Hope Jahren.
Lab Girl: a story of trees, science and love.
Fleet. 2017
Lab Girl is a book about work and about love,
and the mountains that can be moved when
those two things come together. It is told
through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about the
discoveries she has made in her lab, as well as
her struggle to get there; about her field trips –
sometimes authorised, sometimes very much not
– taking her from the American Midwest
to the North Pole and from Ireland to Hawaii;
and about her unswerving dedication
to her life’s work.
Visceral, intimate, gloriously candid and sometimes extremely funny, Jahren’s descriptions of her work, her intense relationship with the plants, seeds and soil she studies, and her insights on nature enliven every page of this thrilling book. In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.