Welcome to Litsy!

I always check the library sale shelf just in case. For the first time in months I found something! I‘m excited, I‘ve been wanting to read both of these and I got them for $1.50!

As I read the first chapters, Jahren's dispassionate tone was hard for me to empathize with & not being a plant person (I underwatered a cactus, so there's my botanical resume for you), I didn't think this was for me. Then I began to grow fond of Hope & Bill's friendship & invested in their adventures. I also appreciate her reflections on her mental health & professional struggles. Not something I would've picked up on my own, but glad I read it.

Listening to the audiobook and I love it!

I‘m listening to this on audio while working and after this particular passage I had to bring up my kindle copy and share with y‘all cause it‘s just too bizarre to keep to myself (tho given the popularity of the book I‘m fairly certain a good amount of you have already read this 😄)

I‘m really enjoying this book and Hope‘s life and love of science... and I‘m also loving oddball Bill and Hope‘s relationship with him.

No, Bill. It‘s not normal.

As someone who lost her mother young, this rings incredibly true, but I didn't realize it was the same for others.

I've been home with Tinysaurus all week while she recovers from maybe the flu, which means I totally forgot about Work Book Club next week! 😳 Trying to knock some of this out now that she's on the mend.

My first book of 2020👩🏼‍🔬 I know I‘m behind on it since even President Obama recommended this book last year and I‘m really happy I finally got around to it! Plus I loved listening to it read by Dr Jahren!
Also shout out to Libby and The Pittsburgh library for letting me borrow it!

To be read 💕 I have the next month off before my final semester of grad school. Hoping to use this time to tackle some books.

This was a great #audiorun listen, especially once I sped the narration up a tad! The author reads it well. A few times she obviously teared up, so I may have cried a bit on a couple runs. 😂😭 This memoir kept me listening- loved her passion for trees/plants/soil, her friendship with Bill, her marriage and child, the struggle of being a female scientist with bipolar disorder, and her love of reading. I could see myself revisiting this someday. ❤️

Well...the stuff about trees was good. And actually, I enjoyed the beginning about her childhood & her interesting Scandinavian-in-Minnesota upbringing. But by the halfway point (maybe sooner) I started getting quite bored. Way too much about random shit (like 6 pages about her coworker‘s haircut) & oddly little about her actual work. Lovely prose about flora, some good commentary on sexism in science/academia, but overall thin & tedious. 2/5 ⭐️

...female professors & departmental secretaries are the natural enemies of the academic world, as I was privileged to overhear discussions of my sexual orientation & probable childhood traumas ... thru the paper thin walls of the break room adjacent to my office. By these means I learned that altho I was in desperate need of a girdle, I was better off than [another] female professors, who‘d never lose all that baby weight by working all the time.

People are like plants: they grow toward the light.

The NYT blurb on the front described this book as “thrilling” which I feel like might be overselling it just a tad, but I assume it will at least be interesting! #nowreading

An interesting book, a little like Elizabeth Gilbert‘s The Signature of All Things. I‘m not sure if it‘s a true biography / story. A few discussions on climate change - also University / research funding are explored.

Managed to squeeze a quick #audiorun in on the treadmill this morning! My second-to-last week of the semester has begun, and I am drowning in coursework/dreaming of break. So very ready to be done with this semester! 🤪

Another long day of studying with a quick #audiorun! Ran on a treadmill mostly to make sure I didn't get over enthusiastic and run too fast. 😂 I have a race in two days so I don't want to use up all my energy! This audiobook, written and read by Hope Jahren, is such good company for runs. I feel like I know her and Bill and am invested in their lives. As a side note, it's going to rain in the Bay Area today! 😄🌧️ #NFNov @Clwojick @rsteve388

Enjoyed a midmorning #audiorun today and several hours of reading and other schoolwork at home and at the library. No class this week because my professors are at the SBL/AAR conference! It's giving me the much needed time to work on my final round of projects, papers, and presentations due before the end of the semester. So nice to spend a few minutes running with Hope Jahren in the sunshine as a break. 😊 #NFNov @Clwojick @rsteve388

#WeeklyForecast @Cinfhen
I'll finish Laudato Si, keep working on Lab Girl, and start Priestdaddy if I finish Lab Girl (thank you @Emilymdxn and @DimeryRene for voting for it!). My hold on The Amber Spyglass, which I started but couldn't finish before it returned several weeks ago, came back in, so I will be breaking with the #NFNov theme a bit to spend some time with it! Loving #NFNov's motivation to work on my NF TBR! 😊 @Clwojick @rsteve388

#24B4Monday #readathon update: I did very little reading today, because I was at a housing justice rally and march all day (which was great, so thankful to be there!) and then a multifaith Thanksgiving all evening (also great, also so thankful!). #TIL in Oakland there are 4 vacant housing units per every 1 houseless person, 25% of whom are children.

Now I'm going to settle down with this audiobook before bed! @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid @jb72

#BookReport @Cinfhen
I finished Shelter, as anticipated, and started Lab Girl, which got the most votes for my next #NFNov read. I also started Laudato Si on audio for my Ethics class. I'm almost done with Willa Cather's A Lost Lady for the #catherbuddyread. And of course I've been doing lots of seminary reading! 😊 I'm loving Lab Girl, it's such a delight. 💕 @Clwojick @rsteve388

#Audiorun with Hope Jahren for company! (LOVE memoirs narrated by the author for runs, it feels like I have a friend with me 😊) My longest run ever! 🎉🏃‍♀️💪 I felt so great that I didn't want to stop running at 6! 😁

I'm only at 3 hours for the #24B4Monday #readathon so far, but I've had a busy day, so I feel good about it. I'm thinking my goal will be 12 hours! 👍 @Andrew65 @jb72 @TheReadingMermaid
#NFNov @Clwojick @rsteve388

@Crazeedi @Kaila-ann @rsteve388 Thanks for voting for Lab Girl! Today is a flare-up kind of day, so I've had plenty of time to start it, and I'm loving it so far! Giving me some Hidden Life of Trees vibes but also great female scientist from a Scandinavian family in Minnesota memoir vibes too. I had to speed up the author's narration a bit 😂, but now it's perfect! 👍 #NFNov #audiobook @Clwojick

I struggle to read non-fiction. I‘ve always thought I might enjoy this book, but kept avoiding it anyway because not fiction. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks to #readingwomenchallenge for the ‘featuring a woman in science‘ prompt... I LOVED this book!

The science was fascinating (I love the way she talks about trees!) and Hope Jahren‘s stories of her life were even more so. Such a smart, accomplished woman with an honest and compelling story.

cont‘d ⬇️

For me, curiosity-driven science is a very interesting researching field, especially in the connection with nature. How fascinating is the fact that the trees have memory, that they can decide things⁉️ This heartwarming story is presentation of a complicated life of a scientist, from personal to professional struggles/sacrifices, and this story is also beautiful, simple ode to the nature, friendship and patience.

#nonfiction2019 #somethingyouwerentlookingfor

Although some of the chapters detailing experiments and in depth plant knowledge dragged a bit for me, this was overall an enjoyable read. Not being a “lab girl” myself, I did find myself skimming some of the more science heavy sections but really enjoyed the memoir portions. I think everyone needs a Bill in their lives - a friend that sticks by you through it all. I also really want to go out and plant some trees in the backyard now.

This is getting a pick from me but just barely. I would have liked to hear a lot more about her work and a lot less about random stories that happened along the way. Also, I get that she was trying to be both and writer and scientist, but the literary references and overly flowery prose cane off to me as trying way too hard. Parts were really interesting though. #readingwomenchallenge #womanwithamentalillness

#7days7covers Day 2

This is a difficult book for me to review because I have a lot of respect for Hope Jahren, not only for her contributions to science but also for her willingness to be so vulnerable about professional, as well as, personal struggles. Unfortunately, botany and geochemistry just don‘t really interest me. This memoir is well written and is loved by many, I just don‘t think I‘m the right reader for it.

I love scrolling through the ‘what‘s available‘ section in Libby and finding an audiobook that‘s been on my TBR for years. It‘s like hitting the book jackpot.

What an interesting and unusual #audiobook! I particularly appreciated the author‘s honesty about the personal and professional challenges she and her lab partner faced along the way. It showed the very human side of science. Her enthusiasm for her work was beautiful to see, and the book introduced me to some fascinating facts about trees.

😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 #LitsyHumor #LitsyLovesLibraries

Strange but charming. There were entire chapters I could‘ve done without but also memorable moments that had me laughing out loud. As the child of a field biologist, I couldn‘t help but see him, his colleagues, and our family in Hope, Bill, and her many lab techs and students. True insight into the worries of modern scientists but also tying in the beauty and wonder that they seem to see and experience all around them.

Completed for “something with science” in #nonfiction2019, this memoir details Jahren‘s life as she works to become a paleobiologist. It also touches on larger themes in the scientific community, including the current problems with securing funding, the over-saturation of the market with scientists, and the sexism that female scientists face in the field.

@Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Very long week at work topped off by an hourlong commute to go just 8 miles on the highway (due to an accident) means this is my Friday night. Got two good books to bounce between. All is well now.

This has been on my #TBR forever so when I saw it in one of the half dozen Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood walking with Little Big to visit my Grandma (his GiGi!) I had to snag it! It‘s the perfect size & length for a #busread for camp this summer!

🌱👩🏽‍🔬📓
#walkersoflitsy #bibliophileproblems #littlefreelibrary

I REALLY enjoyed this book last year, and it‘s on kindle sale today if you are interested but haven‘t picked it up yet.

I really enjoyed this book. Such a wonderful tale of a great friendship between two science nerds, who show us how difficult research and University life can be. I do recommend it. #readingUSA #Hawaii

A fun and frequently very funny memoir of a scientist working in the world of plants and trees. Loved the relationship/friendship between Hope and her lab assistant Bill. And the science was really interesting as well.

I‘m really enjoying this book, although I‘m usually lost when she discusses her tree knowledge. Loving the relationship between the author and her lab partner.

I wanted to love this book and connect with the author but her voice for the audiobook made me bail. She sounds sad and weak throughout, when I don‘t think she actually is, and she overdramatizes any lines that I think I‘d actually enjoy just reading to myself (anywhere she uses hyperbole or personification or any other literary device). I‘d like to try this again in the future but I definitely do not recommend the audiobook.

This is Jahren‘s memoir of becoming a scientist and what goes on in a typical university lab. It is also a memoir of her life, touching on motherhood, falling in love, finding a family, and finding herself. It is very much a “science book” in that she discusses the nuances of paleobotany (her field), yet it‘s extremely readable and engaging.

More about her friendship with her one of a kind coworker than her field of study, but fantastic all the same.

Look what I just received in the mail! @AmyG you are so kind and thoughtful! No I have not read this, and it is one I'm so excited to read!
Thank you, thank you thank you!💞😘
#litsylove #littensarethebestfriends
#booksarebestwhensharedwithothers

A fascinating and insightful memoir. I feel smarter for having read it. She does a wonderful job of balancing science & the quotidian.

Really worthwhile read. And beautifully written. Really accessible account of what it's like to be a scientist. Having been a scientist for a while myself, it definitely rung true, although she is much more passionate about it than I was (hence why I now write about it, rather than doing it!). The lack of funding for science and the constant struggle for grants seems to be a problem everywhere.
Bonus: I learnt lots of cool things about trees

A very in-depth memoir of an unusual, an unconventional life. Beautifully read by the author. Soothing parts, tense parts, educational parts...all vivid and engaging. I recommend the audiobook. Reminiscent of H is for Hawk. A solid 4/5🌱s

I've taken to the high seas. Perfect for getting some reading done.

Watching the Littens. 😁

#readingretreat @Mitch @squirrelbrain @scripturient @RachelO @Leniverse @eraderneely @jhod @Oryx