Content warning: This book contains descriptions of eugenics and sterilization.
Aside from the joy of snacks, the best part of being in a book club is listening to different points of view and hearing how others have interpreted a work of literature. After finishing Lulu Miller’s winding tale of science-meets-history-meets-memoir, I realized that I have yet to get to the best part: discussing it.
Miller, former host of NPR’s podcast Invisibilia, intermingles her own life’s journey with the biography of David Starr Jordan and the way in which she learned about this complicated historical figure whose early philosophies she had used as a guiding star during some of her life’s toughest moments. As Miller is writing the book, she learns about the darker parts of Jordan’s story, and the reader learns right along with her.