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hnagarne's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
4.5
In Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, Jasmin Graham chronicles her academic and scientific career in shark science and contextualizes her experience in the field with broader racial issues in not only academic institutions but also across the United States in general. In my effort to be more kind to creatures that scare me (see: sharks, snakes, spiders), I was excited to pick up this book and see sharks through a shark scientist's eyes. I mean, what better way to appreciate sharks than hear about them from a shark expert?
But Graham's love of and study of sharks is not without obstacles. The field is white male dominated, and she explains how labs, conferences, and other organizations often express a resistance to change (i.e., diversity). At every step, Graham meets a challenge head-on, finding new and exciting ways to get her job done. I love how she emphasized the importance of diverse thinking and how such open-mindedness leads to innovation. Her experiences as a researcher -- and the #BlackInNature hashtag -- pushed her to found MISS, or Minorities in Shark Sciences, with four other Black women.
This memoir is interesting, compelling, and entirely my kind of book, so I enjoyed every second. Graham also writes in such an accessible way: I can tell she knows a lot about her field (obviously!), but she makes some unfamiliar topics (like phylogeny) much easier for me to understand and follow. While I do wish certain topics were a bit more explored, and would've loved more shark facts, this was a great little memoir, and I cannot wait to recommend it for my work's book club once it's published in July.
Thank you NetGalley & Pantheon for the eARC!
But Graham's love of and study of sharks is not without obstacles. The field is white male dominated, and she explains how labs, conferences, and other organizations often express a resistance to change (i.e., diversity). At every step, Graham meets a challenge head-on, finding new and exciting ways to get her job done. I love how she emphasized the importance of diverse thinking and how such open-mindedness leads to innovation. Her experiences as a researcher -- and the #BlackInNature hashtag -- pushed her to found MISS, or Minorities in Shark Sciences, with four other Black women.
This memoir is interesting, compelling, and entirely my kind of book, so I enjoyed every second. Graham also writes in such an accessible way: I can tell she knows a lot about her field (obviously!), but she makes some unfamiliar topics (like phylogeny) much easier for me to understand and follow. While I do wish certain topics were a bit more explored, and would've loved more shark facts, this was a great little memoir, and I cannot wait to recommend it for my work's book club once it's published in July.
Thank you NetGalley & Pantheon for the eARC!
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