I read Lessons in Chemistry (Target link, Amazon link) only after more than one person declared FERVENTLY that both the cover and title did the book a disservice. A library patron told me it was one of her favorite books of the year, and that she NEVER would have read it except that her friend told her to, and she put it on hold without noticing the cover, and then she felt obligated to at least try it.
(image from Target.com)
I was hoping I wouldn’t like it, because then what am I supposed to do with the million other bright-pastel covers with slight-boring-wordplay titles? All the other cartoon women looking sideways, arms crossed or hands on hips, with or without sunglasses, with or without visible men to look sardonically at? All the other cartoon women in lab coats with charmingly messy updos, so smart and nerdy, probably clumsy and probably they snort when they laugh like Sandra Bullock or Anne Hathaway trying to be nerdy; and SO hoping to take their glasses off and let their hair down and get some boring guy to like them and make their sad independent accomplished lives complete?
(images from Target.com)
Unfortunately I thought it was great. I liked the protagonist, who was not clumsy and did not snort, and did put her hair up charmingly but was not looking for love, and did not have to go through some ridiculous set-up (she can’t have the desirable apartment unless she agrees to let the landlord’s son have a room! she has to pretend to her family to be dating some guy she just met and finds So Annoying…and wishes she didn’t find So Attractive!) to find it. (She did have to have the Initial Poor Impression meeting, but that seems literally unavoidable in fiction right now: it’s either Meet Cute or Meet Huffy.)
I didn’t think the romance was too much. There was a precocious child, but I found her not only tolerable but appealing. There was a precocious dog, and I loved him to the point of frequent tears. I also loved the neighbor, the pastor, the obstetrician, the friend/supervisor. When the book’s plot was described to me, I was not interested; but when a middle-aged woman in a bookstore told me vigorously that I should read it despite the cover, I obeyed. Let me be your middle-aged woman in a bookstore.
I too would never have chosen it on my own but it was someone’s pick for my book club. Similarly I loved it all! I do not think I will watch the tv series made about it because it will probably ruin the book for me. I have even heard objections about the dog cast!
If you have Apple TV, they made it into a TV series!
I loved the audiobook version so much! The narrator is perfectly crisp and no-nonsense, and so like Elizabeth that I think audio elevated the book to a higher level than if I had read it in print.
I had all the same thoughts as you but when my mother’s book club (she’s 81) raved about it I had to try. I loved it!! The adage “never judge a book by its cover” holds up! Hope you are feeling better!
My book club read this book as well, and we all enjoyed it. The members who also saw the show said it was the epitome of “based on the book.” So many unnecessary changes, including the dog!
I think it is so funny that you mention the cover because the covers that you show and describe are exactly what draws me to certain romance books! If it has a cartoonish cover, it goes on my To Read list immediately. If it has a bodice ripper cover, or a picture of sculpted male abs, I skip right over it.
That was my experience until the last year. Recently, it seems like every romance I read along these lines is “fine” at best. For example, The Love Hypothesis in Swistle’s examples annoyed me from start to finish. Not quite bad enough for a DNF, but definitely a hate read.
This was also my experience. Expected to hate it (slightly even looked forward to hating it) but, instead, it was one of my favorite books of the year! Highly recommend.
Loved the audiobook version, which I listened to while on the road for work. With some audiobooks with slow plots I lose my concentration, but this book moved at a good clip for the listening experience. Six-thirty was the best character!
Audiobook listener here, too, and I really enjoyed it. I’d thought someone here had recommended it, but it must have been in DC Urban Moms & Dads (where someone’s reason for not liking it was one of the things I liked best).
I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to read!
It’s SO GOOD
I loved Lessons in Chemistry. It was such a great read. I have the same aesthetics issue with Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. It’s just such an UGLY book cover. Even in the digital form it completely turns me off. Yet I’ve heard great things about it.
I very much enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry! It was bittersweet in a way I was not expecting. Delightful.
AND, FWIW, both The Hating Game and The Love Hypothesis (as well as other Ali Hazelwood books in that series) are great books (if you like romance novels, which not everyone does). Don’t let the covers dissuade you!
Yep, I often love modern romance novels—Jasmine Guillory and Ali Hazelwood write about genuinely interesting people pursuing healthy relationships with all the folks around them. Some of the best character-driven novels being written right now are romance with cutesy covers. I wouldn’t frame the covers, but I gladly reread the books.
I loved the book, and it was not what I expected AT ALL. It’s very different from all of those other books you pictured (I like a lot of those ones too, but they’re not similar). Also, I thought the TV series on Apple TV+ was excellent—yes, they changed stuff, but it was very well done.
I will be contrary and note that I didn’t like this one nearly as much as I expected to. I think it was sold to me as being “so funny” and I didn’t find it funny at all. It reminded me of how people told me Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was “heart warming” and I thought it was depressing.
I think I’ve learned that if a book is 95% bad/hard/sad things happening for a character and 5% happy(ish) ending… I don’t feel heart warmed. I just feel depressed and then slightly less depressed.
I loved this book even more when I learned that Bonnie Garmus, the author, is 66 years old, and this was her debut novel.
… you just significantly increased my probability of reading it. YAY for a 66 year old woman starting a new thing *and* a publisher letting her in!!!
It’s so good. I’m glad you read and enjoyed it. The cover is so misleading.
I just finished this and really enjoyed it. The author didn’t like the cover either. And if you read the book, you’ll appreciate the irony.
I’m not sure if you’ve looked into the cover but the author did not like the American cover at all. The British/European cover is very different and more in line with the book. I read this for my book club (we discussed the cover issue too) and loved it (BC of young 30s to 50s aged moms). I have not seen the show & we read prior to the show.
I couldn’t get into it, but I’m more of a cozy mystery and memoir person.
I enjoyed the book but I had issues with the mix of “this could never happen” and “this is historically accurate.” The sexism and academic integrity issues seemed very on point, and sure the dog and quirky kid get a pass, it’s a creative book – but would the protagonist’s TV show really take off in that era? It was central to the plot and yet I couldn’t imagine it. Did anyone else have that reaction?
I really hated the book for exactly this reason. I don’t need perfect accuracy, but so many things about this felt historically inaccurate and/or unrealistic.
I also disliked that it set up the fantasy of the Sexist Past that can be fought by Woman with Current Feminist Ideals. That set-up makes it seem like sexism isn’t a problem now, since we have the desired current feminist ideals. It’s the “You’ve come a long way, baby” myth.
I also think it’s false to assume that the way we conceive of feminism now is the one true way. The fight for gender equality has looked a lot of different ways over time.
I’ve only seen the TV show, but I had a similar reaction. I enjoyed it enough to look forward to it every evening, but also yelled “What is even happening!?!” at the screen multiple times. And at least one major plot twist I called just by guessing the most absurd cliche thing that could happen. There is a Kristin Bell movie that is a parody of a murder mystery that has a similar vibe, except the absurdity is intentional in that case and I was never quite sure if it was in this case. And there is something weird about a story about the pervasive sexism and racism of the 1950s where the only people who are sexist or racist are cartoonish villains, and that is somehow feminist but also ultimately kind of mostly a love letter to a man. But I did enjoy it. And I am curious about the book.
Ok I went down a teeny rabbit hole trying to figure out how plausible some of the opportunities Elizabeth had were even as extraordinary exceptions (I am still a little bit in shock after discovering that Emily Gilmore did not go to Yale because Yale was not coed until the late 70s), and ended up discovering this very cool person:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Fay_Morgan
So yes, home ec with a heavy side of science was at least kind of a thing in the 50s.
All I can say is thank god for the dog in this book; I was so traumatized by the sexual violence that I was in no way expecting or prepared for, I almost quit. But the dog saved me and then of course I was glad I read it.
Wait — aren’t there any other science-y women here who were aggravated by the science stuff?? For example, she makes a big point of saying to write in pencil because it can be erased but NO. NO. It is like, **illegal** to write in a lab notebook in pencil. You write in INK and if you make a mistake you draw a line through it such that the original is still legible, and you write the correction next to or near it. To do otherwise is considered practically scientific malpractice and if you work anyplace where patents, intellectual property, and/or academic integrity are involved the lawyers would have your a$$. This is research science 101.
Also, even picky scientists don’t go around calling table salt sodium chloride when cooking … it’s just salt. Suuuuuper pretentious (or utterly dorky and not even amusingly so) to say otherwise.
I also very much agree with other commenters about the mix of historical accuracies & inaccuracies. Lots of incongruities.
HOWEVER despite these very real complaints I did enjoy the book! Plucky protagonist and non-annoying precocious kid and heart-wrenching love story — all good there.
I thought the show was also really enjoyable on its own terms. Yes it completely changes some of the elements of the book but that was okay with me as I wasn’t attached to the book (see above ;-) ).
I had no idea there were so many books out there with cartoon women, arms crossed, messy up-do. That made me laugh.
I liked this book but I found the ending to be a bit much. Things seemed to work out a little too nicely for me. I did enjoy it. I loved the neighbor lady so much.
I also bypassed this book for my months as it came up on my library holds. Finally after being told repeatedly how good it was I relented and thoroughly enjoyed it. It really drove home how important the cover is. Last year when I read These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (loved loved loved it) she had an essay on the importance of a cover and her battle with her publisher (I think) against a cover she would not accept. This was interesting to see this factor in play with this book.
Speaking of single-color books with cartoon couple on the front ….if you like romance I have to recommend “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang and actually all of her books were excellent. They deal with autism, being Asian American, immigration, mental health, and grief. (“The Heart Principle” was absolutely shattering. I cried so much but also could NOT put it down and stayed up until like 3 a.m. to finish it).
I passed on the book at the library multiple times due to the cover, and probably never would have seen the show except I got some free Apple TV when I bought an ipad. I was so unprepared for the dog POV, I remember saying, “What in the Homeward Bound is going on here?” to my empty bedroom.
Finished the show and immediately read the book. I liked it well enough. Gave me “A Man Called Ove” vibes with the whole cast intertwining and the pat little wrap up.
In 2016 Hope Jahren published her autobiography Lab Girl. It is one of my favorite books.
As often happens when fiction follows history, the melodramatics are ramped up somewhat.
I enjoyed both books and the mini-series, and the female scientists I know are SO excited that their story is being told, they don’t quibble about the deguug n
“Unfortunately, I thought it was great” I SO FEEL THIS. Oh wait, I’m NOT too sophisticated for this thing that many other people love? Sometimes a million people are NOT wrong? Frig.
I am with you on rolling my eyes on the Meet Cute and Meet Huffy, except my husband and I totally and completely had a Meet Huffy in residence in university, so…
Oh yay! I am so glad you liked this book. I thought it was excellent although it made me SO MAD. I spent so much of the book feeling furious. Still a really good book though! It was a bit of a gateway read, though, into some of those books with similar covers. I ended up loving Nora Goes Off Script and The Bodyguard and Beach Read, each of which were also excellent.
The cover of the US-Version of Lessons in Chemistry really does not represent its content. I read the German version first and liked the cover – I’m including the link in case you would like to compare.
I also find it interesting that the German title translates to “A Question of Chemistry”.
https://www.piper.de/buecher/eine-frage-der-chemie-isbn-978-3-492-07109-3
I went and put this audiobook on hold through my library before even finishing the post, and I’m 681st in line, so it seems others are acting on recommendations too.
I’ve listened to The Love Hypothesis before, and most of that author’s other books. They’re all kind of the same and all deal with women in STEM fields who are tiny and end up with massive men as partners. But they’re good brain candy and as a woman who studied science I appreciate the discussion of what women in STEM academia deal with.
What is with that cover, did the publishers read the book at all? It seems like cover styles have fashions and suddenly every other book looks the same (teal/orange shading or orange/teal shading has been big lately). I enjoyed the book, and the cover we had in New Zealand was less off-putting: https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/lessons-in-chemistry-9781804990926
One of my friends just gave this book a 5-star rating on Goodreads. According to GR, our tastes are “79% similar” and she tends to rate books higher, so I guess the algorithm predicts I’d give it a 4.