Book Review of
Lessons In Chemistry

Lynn's Review

I feel like I am in the minority when it comes to the book Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

This book has been all over social media and book sites. When a fiction book gets a lot of buzz it usually turns me off. I don’t tend to enjoy buzzy books that soon fall off the radar. I am more likely to read a book that is still getting a lot of attention two or three years later.

That is not to say that I never read new releases. I do read them, but I tend to stick to authors that I have known and loved in the past. So Lessons In Chemistry was not a usual pick for me.

Lessons In Chemistry is a debut novel and although I didn’t love the book, I will say that overall it was well written.

The book is about Elizabeth Zott who is a chemist in the early 1960s which was a time that not very many women were chemists. She is brilliant and the world doesn’t know what to do with her, especially the men around her.

Lessons In Chemistry is her story of living life as she wants. She is honest, to the point, and doesn’t see why people don’t see the world as she does. Elizabeth Zott is not your typical 1960s woman.

The book is about overcoming the odds, both in childhood and adulthood. It is about making your way in a world that you don’t fit into.

I knew the basics of this book because I listened to an interview with the author before reading it. I knew this wasn’t my typical book, but I was super curious about why it was getting so much attention.

When I was about halfway through this book I went to Amazon to read the reviews because I could not see why so many people had raved about this one. It has over 16,000 reviews and had 4 1/2 stars. When I saw that I knew I was in the minority.

But then I scrolled through to read the one and two-star reviews and I realized that others felt like I did. I wasn’t the only that didn’t love this book.

My main complaint with the book is that I thought it made light of some very serious topics. I think it was meant to be humorous in some ways, but it wasn’t my style of humor. I have read quite a few reviews of this book from people that I loved, but I have seen very few warnings about the content.

It also just felt angry to me. In an unrealistic way. And it felt preachy to me. It bashed men, religion, and so many other things. I just didn’t appreciate how it approached the topics.

I also thoughts some of the comparisons were over the top. For example, being a housewife was compared to slavery. The author made the comparison to make a point, but I thought it was not the best example to use. And the book is full of things like that. It just wasn’t the type of humor or writing that I enjoy.

I know a lot of people loved this book, but I am not one of them. I always try to keep it real and this book is one that I would struggle to recommend because I just did not enjoy it at all.

I am glad I read it because it will make for some great conversation with others that have read it. It also gives me a look into what kinds of books a lot of people love that I don’t.

I am also guessing that I might even lose some readers over this one because many people feel like it is a book everyone must read because of the topics it deals with. But I keep it real and the reality is that I didn’t enjoy it.

Have you read it?