LAB GIRL by Hope Jahren

Waukesha Reads featured Lab Girl by Hope Jahren as our 2019 NEA Big Read title! (Click HERE for the NEA’s online Reader Resources.)

Introduction

Lab Girl is a nature lover’s story about digging in dirt and discovering new things about old growth. It’s a scientist’s story about running experiments and waiting and wondering and asking for funds and fending off doubt. It’s a Midwesterner’s story of moving south and east and west and noticing the differences. It’s a girl’s story about growing up to be what she wants to be. And it’s a woman’s story about fighting stereotypes, sacrificing, feeling vulnerable, trusting in friendship, getting sick, getting help, finding love, and writing it all down. “I used to pray to be made stronger,” Jahren writes in Lab Girl. “Now I pray to be made grateful” (p. 256).

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.