Micro review: "Lab Girl"—greenery that ups life

Hope Jahren’s engrossing memoir, , is both a road map to discover the secret lives of plants and a thrilling account of her becoming a geobiologist. Jahren, a professor of Geobilogy at the University of Hawaii, illustrates in her smart book not just the uniqueness of plants but also the humane structure of nature employed through her mulling over the miraculous machines—plants.
The story begins in rural Minnesota in Jahren’s father’s lab at a community college, where he was sort of the only scientist, and taught physics and earth science for 42 years.The spirit of the book is life affirming, as this is evident in the way Jahren dedicates the book to her mother, a woman of extraordinary scientific talent who completed her long-due studies after her kids were old enough to be in high school. The memoir speaks on a personal level as she writes about her bipolar illness and how she overcame such hurdles to be able to understand what fascinated her more than anything in the world—the plant life.
Professor Jahren’s language is witty and fresh, humane and crisp. She details botanical structures and a plant’s reaction to particular situations in the most endearing manner that prove how enchanted she herself is with those facts. Most importantly, Jahren’s description of any hypothesis balances out the book to stand both as a great scientific testimony as well as a fine piece of literature. Plants are extremely important to Jahren’s life because they are important to us all—that’s how humane Jahren’s perspective is. is a beautiful account of survival: in science, in love, and in life.
How critics view the book:
Pulitzer-winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani writes in The New York Times, “She (Jahren) is part of the continuum of scientists who have each built upon their predecessors’ work and who will hand down their own advances to the next generation.”
Reviewing the book for , solar researcher Lucie Green writes, “Hope Jahren’s remarkable memoir is both personal odyssey and the story of her profound affinity with the natural world.”
Historian Ann Fabian writes in The Huffington Post, “Lab Girl shares (Helen) Keller’s joy in discovering kinship with the world. Jahren is the world’s kin twice over. She is a good scientist and a good writer.”