Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry (a dog named Six-Thirty, a woman chemist ahead of her times, a TV cooking show)

 Lessons in Chemistry,  by Bonnie Garmus (DoubleDay, 2022, 404pp, $15.68)

"If you could use three words to describe yourself, what would they be?"

"Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen."

A study guide for book clubs, a cookbook, trailers, numerous different cover designs, translated into 43 different languages, even an 8-episode miniseries on Apple TV (2023). And a New York Times (among others) Best Book of the Year.

And I love love love the cover (with parts of the periodic table on the inside covers)! 

Our hero wore a pencil in her hair, just like we remember our first-grade teachers (or librarians) did. This hero, however, broke all the rules - being awarded her M.S. without having an undergraduate degree was one. 

Lessons in Chemistry is the book that shook the world, starring a 1960s woman chemist who is a mover and shaker - way ahead of her times. Not afraid to tell it like it is. If you haven't read it yet, get going!

She is the one PhD chemists (male) come to to check their work. That is, until she is let go. What she does next will amaze you, surprise you, astound you at times - and she gets away with it all!

Style

Author Bonnie Garmus got it right (at least in the eyes of this reviewer, who minored in Chemistry).

Lessons, the book, starts out slowly, as many books do, but gathers steam and races through to the end, so pay attention.

First thoughts: oh, no! A long book at 404 pages but it reads quickly and has some of my favorite features: short chapters with titles and even some cliffhangers. Plus a mystery to boot. This is a book you can't wait to get back to, to see what Elizabeth will do next that is controversial. And you can't help but learn a little chemistry.