lessons in chemistry,
by Bonie Garmus

I’m a little late to the game, but I saw Lessons in Chemistry floating around Instagram and bookshelves constantly for around 6 months. Everyone I spoke to about it raved that it was simply amazing and ground breaking and NOT AT ALL ABOUT ROMANCE (don’t let the catchy title confuse you). So, it’s safe to say that my bar was set unreasonably high.

I’ll say it – I liked this book. Nothing more. It was catchy, and funny, and at times, insightful. Lessons in Chemistry is written in quite a unique style; it’s a third person perspective that floats around to main subjects and scenes seamlessly. One moment, we’ll be following the main character Elizabeth Zott as she tries to teach American housewives about the chemical compositions of common food items, and the next moment we’ll be an audience member having a flash-back to when they were a child and first wanted to become a neurosurgeon. We won’t hear from that audience member’s perspective ever again and we’ll quickly forget that we were ever in a flashback at all, but this style of writing is something I hadn’t encountered before and which I found pretty entertaining - always on my toes!

In my opinion, the best parts of the book were when the dog, Six-Thirty gives his perspective, or when the men say something so outrageously sexist that I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. But in terms of the “OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK IT’S THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR” critiques that I received from lots of people, my own thoughts don’t seem to match.

I found it catchy, and quick-witted, but I think I was expecting something truly groundbreaking and feminist and this didn’t hit that mark. It did however, hit the mark of a light-hearted and interesting read. Still worth while!