‘Lab Girl’ is next Tosa All-City Read selection

Memoir is story of scientist’s career

Geobiologist Hope Jahren’s memoir “Lab Girl” will be the next Tosa All-City Read, organizers announced Wednesday.

A Minnesota native, Jahren is a professor at the University of Oslo in Norway. Her book won the National Book Critics Circle award for autobiography. In a Washington Post review, Amy Stewart described the book’s attractions:

“‘Lab Girl’ is the story of a girl who becomes a scientist. It’s also the story of a career and the endless struggles over funding, recognition and politics that get in the way. It’s the story of the plants and soil she studies. But — and this is the weirdest, coolest part about this book — it is really the story of two lab partners and their uncommon bond.”

The Neighborhood Association Council of Wauwatosa promotes the citywide reading program as a way of strengthening participation in community activities and groups.

Most All-City Read events for “Lab Girl” will take place in February, according to a statement from the committee that chose the book. The committee is releasing a list of suggested children’s books with similar themes for family reading and discussion, including “Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine” by Laurie Wallmark and April Chu and “Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World” by Sy Montgomery and Temple Grandin.

More information is available at TosasAllCityRead.com, or by visiting the TosasAllCityRead page on Facebook.

Previous Tosa All-City Read books have included Leif Enger’s “Peace Like a River,” Christina Baker Kline’s “Orphan Train,” Homer H. Hickam’s “Rocket Boys” and Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove.”