[Lab Girl] does for botany what Oliver Sacks's essays did for
neurology
*New York Times*
Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of
adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does
both. She makes me wish I'd been a scientist
*Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto (winner of
the Orange Prize)*
Jahren's journey from struggling student to struggling scientist
has the narrative tension of a novel and characters she imbues with
real depth . . . Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing
in this literary fusion of both genres
*Kirkus*
Darkly humorous, emotionally raw and exquisitely crafted
*Publishers Weekly*
This title should be required reading for all budding scientists,
especially young women. However being a scientist is not essential
in order to savor Jahren's stories and reflections on living
*Library Journal*
Deeply affecting . . . A belletrist in the mold of Oliver Sacks,
[Jahren] is terrific at showing just how science is done . . .
Jahren's writing is precise, as befits a scientist who also love
words. She's an acute observer, prickly, and funny as hell . . . A
totally original work, both fierce and uplifting
*Elle (US)*
Jahren's singular gift is her ability to convey the everyday wonder
of her work: exploring the strange, beautiful universe of living
things that endure and evolve and bloom all around us, if we bother
to look
*Entertainment Weekly*
The Jane Goodall of botany . . . I am not sure which is more
extraordinary, the plants or the woman who studies them. If the
next generation of scientists have role models like Jahren, then
the world of science will be better off indeed
*Science*
this book is delightfully, wickedly funny. I was constantly
surprised by the literary tricks this first-time memoirist manages
to pull off. With Lab Girl, Jahren has taken the form of the memoir
and done something remarkable with it. She's made the experience of
reading the book mimic her own lived experience in a way that few
writers are capable of. It's a powerful and disarming way to tell a
story, and I admire the craft behind it. Mostly, though, I love
this book for its honesty, its hilarity and its brilliant sharp
edges. Jahren has some serious literary chops
*Washington Post*
Leaves become elegant machines, soil is the interface between the
living and the dead, and seeds, well, they are transformed into the
most patient and hopeful of all life forms. Jahren has such a
passion for the natural world that it's hard to imagine her in any
role other than her current one; a professor of geobiology at the
University of Hawaii. Lab Girl is her engaging new memoir, which
tells the story of her fight to establish and fund her own research
laboratory. And it's been a fascinating journey
*Observer*
Infectious, frank and finely written . . . a wonderful read
*Sunday Express*
Jahren pulls no punches on the stark realities of being a woman in
science . . . Lab Girl is funny, full of joyous moments and often
sad
*Nature*
Lab Girl reads more like a novel than a traditional science book .
. . This kind of personal, bittersweet, bruised memoir is emerging
as a new way of writing about science - one that will hopefully
banish for good the notion that it is just for the boys
*Prospect*
Science is about a passion for ideas and the people who pursue
those passions. Hope Jahren captures both in her book, the
engrossing story of her love of science and of the adventures she
has while pursuing her hunches and hypotheses.
*Guardian*
This is an absolutely extraordinary book . . . By the end, I was
babbling about it to complete strangers and determined to give a
copy to just about everyone I know . . . Jahren is not just a
scientist, though, but a poet who has given us insight into her
mind and her passions, and I feel privileged to have been granted a
glimpse
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
Jahren's literary bent renders dense material digestible, and
lyrical . . . a gratifying and often moving chronicle of the
scientist's life
*Scotsman*
Lab Girl is arguably a better motivator for a career in science
than any mandatory curriculum
*Discover*
Clear and compelling but also fiercely tender . . . Jahren refuses
to pretend that scientists don't quite often come with more than
their share of peculiarities. She captures so precisely the way
they dress, talk, and occasionally misunderstand stuff that others
take for granted . . . I love Jahren's enthusiasm for her work, an
all-encompassing passion for which she won't apologise and which
makes her indomitable
*New Statesman*
A fascinating account of plants, love and obsession
*Mail on Sunday*
[A] frank, illuminating and moving memoir . . . Hope's book casts a
whole new light on the natural world
*Hello*
Her memoir, rich in feeling and in facts, is an ode to her
profession and to the natural world
*Time*
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