Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Lab Girl

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

22 reviews

satsumaorange's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Wow. Just....... Wow. This was perhaps the best book I've read in YEARS. I am currently a STEM student about to enter grad school, and I swear, this is EXACTLY the book I needed to read at this point in my life. If my loved ones wish to understand me, they only need to read the annotations in my copy of Lab Girl.

Jahren writes with sublime devotion to the natural world that she and I both love. Her way of seeing the world... Her scientific mindset that, despite all sense of self-preservation, she can never turn off... Her stories of struggle and stress and the endless clawing fight to the top of the pile... And the love, the pure undiluted passion for her craft. Every word of this book resonated with me to my core.

Over and over I found myself moved to tears because the challenges she faced were the same ones I'm facing every day as an incoming graduate student. Her words scared me, and comforted me, and showed me exactly the kind of scientist I want to be one day. I am comforted by the fact that she has "made it" through this line of work alive, despite all the hardships she's faced. Reading this book has assured me that there is a future for me in my field. I cannot express how much this book has moved me.

As soon as I finished it, I wanted to start over again right back at the beginning. I wish I could sit down with Jahren and listen to a thousand more stories from her career as a scientist. I wish I could work in her lab for a day; heck, I wish I could meet the ever-eccentric Bill! I could read hours upon hours of her exploits and scientific pursuits. Jahren illustrates the world of science so vividly, so affectionately, that her love is infectious. Wherever they are (probably in the Jahren lab), I hope she and Bill doing well.

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candleclaudia's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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nsnider2214's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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roaringmamalion's review against another edition

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emotional informative slow-paced

3.75

A really good blend of plant science (geobiology, in this case), personal narrative, some heavy mental health conversation, and general reflection on the author’s growth and life. I learned a lot, and this was a good read to end one year and begin another.

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skbgfd's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

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chronologically_charlie's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

Natural science is my jaaaaam. I've spent a good chunk of my life in labs, but there's no better setting than the natural lab that the world provides us. This memoir supports me one thousand times over, as it weaves together Hope's path with her studies, careers, and relationships. As many other reviewers have mentioned, her partnership with Bill is nothing short of delightful. Reading about their struggles and triumphs is almost like I was right alongside them on their journey.

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lgarrity's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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becksusername's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

I got this one at a used book sale, maybe at the library, years ago. And it's been sitting on my shelf since then. I am not really sure what drew me to it, though the simplicity of the cover design is kind of appealing, so maybe that was it. No matter, as I said it sat unread for years. And I'm over here doing my level best to read through my backlist owed-TBR, which is not overly successful, if I'm being honest, but I'm working on it. And here's one I can check off now!

Lab Girl is a memoir from scientist Hope Jahren. Starting with her (emotionally and temperate-ly cold) childhood in rural MInnesota, through her time in school and learning the mix of heart and hands that "real" science takes, and on into her career in science, from the lows (scarcity of funding, travel disasters) to the highs (the students, the places she gets to visit, the discoveries). Throughout it all, we watch as Jahren deals not just with her career, but with mental health struggles, dealing with the emotional closed-off-ness she learned in childhood, the start of her own family and, most centrally, her relationship with her lab partner and best friend, Bill.

I have to be honest and say that I was overall lukewarm about this book. There were a number of really cool aspects to it. And Jahren's accomplishments in her field (geochemistry and geobiology) are myriad and, to the best that I understood them, fascinating. The tidbits about her research, and the general knowledge about plants and seeds and soil, that created the framework for this memoir were interesting. And I appreciated what she tried, stylistically, using science/nature facts to parallel her life changes/milestones, but it just didn't quite work for me (though it did get clearer and more settled as it went). I wonder if perhaps my timing was off for reading this, so close on the heels of finishing Braiding Sweetgrass, because although the perspectives and tone are very different, the general topics and format were reminiscent of each other to point that it was hard not to compare (and Braiding Sweetgrass just had a flow that worked better for me). Potentially it was the tone with which the story was told. Jahren's writing felt...prickly...almost. And I just never got into a rhythm with it. (Of note, I did deeply appreciate this tone when she was discussing the way science funding works, and is available, in the US - because the conversation about it, the impossibility of being asked to gain knowledge/make discoveries while not being given enough to make a living with, do deserve to be deeply called out and addressed).

I did really like the development of the central relationship, that of Jahren and Bill, over the course of their lives. It is clear that they have a special and very unique bond - something that works for them and though it's not perfect, is what the other needs. The way they essentially grew up together, as (the) primary and often solitary touch point for each other, was deeply touching. Sort of related, ish, I want to note how the mental health aspects of this book (the mental illness issues that Jahren deals with) are a bit more intense than I was expecting, based on the inside cover blurb. PLease be careful going into this one if you would have trouble reading about depression and manic episodes, as well as mental health struggles during pregnancy.

Overall this memoir felt a bit jumpy overall, with the personal life and plant science and academic commentary mixed in a way that just never found it's stride, for me. The tone felt a bit harsh/judgy and, though sometimes it was warranted, other times it made me uncomfortable. And while I really want to fully respect everything Jahren has accomplished (and I do, I mean that doesn't change), I also am finding that I am frustrated with the way she highlighted the unhealthy work-life balance that's expected of scientists, that she has lived, without really critiquing how unhealthy iit is....she just kinda of continues to act like it was ok that that was normal (even praising the "always in the lab" lifestyle of students she worked with later in her career). Similarly, she complained, rightfully so, a number of times about the way she was treated as a woman in science (a major and insidious issue), but I felt like there was never, even as she got more established and held more influence/power, a revisiting of the issue and attempting to do something about it or make it better for future female scientists. I get that not everyone is/wants to be an advocate in that way (and maybe she has done stuff and just didn't want to address it here), but it still felt a little incomplete, even disingenuous, to bring it up and complain about it but (seem) not to do anything about it. So yea, there were some parts of this that were good, some that held promise and didn't deliver, and some that just vibed wrong with me. But if it sounds interesting to you, I'd say to go ahead and experience it and see for yourself.

I really want to respect her and all she has accomplished (and I do) but I feel like she has bought too much into the unhealthy work life balance of lab and science culture and I wish her gender issues would have led to a greater across subvert of the culture;

“…I navigated the confusing and unstable path of being what you are while knowing that it’s more than people want to see.”

“I wanted to be studying plant growth, but science for war will always pay better than science for knowledge.”

“A true scientist doesn’t perform prescribed experiments; she develops her own and thus generates wholly new knowledge.”

“Public and private organizations all over the world have studied the mechanics of sexism within science and have concluded that they are complex and multifactorial. In my own small experience, sexism has been something very simple: the cumulative weight of constantly being told that you can’t possibly be what you are.”

“It was kind of tragic, I reflected, that we all spent our lives working but never really got good at our work, or even finished it. The purpose instead was for me to stand on the rock that he had thrown into the rushing river, bend and claw another rock from the bottom, and then cast it down a bit further and hope it would be a useful next step for some person with whom Providence might allow me to cross paths.”

“It takes a long time to turn into what you’re supposed to be.”

“…pretending that things are true is often more fun than knowing that they are false.”

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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.0

This has been on my radar since it came out and I guess somewhere along the way I misremembered what it was about. I expected more science less memoir but as a woman in STEM I do really appreciate the discussions of the expectations and judgement placed on the author. But she does come off as a little bit of an asshole...? I can appreciate the 100% dedication to her work that she describes but I don't think it's fair to portray that kind of obsession as normal or desirable. We have a huge mental health crisis in academia partly because we tell students that if they can't put in this kind of work they don't deserve to be there. And I'm not sure that this work isn't encouraging that attitude. I came out of this book feeling very conflicted and not knowing as much about plants as I thought I would.

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