The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

If this is to be a tribute to women scientists everywhere why then this ending to Alma's life?  Born to a life of privilege at the dawn of the 19th century, Alma is a strong and brilliant young woman.  She is driven to understand the natural world but never quite able to manage the social human world around her.  Her love of botany and the explanation of its secrets hardly require her to leave the confines of her family estate in Philadelphia and its vast library.  But to understand her own life she must travel around the world from Tahiti to Holland.  Is the understanding of the "laws of nature" purely scientific?  What is the nature is sacrifice?  I imagine there will be many a book group arguing and/or defending Alma's view and experience of the world.