February Not Fiction Book Discussions

In Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, science, as represented by her father's earth sciences lab at the community college where he taught for 42 years and where Jahren spent many happy hours as a child, is a place. Now a recognized and awarded geobiologist with a lab of her own who studies the world from a plant's perspective, Jahren says of her career, "People are like plants: They grow toward the light. I chose science because science gave me what I needed--a home as defined in the most literal sense: a safe place to be." In a memoir that interweaves stories of Jahren's life in science with stories about the life cycle of plants, readers learn about the personal and professional challenges she has faced and celebrate the incremental, hard-won successes and meaningful relationships she has created along the way.

What do you think? What drew Jahren to a career in science? What circumstances and attributes helped her become successful in this career? Which of the obstacles Jahren faces along the way were attributable to her being a woman in a male-dominated field? Which were a result of her struggles with bipolar disorder? And which were simply part of a learning curve as she matured and grew into her profession? Were you surprised to learn halfway through the book, after getting to know Jahren as a successful scientist, that she has bipolar disorder? Why do you think she chose this point in the book to introduce it?

Jahren tells readers about several significant relationships in her life, those with her father, her mother, her lab partner Bill, her husband Clint, and her son. What do we learn about Jahren from these relationships, and how do they influence her life in science? What do you make of the fact that Jahren dedicates this book and everything that she writes to her mother, with whom she had a difficult relationship? And why do you think her lab partner and best friend Bill has decided that he will never read Lab Girl? Jahren feared that in choosing a career in science, she would give up other aspects of life associated with being a woman with a family. What sacrifices has she made, and has she succeeded in creating a balanced life?

While Jahren's stories about the life cycles of plants are one of the most original aspects of the book, narrative science writing for a general audience is sometimes criticized for over-simplifying and anthropomorphizing its subjects. Jahren points out that scientific writing is a highly formalized and condensed genre and that "there's still no journal where I can tell the story of how my science is done with both the heart and the hands. . . . Working in a lab for twenty years has left me with two stories: the one that I have to write, and the one that I want to." How do you feel about the way Jahren handles the two stories in the book? Does she find a good balance between the scientific and the personal? Did you equally enjoy the chapters about plants and about Jahren's life, or were you drawn to one more than the other?

Like Jahren with her blue spruce, do you have a particular tree that you remember from your childhood? Ask a question about your tree. As Jahren points out in her Prologue, "Guess what? You are now a scientist. People will tell you that you have to know math to be a scientist, or physics or chemistry. They're wrong. . . . Sure, it helps, but there will be time for that. What comes first is a question, and you're already there." Do you think you would enjoy being a student in one of Jahren's classes? Why? Does she seem similar to or different from other science teachers you have had in the past? How? In what ways is Jahren a direct descendent of Alexander von Humboldt, whom we read about in last month's book The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf? Is Jahren's story an inspiration for young women who want to pursue a career in science?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, February 7, at 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, February 16, at 11:00 a.m.; and here on the blog.