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A review by mackenziehelms
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
1.0
To read the full review visit: macksbookreviews.wordpress.com
The Good:
This book is filled with symbolism between plants and life. Hope constantly uses plants to show human relationships and growth. This is a common theme throughout the book that I really enjoyed. I had never really thought of a plant being like a human, but after reading this book it is incredible how alike the two are.
Another good aspect about this book is that it is raw. Which Hope is describing her manic episodes and her struggles with bipolar disorder (the diagnosis is never stated in the book but the symptoms given make it clear). Normally in books you don’t feel how real a mental disorder can be, but this being an autobiography, Hope gives the raw uncensored feelings that come with having a mental disorder.
The Bad:
The organization of this book makes it very hard to read. At some times, Hope will go from a chapter describing her life, to a chapter that is strictly about plants. Because of this, it was so hard to find the purpose of this book until it was over.
This book was also confusing to those who have no interest in scientific plant life. I found myself wanting to skip whole chapters because they would talk only of plant life and different plants around the world. Although the purpose of this was connect plants to human life, it was still so hard to want to read those chapters. So if you have no passions for plants and scientific life, DO NOT read this book.
Another part of this book that made it hard to read was Hope’s tone. It felt like Hope was so bland in real life. The only time she seemed to really see emotion was when she was excited about her work. When she finally found met her husband, it still seemed like her whole life was revolved around plants. (Her definition of true love was when her husband opened a taxi door for her if that helps you see her strange personality).
Overall:
There was good and bad to this book, but in my opinion the bad just overlooked the good. This was a very hard read for people who have no passions for science, and was very confusing because of the organization.
This book was only about 300 pages, but took me forever to read because I was just so bored.
Overall, I would only rate this book a 1 star, and definitely would not read it again.
The Good:
This book is filled with symbolism between plants and life. Hope constantly uses plants to show human relationships and growth. This is a common theme throughout the book that I really enjoyed. I had never really thought of a plant being like a human, but after reading this book it is incredible how alike the two are.
Another good aspect about this book is that it is raw. Which Hope is describing her manic episodes and her struggles with bipolar disorder (the diagnosis is never stated in the book but the symptoms given make it clear). Normally in books you don’t feel how real a mental disorder can be, but this being an autobiography, Hope gives the raw uncensored feelings that come with having a mental disorder.
The Bad:
The organization of this book makes it very hard to read. At some times, Hope will go from a chapter describing her life, to a chapter that is strictly about plants. Because of this, it was so hard to find the purpose of this book until it was over.
This book was also confusing to those who have no interest in scientific plant life. I found myself wanting to skip whole chapters because they would talk only of plant life and different plants around the world. Although the purpose of this was connect plants to human life, it was still so hard to want to read those chapters. So if you have no passions for plants and scientific life, DO NOT read this book.
Another part of this book that made it hard to read was Hope’s tone. It felt like Hope was so bland in real life. The only time she seemed to really see emotion was when she was excited about her work. When she finally found met her husband, it still seemed like her whole life was revolved around plants. (Her definition of true love was when her husband opened a taxi door for her if that helps you see her strange personality).
Overall:
There was good and bad to this book, but in my opinion the bad just overlooked the good. This was a very hard read for people who have no passions for science, and was very confusing because of the organization.
This book was only about 300 pages, but took me forever to read because I was just so bored.
Overall, I would only rate this book a 1 star, and definitely would not read it again.