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chele96's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident and Mental illness
kylosten's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Car accident
Moderate: Misogyny and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Blood and Vomit
zunn's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Loved this book! It feels like a fiction book because the writing style makes the characters very endearing! Also loved the rhythm between the science info and the biography!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Car accident
Moderate: Pregnancy
idesofmarch's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexism, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Car accident, Medical content, Misogyny, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Death of parent and Grief
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Mental illness, and Pregnancy
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Death of parent, and Grief
cammiem8's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Surprisingly heartfelt, though a few ethical issues kept me from enjoying this more. Hope’s relationship with Bill is moving one moment, yet seems exploitative the next. I simply cannot understand how she could justify letting this man work 12+ hour days in her lab while paying him such an egregiously low wage that hes literally homeless and sleeping in the lab.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Car accident
ruthjenkins's review
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I enjoyed the botany chapters and the insight into how a research lab works. The actual day-to-day, building instruments, running experiments, was fascinating. But the personal memoir parts didn't land with me. The way she and her research partner/best friend treat their students borders on cruel (chastising a graduate student who has just crashed a car for not being sufficiently grateful to be alive...). I appreciate her warts-and-all approach in writing, but I struggled to empathise when reading this memoir. I think having read Braiding Sweetgrass so recently, in which the author has immense compassion and care for her students, Lab Girl failed to strike the same chord with me. I was also disappointed how little coverage we get of her balancing career in research with raising a family. STEM has a notoriously leaky pipeline for women starting a family, and I would've liked as much detail of her navigating mid-career as we had for her early career.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Sexism
massivepizzacrust's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization
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