Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Eine Frage der Chemie

"’Sometimes I think," she said slowly, "that if a man were to spend a day being a woman in America, he wouldn't make it past noon.’"

Much funnier and darker than I was expecting. Required a lot of suspension of disbelief, but the writing was engaging and easy to read. For example, very weird that Elizabeth spouted such strong political convictions on her TV show but had no qualms about working for a military contractor. At the same time, I wanted her to shove it in the face of her old bosses. Loved the time jumps and how the other story lines wove together. Picked it up because most of my aunts have read it this year, so looking forward to hearing their opinions when I’m home over the holidays.

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uranaishi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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lizzymorang's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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arbramirez's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lucyatoz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is an interesting novel, featuring a wonderfully developed and intelligent character in Elizabeth Zott, Chemist.

The book is mainly set in the early 1960's. This is a time when a woman working as a scientist, in any scientific field, was unusual. The only other female scientist I could name would be Marie Curie, winning a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Elizabeth is an independent individual who refused to live by the expectations and sexist attitudes of her time. The story of Elizabeth's journey as a woman who falls in love, has a child out of wedlock and becomes a working, single mother, has threads of narrative that many today can relate to. She ultimately becomes the star of a television cooking show, which acquires a legion fans who are housewives, and it dares them to make a difference and to change the status quo.

Lessons in Chemistry is a delightful book with much humour, some of it dark whilst it other times it is almost laugh out loud! It is also a historic view on gender roles and society's expectations of women, although some of these still exist today.

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