Review: Lab Girl

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I purchased this book from the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. This book was recommended to me by one of my husband's coworkers, who works for the NYC Parks department.

I'm not really sure that this book should be categorized as a 'science' book. It's definitely much more of a memoir. The chapters mostly alternate between a stage of Jahren's life and some information about a plant that maybe symbolically relates to what's happening in her life. I don't really think those added much to the book, and some of the things she writes seems somewhat misleading (like when she refers to DNA as a protein and how the northern hemisphere has winter because it's tilted away from the sun...which is true, but it's not made clear that it's not the distance that matters).

The part of most personal relevance was her description of her pregnancy and birth of her son. Reading about such experiences makes me half grateful that I haven't gotten pregnant yet. But she did get through it to have a healthy son, and I guess if it comes to it, I could, too.

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