worrying about funding, than illuminating the inner workings of plants.
Personal information - the fact that the author is bi-polar seems to come out of nowhere, and then aren't mentioned in any significant ways again, when you know they have to be right below the surface in very significant ways.
Jehren's relationship with her lab assistant Bill is very interesting, much more so than her connection to her husband. While Ehrens was working in Norway, Bill's father died. She didn't hear from him for a month, so she sent him a plane ticket to meet her in Ireland to catch up and do some work. Without communicating, they met at the airport. That kind of trust and connection is rare. And having a husband who understands that is even more unusual.
This memoir read more like a series of vignettes. I would have liked them to have been more fleshed out, and to have more threads running throughout.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA moving personal story that help you see the natural world in a new way.
By T. McGlynn on April 7, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Hm - the official Amazon description is a bit weird, but the rest of the reviews are apt. If you bake the career of a scientist with a moving coming-of-age story, and add in a slapstick buddy comedy road trip, it turns into a moving story about the lives of people and plants. The story is told on the foundation of a unique and dedicated relationship that forms the heartwood.

How is that people who were not born into our family become family to us? While ostensibly a memoir of Jahren, the stand-out character is her companion in the lab and the field, Bill. Just as good scientific research leads to more questions than answers, the stories that Jahren selects for the book make you want to know the characters even more.

Jahren writes with a level of self-awareness and humility that is refreshingly honest. I realize that "refreshing honesty" is a cliché, but that's the first description of tone that comes to mind. The account bypasses self-deprecating humor in favor of humble introspection and insight. Some of the biggest connections that the reader make with Jahren are through the trees that she studies, as our struggles for existence aren't that different. She spends little time on triumphs, and tells the stories of the struggles, many of which which seem to be more fun and worthwhile in the long run.

Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals is kindred to Lab Girl. Durrell's story is a set of vignettes as a boy in the greek island of Corfu, as he learned more about nature, including ourselves. Jahren's story replaces the Greek island with a richer set of vignettes that take her from her childhood in Minnesota, through college, grad school, a series of faculty positions in search of an equilibrium. She makes plants sound a lot more interesting than Durrell's exploration of bugs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars"What a Girl!"

So glad I read this book. Gestalt in format, it blends the sciences and the arts in a touching way. Read more

Published 1 hour ago by HPK
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Fascinating read!

Published 2 hours ago by SGM
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating!

Determination and will power are dominant characteristics of this beautifully written memoir. A great read if you have an interest in how trees and other flora have inhabited our... Read more

Published 3 hours ago by Rosemary Farley
5.0 out of 5 starsThis resonates with my life experience from a tactiturn Scandanavian...

This resonates with my life experience from a tactiturn Scandanavian heritage, to loving laboratory sciences, literature and nomadism. Thank you, Hope, for sharing your story!

Published 4 hours ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is a beautifully written book

This is a beautifully written book, I'm so glad I read it. I learned a lot about botany and about the academic world. It's a story of love, and friendship.

Published 4 hours ago by Kathleen E Huston
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Thought provoking

Published 5 hours ago by Marlene K. Olin
4.0 out of 5 starsgood book

Very interesting

Published 21 hours ago by Dennis Linsley
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great read

Published 23 hours ago by buddy weisman
5.0 out of 5 starsIt is an absolute delight to read

LAB GIRL by Hope Jahren, Alfred A Knopf, 2016, 290 pages... Read more

Published 1 day ago by F. Kline
1.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing Read

The writing style is lame and she portrays herself as Childress and irresponsible. Very disappointed. Don't be fooled by the hype.

Published 2 days ago by SunRise

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