Lessons in Chemistry

Як на мене, то атмосферу цілої розповіді можна зрозуміти вже з одного цього випадкового фрагмента:
"Що може бути краще, аби вибити ложку з рота великого цабе? А після того як остаточно зруйнує любовну ідилію Еванса і Зотт, покине бідолашну й спокійно повернеться до вкотре вагітної дружини та діточок-горлопанів. План був простим: спершу треба підірвати повагу Зотт до самої себе. Жінок так легко зламати."
До цього всього важно додати застереження щодо ґазлайтинґу, спроби зґвалтування та самогубства.

“Урокам хімії” можна дати точнішу назву “Уроки фемінізму, або приклади несправедливості, з якими доводиться стикатися жінкам і не тільки, але в дуже концентрованому вигляді”. Сама по собі історія не оригінальна, але написана досить непогано, текст читається легко, а сюжет досить цікавий.

Хоча я би посперечалася з добором творів і авторів, які згадуються в тексті. Саме через них було кілька моментів, коли здавалося наче авторка просто намагається приплести більше імен, щоб твір виглядав серйозніше, але мене це більше збивало, заплутувало і розчаровувало.

One of the best I've read with a great ending. This is now a Miniseries on Apple+ Network!
David N.

What a wonderful, quirky book.

Can I give this a 10 out of 5? Please.

It's one of those writers that when you read them you feel you're seeing the world crystal clear. The writing is so smart, the development is so good, it doesn't get boring, it skillfully jumps back, forward and within without never losing grip of the main storyline and it's so damn powerful and beautiful at its core.
It really made me scream, laugh, burn in rage and impotence and cry.
It is, truly, a wonderful reading that I really hope that anyone who reads it finds it as staggering as I did.

For the life of me, I can't really pin-point why this didn't hit for me. There's a lot to love about this book - I especially really enjoyed the narrative style - just something about it didn't quite work for me.

Lessons in Chemistry is lighthearted in its tone, but sharp in its critiquing of the treatment of women in 1960s America. Initially I found myself off-put by the manner in which author Garmus seemed to be inserting herself into the book's setting and time period; I believed her to be a modern young feminist asserting her own experiences onto another space. However, I was amazed to realise that the author is in her 60s, and this is her debut novel to boot!

The reason I thought Garmus was so young is due to the aloof and youthful voice of Zott. Our protagonist is clearly an intelligent person, yet remains muddled in some social situations. I thought every scene involving a pencil was brilliant, and the way she was unafraid to take the fight to every level of an institution, whether university or commercial television.

Another fun read that I may not have picked out of a bookshelf, all thanks to the Amsterdam Academy Book Club.

I just finished Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, audiobook and here are my thoughts.

Being a female scientist isn't easy and for Elizabeth Zott, being a scientist and a woman in the 60s is the hardest thing in the world. Only ever being interested in the science, Elizabeth was happily married to her work. Until she fellow scientist and Nobel-prize nominated, Calvin Evan's treats her like an equal and the two fall in beautiful love.

Tragedy strikes and Elizabeth finds herself not only as a single mother, her daughter being born out of wedlock, but hosting a cooking show where she teaches recipes of how to cook but with scientific explanations. She is daring women to dream big as they are the linchpin that holds the world together and they aren't just made to sit home and cook dinner.

This book was supposed to be hilarious. Don't get me wrong, it has some solid funny moments but the whole book is also tinged with some pretty dark moments. I don't think anyone can call sexual assault, suicide or the death of a partner in dark circumstances funny. I also didn't find what the priest did funny either so I kind of wished it hadn't just been listed as funny. It had a lot more depth to it.

There were so many good things about this book. Elizabeth and her daughter Mad, both excellent characters. The love the have for each other is so beautiful and don't even get me started on the dog! I want Six thirty. I felt deep sadness for all the things Calvin never gets to find out in his short life.

The story is so well done and I like that Elizabeth marched to the beat of her own drum and pushed the boundaries of her world.

Really a solid book! The audio was really great too.

4.5 stars

#lessonsinchemistry #womeninstem #bonniegarmus #stem #audiobook #bookishnlog #readerblog #readersofig #bookarelife #bookaesthetic

I did not expect the book to be what it is, the covers chosen for it are quite the example on how women are not taken seriously. A whole book about the issue and you have the publishers treating the book the same way the character is treated, i dnt know how the writer agreed to it. From the cover i thought it' gonna be a cute romcom i can read in one day, turned out to be a quite interestingly woven unchronological narrative from a dozen POVs including one dog.

Anyway, it's a good book. It's not really about misogyny as much as misogyny being the main antagonist. It's what drives the hero's action. The book can get suffocating at times, but it doesn't turn too serious despite the tragedies unfolding. I wish the ending didn't unravel that quickly, gave me a deus ex machina feel, but all in all good book. 3.5/5

While there were flaws and a bit of schmaltz, I overall enjoyed this. Perfect escapism in my breaks and post-shift. I'm sure if I think on it too much I'd start to cut down the stars, so I won't.

Feminism something something talking dog something something feminism

An excellent book. The show is different enough that no matter which you start with the other will be just as enjoyable.

4.5⭐️
I really enjoyed this book and my subjective/objective star ratings differ on this one.
I would've liked to have seen Harriet's character/storyline fleshed out more. Everything surrounding her felt a little underwhelming because she didn't get enough attention.
The ending didn't really have a nice conclusion imo like everything wrapped up a little too perfectly, but I appreciate the twist at the end wasn't completely random and the author laid the groundwork for it in advance so it didn't come off as randomly shocking for no reason.It was still partially too feel-good for me. Like if this went down in real life we all know how it would go.I also like the way the story itself is structured, like something will happen then we'll switch to the buildup to that moment. It's a really nice style.
This book is definitely not for you if you hate random pov shifting though.
Honestly I loved reading this book and would recommend it to others. It's not very intersectional in its feminism but it's set in the 1950s so idk

Overall I thought this was a good story, but I think it had a bit of a tonal problem. Part quirky character development story, part family history mystery, part paean against sexism... these parts of the pie don't all fit together, like Garmus had six pies made and took one slice of each to create the whole.

However, overall I found it charming and imminently readable. The characters were gripping; I found myself rooting for Elizabeth even when she was being particularly obstinate (relatable), hoping the myriad men that wronged her paid the piper, and surprised at a few characters who grew along the way.

How can I give this any rating lower than 100%? I enjoyed this book way beyond my expectations.

Sometimes, a book is so good, I don't even want to give it a review because I'll be analyzing everything that's good about for ten paragraphs.

Regardless, here's a list of what I enjoyed about Lessons in Chemistry:

- The repeated themes and symbols - chemistry, rowing, phrases like “each day is new”, words like “recommit” are all used as reoccurring symbols and themes throughout the book and—unlike in many books and films where there is theme for the sake of theme—they add so much to the story. Plus, they're fun when you recognize them.
- Time shifts, scene breaks - The narrative often cuts between scenes like a movie—I love it when books use this method and use it effectively.
- Likeable characters - I won't spend four paragraphs analyzing how the author makes you instantly like the main characters.
- Purpose and meaning - some books incorporate politics simply to appeal to a certain group or the publisher required it or yadda yadda. But, in this book, the political undertones have meaning to the story. It is tightly intertwined with and enhances the story. Also, unlike many modern works of fiction, it keeps the political points related to the the story and characters instead of randomly breaking off into preachy speeches every once and a while. This book uses political stances as a way to enhance the story rather than trying to force the reader to agree.
- Historical references - the book takes place in the 60s, and the references are fun. Makes ya really “feel” the era
- The stakes feel very real. That's why I couldn't put my book/eReader down.
- This book is pretty emotional, but the humor gives it a light, almost teasing tone. I wouldn't call it satire, but the combination of humor, injustice, wit, and struggles that each page communicates just...results in a really captivating “tone”. I guess, what I'm trying to say is, this book has a great “voice”.
- I could go on and on...


As for negatives...

Ehm. I don't really have negatives. As both a Christian and someone who is very into science, I see the complex design of the universe to be a very convincing indication that a God exists, or at least that the world was created because, cmon, there's no way all of this came out of an accident or randomness. Therefore, I think although the book accurately portrays the delusional attitudes of people, especially “religious” people during the 60's who claimed to know God and yet only did so because it was the societal norm, and couldn't answer basic questions about the Bible and science, it also neglects the alternate scientific viewpoint that neither idea disproves the other.

So, I guess, my only negative reading the book was that every character, both religious and non-religous, acted like God and science were contradictory, even though the latter can be seen as evidence for an intelligent creator.

But, that's more of a pet peeve, and plus, I know that's not really the view the author was focusing on, and that's okay. When I read a book, I wanna see both sides, and the author still did a pretty good job of doing that.

So, I am not changing my rating of 5/5.

I was under the impression that this book was terribly boring halfway through, it was not.
3.5 stars
Last book of 2023 and it didn't fail to make me cry

Best book I've read in 2023.

I really enjoyed the story and the idea behind it.

However, when you pretend to write a historical fiction is important to get the facts of history accurate (DNA test I am looking at you) and more mistakes that I came across.

Also, the whole plants have feelings as well, was ridiculous.

Then we go at the story, I wanted to follow the story up to the end, but some sub-stories did nothing for me. And I even thought of skipping some parts of the story.

I don't mind the fact that 6.30 was anthropomorphic, but come on, they are a smart family, with a dog that learnt more than 300 words?

Not my usual read, but I really fell in love with the characters.

It was fun to read, there was a moment that I was so devastated about something that happens that I didn't want to continue. However I felt like something was missing and after much thought I realized that even though the book brings a lot of discussions regarding feminism, it lacks depth, I say that having in mind that the story happens on the 1960s and some resolutions to the conflict were easily solved which I don't think it would be the same if that had really happened in the 60s, for example, Elizabeth starring for a long time on TV preaching about feminism without men revolting against it and taking measures to restrain her.

liked this a lot more than i thought i would <3

Read it in 4 days, super fun read!!

I loved and hated this book. The story is excellent. The writing, stellar. What I disliked was the memories it brought up.

It really could be filed as historical fiction since it started in 1952, the year before I was born. The majority of the story that saddened me happened in the 1960s. I still remember I wasn't allowed to wear pants to school until I was a high school junior. In college, I got great math scores on my SATs. My counselor's advice? “Lucky you. You never have to take math again.” Meanwhile, the guys around me who got almost as good scores were encouraged to pursue the new field of computers.
In 1960, the FDA approved the birth control pill. In 1965, married women could take it. It was 1970 before all states allowed unmarried women to take it.
In 1974, women were allowed to have a credit card and a bank account in their own name.
Yes, we were voting, but you wouldn't know it. These are the days that a certain political party wants to relive.

The main character lived through these same repressions. Women were expected to stay in the kitchen, not work in a chemistry lab. They aren't there now, really. (My husband is a chemist.)

So, the tale of Elizabeth Zott and Calvin Evans falling in love and NOT getting married is half of the book. How Elizabeth handles her career in TV is the other half. Here was a perfectly intelligent woman, not allowed to pursue her passion, abiogenesis, because of her gender. But, because she was good-looking, they put her on TV with a cooking show. Figures.

Anyway, I loved and hated the book, but it's a great read. I still can't walk outside with my shirt off. I know some men who should be arrested for that, but aren't.

Dios mio

Good novel. My boyfriend bought it for me because he thought it was a nonfiction book about chemistry (I feel there's irony there, with the subject matter of the book being what it is), and it turned out to be a novel instead. Not a genre I'd choose for myself to read, with it straddling the line between romance, tragedy and drama, none being genres I generally read. 
I liked Elizabeth because I identify with her in many ways. The cooking show theme of the book is an interesting invention from the author, but I found it to be quite left-field. I suspect this was the central idea around which the book was built. 

I flew through this book and enjoyed it a lot. I liked Elizabeth as a character, loved the interplay of Elizabeth and Miss Frask especially as the book went on. Loved Harriet and the few friends that Elizabeth/Mad managed to cobble together especially as the book went on. Loved how Elizabeth treated the cooking show, as an extension of chemistry even though she wasn't able to work in a lab, and how that resonated with her audience of women wanting to be taken seriously.

Got irritated because I couldn't figure out how old Mad was supposed to be. I get that she's supposed to be brilliant, but if she is truly supposed to be four, there is no way she's understanding The Sound and the Fury. One of my favorite childhood movies was Matilda, but even that seemed more realistic, as a very serious six-and-a-half year old who loves to read. Now I have a couple of six-year-old niblings, so maybe Matilda wasn't exactly a realistic portrayal either, but it made more sense to me than this. And I didn't dislike Mad at all! I just wanted ... some element of her character that didn't read like a pretentious 32-year-old. And that ended up extending to Six-Thirty as well. Dogs are smart yes, but you can't know how many words your dog knows and understands. He's allowed to just have an internal dialogue without having a measuring stick to prove he's smart.

I found the ending a little bit confusing, it all felt kind of rushed with Elizabeth meeting the Parker Foundation people and Calvin's relatives and all that ... I didn't need it to wrap up so neatly, especially since so little of Elizabeth's life had been easy or neat.

So, I liked it, didn't love it.

TW: sexism, rape, adoption, trauma by religious institutions (specifically thinking about the women's home lying to Calvin's mother about her son being stillborn, and when she found out it was a lie, lying to her that her son was dead again; similarly, lying to Calvin that his mother had died in childbirth)