Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

This is quite an unusual book. The author is a very accomplished botanist. She is a very good writer. She has bipolar disorder. Chapters about plants are interspersed with her account of her career, written in an interesting sketchlike manner. Her entire career has been working with the same assistant, Bill, with whom she has an extremely close, quirky relationship. She marries and has a son and writes it all in a way that engages the reader.