Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds and soil. Lab Girl is a beautifully written tribute to plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility and passion that drive every scientist. Warm, luminous and compulsively readable, this memoir vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love, friendship and work come together.
Lab Girl – Questions for Discussion (pdf)
About Hope Jahren and Lab Girl (pdf)
Awards and Critical Acclaim for Lab Girl (pdf)
An Interview with Hope Jahren (pdf)
Book club meetings aren’t just about the book. Sharing food and drinks adds to the fun! We’ve found some great recipes to enhance your discussion of Lab Girl. Try some and impress your guests! Special thanks to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel food editor and committee member Nancy Stohs for finding all of the food references in the book, locating appropriate recipes, cooking them, photographing them and tasting them for us.
What to serve at a book club discussion of Lab Girl? Food doesn’t really factor into Hope Jahren’s story.
Plant foods are a natural, considering the focus of her research. But that doesn’t mean you have to restrict yourself to a big bowl of salad greens…
Let’s dig a bit deeper (pun intended). Think roots, leaves and seeds.
ROOTS
If you’re serving a full meal, you could roast up a pan of root vegetables.
For an easy snack, simply open a bag of root veggie chips.
Or try:
Beet Quick Bread or Chocolate Beet Quick Bread
LEAVES
Kale Chips (Updated). Of course.
And there’s nothing wrong with a big bowl of salad! Toss some assorted greens with roasted beets, some goat cheese, oranges or other favorite ingredients and top it with sunflower seeds for all three plant parts in one dish.
SEEDS
How about Sweet Roasted Chickpeas or Spicy Roasted Chickpeas? (Legumes are, in fact, seeds.) Or set out a bowl of roasted pumpkin seeds.
DESSERT
What else but Dirt Cake? Make your favorite recipe or try ours, with homemade Vanilla Pudding and real whipped cream.
Or make a jellyroll cake and decorate it with chocolate frosting to resemble a log, à la buche de Noel (meringue mushrooms optional). We call our recipe the Log of Life cake.
Or bake up a batch of Mixed Seed Clusters and sprinkle it on servings of ice cream.
DRINKS
You can never go wrong with wine at a book club gathering, no matter what the book. Or try one of these science-y or plant-themed cocktails:
Adult category:
Elise Riepenhoff – High Dive
Sharon Porfilio – A Time I Felt Grown Up
High school:
Madison Sveum – Mac & Cheese
(tie) Antonia Arney – My Anxiety Journey and Jordan Lawless – Coming of Age – Which Age?
Middle school:
Molly Chartier – Demons
Annabelle Wilson – Saying Goodbye
Elementary:
Cate Carney – The Big Switch
Winter Hamilton – Finally, My Own Space
Honorable mention (Elementary category):
Lindsay Beaman
Anna Guckenberg
Elena Cooper
June Straka
Alex Gleesing
Adult category:
High School:
Middle School:
Elementary School:
