Lab girl, by Hope Jahren

Growing up in Minnesota in a town settled by Norwegians, the descendants of whom primarily worked in the meatpacking plant that was the major industry, Jahren is accustomed to the reserved distance that people keep between themselves and others.  Up there asking, “how are you,” is considered an almost rudely personal question.  She loved to spend the afternoons after school in her father’s lab – he was a chemistry teacher at the local community college.  Her mother also had scientific aspirations, and was a Westinghouse Talent Search winner in high school, unusual for a girl in the 1950s, but there was no money for her to take advantage of this opportunity.  She is always angry, a fate that might have happened to her daughter as well.  When Jahren finally escapes her hometown, she is amazed at how open and friendly people can be.   She has become a noted scientist herself.  This memoir tells of her struggles to find the money for schooling; earn the respect of fellow scientists, primarily male in her field; and put together labs where research can flourish.  Each chapter of her life history alternates with a short piece on botany which are wonderfully evocative.  Speaking of vines, which unlike trees and most other plants, plant their roots in one place then search for the sun in another, she writes, “A vine becomes whatever if needs to be and does whatever it must in order to make real its fabulous pretensions.” Much as she has done.  Along with her strange but gifted research partner, Bill, she perseveres, makes important discoveries, and wins the regard she seeks.  Never losing her sense of wonder and her curiosity about the world“Along the way, we also managed to become adults without ceasing to be children.”  A wonderful book.  304 pp.