Lab Girl - Hope Jahren

This is one of my favorite memoirs of the past year, written by a woman scientist barely known outside her field. Hope Jahren is a leading American botanist and her story is a passionate elegy to trees and plants, and to our fragile planet. A fine writer and story-teller, Jahren offers an entertaining and poignant portrait of her career as a woman in the sciences, as well as her life as a wife and mother confronting unforeseen challenges along the way. Small interludes about botany are illuminating and digestible. Especially wonderful are her descriptions of her eccentric colleagues and friends. This book is a pleasure.