Why am I passionate about this?
I have always enjoyed talking with others about books, including throughout my education at St. John’s College (the Great Books school) and my graduate work. Recently I was able to reunite online with college classmates; during Zoom sessions, we discuss fictions that are meaningful to us. Additionally, as a literature and women’s studies professor at a technological university, I am always looking for interesting texts to discuss with students and to analyze in my research. The books I selected have been book club selections, course readings for my classes in gender studies and in comparative literature, and/or have been the focus of my writing about women and feminism.
Carol's book list on feminism and women's experiences in science
Why did Carol love this book?
This autobiography by a female geochemist and geobiologist describes her family background, education, and career, providing incisive commentary about her challenges in finding funding and pursuing scientific research in US universities.
I like the honest way she, a woman with a doctorate from a top university, portrayed the pros and cons of studying and doing science and the various ways her research assistant contributed to her projects, served as a sounding board, and helped her with all tasks, included cleaning up shards of glass after an explosion in her lab.
I discussed this book with women graduate students in science who found it a useful and inspirational account aligning with their own experiences.
6 authors picked Lab Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER •NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist.
"Does for botany what Oliver Sacks’s essays did for neurology, what Stephen Jay Gould’s writings did for paleontology.” —The New York Times
In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father’s college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary…