 So I'll never read anything by this off there again. This is bringing me to my next point. I don't recommend you read this book. Well, that got real dark real quick. I don't understand. So that annoyed the piss out of me. Today we're chatting about another miss from Book of the Month. Book of the Month is just really not been it lately. I'm very worried about next month when I knowingly ordered a Peter Pan retailing, which is again something that I know I very often do not like because I love Peter Pan. Don't get me wrong, Peter Pan obsessed. And it's very rare that I read a retailing that I feel like either does something interesting enough to where if you've like messed with Peter Pan, I'll be like, that's fine because you do something interesting or is a true enough to Peter Pan where I feel like they really get it. You know, they really get the vibe, they get the message, they get what Dan Berry was doing and have like reverently talked with it. Anyway, that's maybe it'll surprise me. I'm really hoping it will as I cannot resist a Peter Pan retailing. That's not something that I'm capable of but I nine times out of 10 hate them. So like I will be unsurprised. It will not really be Book of the Month clubs fault if I don't like it, it'll be mine for knowingly choosing that book. Anyway, we're here to talk about lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmue. Garmas, Garmue, I still don't know how to pronounce it and I will never learn. So I'll never read anything by this author again. Side note about this book, that's kind of funny to me. I guess this will become funny to you by the end of this video. If you know nothing about this book, there's in the audio book, there's an interview with the author at the end. And like one of the first questions that the interviewer asks the author is like, tell me about all the research you did in order to like make this feel so authentic. The research you did to about the time period or about the science or about whatever. And I literally burst out laughing cause I was like, she clearly did zero research. Her research is, I feel like this is what that would be anyway. So yeah, similarly to cartographers, this will be a spoiler review but I don't recommend you read this book. So I recommend you stick around and hear all the reasons why and then at the end feel that you dodged a bullet. However, if you do think that you might be interested in this or want to make your own opinion, then don't watch this video cause it will have spoilers. So lessons in chemistry. First of all is mis-marketed. It's absolutely 100% mis-marketed. I don't think that even people who like this book, which apparently there are many, I don't think even they would disagree with me that it is mis-marketed. So, or at least mis-marketed by book of the month. I don't actually know who came up with this like comparison or tagline. If it was just book of the month or if like the publishers are doing that or the author, I don't know. This is not really something I can blame the author for as far as I know cause I don't think authors control that. In the pitch for this book, it talks about it being in the 60s and feminist and that it's like hilariously laugh out loud funny. And the comp it gives, which I mean, these comps are always kind of suspect but they should at least kind of give you an idea of like a vibe or a tone or like if you like this, you might like this. Like if someone says, this is the next Harry Potter you're like, okay, so it's gonna be like magic, maybe a school setting. So like, you know, you have some idea. The comp it gives for lessons in chemistry is the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I have not actually watched but I have seen a lot of clips of it and I know that it has a reputation for being very, very funny because I believe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is about a female standup comic in like the 50s or 60s. So it's like feminist but funny, blah, blah, blah. So like that's what it is saying this is, you know it's feminist but funny in the 50s and 60s like, you know, it's not about a standup comic. Well, like that's the vibe. So I picked this up thinking it would be a light, fun, humorous, sardonic feminist bit of reading, you know it'll be a bit serious, a bit funny, you know but that's what I would be getting out of this and trigger warnings about and I don't think that a book that comps itself I don't think that a book that calls itself like hilariously funny and a delight and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in book form. Like I don't think that that sets you up with the expectation that there's going to be not one but two on page in this book. One of them happens very early on in the book. So again, like trigger warning if you are thinking of picking this up there are again, not one but two on page. So I was reading that and I was like well that got real dark real quick but I don't think this is an amazing book that's just like way darker than the pitch. Like I also don't think it's a very good book but it is, again I think people who do like this book would agree with me that this book is a lot darker and a lot more serious than the like the marketing for it would lead you to believe. Okay, so this book, what is it about? It takes place in the 60s. There's kind of two timelines-ish. It's kind of wibbly wobbly on the timing because we kind of start out in the present where the main, main chemist character it has a child and that child is a prodigy and we hear about like her reading, you know at a college level basically at the age of five and how she like hides her like the notes that her mom writes for her school lunches because like she's embarrassed that she has like her reading ability is not much better than the kids so she like hides it and pretends to be illiterate and then we kind of like jump back and kind of see how mom originally met dad and how they got to know each other and then how she ended up getting pregnant and having the daughter and like how her life has kind of like gone from there and then we do basically like catch up to the present but if memory serves we did jump back and forth a little bit even before we caught up to the present which was like I might not, I might not be sure about it I think I just like the flashback wasn't so clearly to me a flashback when it happened like I didn't, it didn't feel like here's the present now we're gonna catch up to it it felt a little more disjointed than that but regardless like we go back we see her early life as a young student who's sitting chemistry trying to become a chemist I didn't mean to use air quotes she was trying to be a chemist like this isn't like a cartographer situation like as far as I can tell the word chemist is being used appropriately she's studying chemistry at UCLA and working towards getting a doctorate in chemistry she doesn't get a doctorate because of sexism from the get go every single conversation these people are having every single thing that the author is telling you is pretty on the nose and blunt and so boxy and those are like things that I hate and it doesn't matter to me if I agree with you or not like I will irritate me more if I disagree with you but even if it's like a point that I entirely agree with even if it's a political position that I entirely agree with I really don't want a book to be like you know if I wanted to read a book that's like telling me political philosophy then I would go read a book that's on political philosophy you know what I mean like to be that direct about what you're saying that to be that clear that you will have an agenda and a message as opposed to just telling a story in which like because people who say that you know books shouldn't have politics in them I again disagree books are inherently political you are taking a position no matter what you write no matter if you meant to or not the way you portray characters the way you portray what is written wrong you are taking a stand for basically like you are taking a position when you write something that is inescapable so that's why I don't feel that it's necessary to like yell at the reader or to like be like did you catch it my message in this book like literally every page it's doing that like the narrator when it's telling when the narrator is telling you the story it's soap boxing at you when the characters are having a conversation they're soap boxing at each other they're grandstanding about social issues at each other and it's just constant and it's annoying to me because again I don't like to be preached at by a book but it's also unbelievable so it makes it impossible for me to now believe that these are human characters that I'm who have lives and have thoughts and personalities that I'm following because they don't behave like people they behave like plot devices inserted for the purpose of yelling at me about a political position or a social position or whatever it may be and so it's twofold I'm irritated that you're doing this and it makes it impossible to follow a story because they don't behave like people so anyway because of sexism she is not able to pursue a doctorate because not just sexism because of sexual because she gets kicked out of the program because she does not kowtow to the advances of her like advisor professor I don't really know how it worked or works especially not in sciences so basically someone who has power over academia in this school, in this environment, in this program in this discipline she's like in the and of course the reason that she's there late at night in the lab or in the I think it's the lab because she's a genius and so she's spotted something wrong with like the I don't know what it is they're working on but some like group thing that like the advisor person professor person has also put his name to and she's identified a problem with it or like an inconsistency with it or something like that and so she's like there trying to like fix it the day before they're presenting it something like that and so then he shows up and he like makes moves on her and she's like not obviously into it but even so this scene and you can never say that nothing would that something would like that this literally would never happen like this you know you can't say that because anything's possible but it just doesn't read like a natural escalation of events you know what I mean? like it reads like and now he's gonna **** her you know what I mean? it kind of comes out of nowhere and it doesn't really like the way that they're behaving in the scene it doesn't I mean it's awful because of what it is but it doesn't feel like real and I don't mean that feels awful to say that but like it doesn't read like a scene where like this is actually how that would go down how what they would say how they would behave and again I'm not saying that like it's impossible for somebody to just like walk up and start ****ing you like I mean sure but it just you know what I mean? it reads like a scene where like the author was like and here it's gonna be this like aggressive horrible **** and it's just like stuck in there in a way that like doesn't feel it doesn't feel real it doesn't feel authentically written like how characters actually behave which is like a big problem in this book in general because this is like this is the beginning of a trend that you will observe if you read this book that every single man every single human born with a Y chromosome in this book is at best a misogynist and at worst a **** and I just like yes there is sexism in the world yes there is patriarchy in the world particularly in an earlier time period you know we've like slowly made strides so the further back you go the worse it is but I'm sorry but it's not every man every it's not every single man walking around insulting and objectifying and belittling and you know it's constant and it's on the nose and it's sexism is a lot subtler and more insidious than this if you think like this is why people go around saying well sexism is solved there's no such thing as sexism anymore because like it's illegal you know to do sexist things it's illegal to rape somebody and that's the thing I mean it's not because like sexism rarely takes the form of you are a woman and therefore you are stupid like that's just it doesn't work like that people aren't like that that's almost never what sexism was I mean I'm not saying again that no one in the history of ever has ever said you are a woman and therefore you are stupid but you know what I mean like that's not really the problem with sexism if it was that easily identifiable we wouldn't have as big a problem with it as we do well I mean okay we would have a problem with it but we wouldn't have it wouldn't be so hard to eradicate or identify or put a stop to you because it would be so obvious that like you just said you are a woman and therefore you are stupid like this is sexism you know it's not that clear cut usually so every man behaving this way again like at worst we get two that do essays and um the rest except for one there are and even him a little bit are you know sexist and misogynist so anyway you know shortly so she stabs the professor with a pencil um she grabs a pencil at the desk and like stabs him with it as he's you know as this is going on so when the police come again I'm not saying that the police get things right I'm not saying that the police treat everybody equal I am not saying that but again it feels like this cartoonish depiction of the police don't believe women yes this is a big problem the police don't believe women that's why we have kids that go untested that's why we get you know things like this that go unreported like we have a big problem with that but again it's literally this this cop shows up and he's like so you're like you want to make a statement for like you want to apologize for the fact that you have you know done this to a professor that you have violently assaulted him and she's like no no no no no like he was assaulting me and I was protecting myself and the cop literally will not write anything down will not take her statement ignores her like glares at her until she's like yes I want to make a statement he's like good I'm glad you're like one will apologize and it's like you know what I mean like I just find it very difficult to believe that the cop wouldn't be like oh is that right you said this like you know you're saying that he attacked you okay you know we'll look into it and then maybe they don't look into it you know that's a much bigger problem that they're like sure sure sure sure and then they do nothing about it so like the fact that literally in front of her they're like literally nothing happened you're the you know you're the one that attacked him you know like it just doesn't read true it doesn't read like people actually behaving in this situation would again I'm not saying that the system is great I'm not saying that the cop would believe her I'm not saying that the cop would immediately investigate and say that the professor was in there wrong and she was in there right I'm not saying any of that but the way that in this scene the cop is like you know you're an evil woman who stabbed him with a pencil are you ready to apologize and she's like no I was defending myself and they're like nope we will not listen to this or believe this because you were a woman and you are wrong like you know it's just so like people don't act like this they just don't and so then again like so we move forward so she can't get her PhD because this happened she gets kicked out of school because of this and so then she's like in this she's working in a lab and that's where we meet you know Mr. Wright who ends up being the father of her child and he's sexist the first time that she meets him she goes into his lab because she meets supplies and he tells her to get out because he assumes that she's a secretary and she doesn't correct him but she just like takes what she needs and leaves and then later he finds out that she was a chemist that she's actually a chemist and he apologizes for having made that assumption but then she gets in trouble with her department anyway because she took supplies from him and he's like a famous chemist and they're like you're causing problems for us by taking these supplies she's like look I ordered supplies and no one will or like I put in a request for supplies and no one will order them for me so I had to go get them from him and they're like you're causing problems so she like basically gets kicked out of there too so then the famous chemist guy has to step in and she'll be like I don't want help I don't want handouts I don't want you using your manpower to you know help me as a female in this field and when they're having like a conversation that's like I don't think it's a date yet but they are like having their first proper conversation and she literally their first conversation I mean technically their first conversation was him assuming she was a secretary but like their first proper conversation I'm not kidding she's literally just like grandstanding and soap boxing at him about the inherent sexism in the system about patriarchy about how he's benefited from this privilege and she has not and doesn't he see that this is a system from which he benefits and I'm just like the way that she's like fully formed the thesis of this argument and is like spewing it at him and the way he's like oh I never considered how much I guess I benefit from this and then there's like I guess it's like a cute romcom thing but it's weird and I don't like it we get both of their perspectives when they are not yet dating but they are seeing each other in the office like you know interacting and like working on stuff together and because you know she literally like gave him a speech on sexism then in his mind he's like I'm treating her the way that she wants I will not carry anything for her I will not open a door for her I will she looks like she really cannot handle this level of books like she's about to fall over but I will not offer to carry them for her because that's sexist and he's like but you know like I'm really interested in her but she does not seem interested in me at all and then we get her perspective and she's like I can't believe like he wouldn't even help me when I was carrying these books like he must really not care about me at all he won't like help me at all and then like she like makes some she like talks to him about the behavior of silkworms and something about like their chemistry and she's like are you not interested in this at all he's like no I'm not interested in this at all and she's like he hates me because like when he's responding to this he's just talking about the science and she thought this was like an overture of like like a romantic overture and she was hinting at him something about it's something to do with like mating of silkworms or something like that that was like her being like you know mating something like that it was not like super I would I mean I'm not a scientist so like I also would have been like didn't understand that so she's like he won't help carry my books and he said he's not interested in this like science thing which means he's not interested in me and like she's written kind of she's like kind of coded to be possibly on the spectrum which is also annoying to me because like this book is doing that thing of like quirky science girl who's not like other girls who might be on the spectrum and then like constantly is rude to people because she's possibly on the spectrum and like so like the rudeness takes on like two there's like two versions of the rudeness that often overlap where she just yells at people about the inherent injustice of the sexist system which like on a first conversation is like wow okay we're opening with that, awesome and then she kind of does the like if you've ever watched Bones the show with Emily Deschanel where she plays Dr. Temperance Brennan who's a forensic anthropologist and like in that show it's kind of like played for laughs that she answers everything like you know it's kind of like or I guess people do this with like there's like spock or things like that where you just like literally like the angel in supernatural where they just like literally answer a question and like don't get social cues so like if someone's like making you know a double entendre or someone is like using slang she'll just like answer as if she's taking meaning taking it literally because you know science brain possibly on the spectrum so like the main character like it doesn't make sense to me I mean yeah I'm not an expert on how any of this works I'm not a psychology expert but the way that she like understands the nuances and subtleties of how she is being mistreated by the system as a female but then doesn't understand nuances and subtleties of human interaction because she's like quirky science girl who answers literally like I don't think you can like have your cake and eat it too like it can't be both and the going to her awareness of the world perception of the world as I mentioned literally every man in this alternate universe is at best a misogynist and at worst a f*** so the fact that every single time she encounters and makes the acquaintance of a new male person that she is surprised that they are treating her differently because she's a woman and she answers them as if it doesn't enter her mind that they would think of her differently like when they say something about her wearing pants it's not played as if she's like I'll pretend like I don't understand what they mean because like why shouldn't I wear pants she's like literally like yes I think pants are very comfortable thank you for noticing or something like that and you're like you can't she's constantly yelling about how women are treated differently and talked to differently and she's in her experience in this book every single man is like this so when she cannot possibly be surprised when she does realize she's being mistreated as a woman I'm like I don't know why you're acting like this has never happened to you before when it happens on every page like in this world you should have expected it because every single man in this world is a monster so I don't know why you're surprised and two you can't both be hyper aware of how you're being mistreated and also completely unaware of it because you're like quirky science girl like you can't be both and this is why she doesn't read like a character she reads like an author insert or a you know not even author insert because like that would be acting like the author and only the author acts like this she's just like a device that in this scene we need to play for laughs that she doesn't understand what's happening because she's quirky science girl so that's how I'm writing her in this scene but in the next scene I want to make a point about sexism so here she's hyper aware that sexism is happening so she's gonna like comment on it and yell about it because in this instance she gets it because I need her to but over here she doesn't because it's funny that she doesn't so like that's not a human person like the way you're writing her she's just like whatever you need her to be in a scene that doesn't work for me and then again like how every single instance so what happens in this book right is so like she gets kicked out of science programs and then when she gets pregnant because you know Mr. Wright who is like a little bit sexist but like you know is the good kind of sexist like they have this whole conversation about like her not wanting to change that they had agreed that if she they were together she didn't want to get married and didn't want to change her name because you know professional whatever it is and like I shouldn't have to take a husband's name would you take my name blah blah blah blah and so then the thing of him agreeing to this but then later being like well I just kind of thought you change your mind so it's like written as if he's kind of it was so confusing to me like emotionally as a reader because we have this whole like multiple instances of him like really not getting it of like her being like I thought we agreed that like you know as an independent female I don't want to have to do this or I don't want to you know it's not fair to me and that he's agreed to these things and then later been like well but I just thought you know that like in the end you would agree to this and in the end you would marry me and in the end you would take my name and you would have my children and like all of that it seems to me it seemed to me as the reader that like because we know in the present day she is a single mom we know that she has this prodigy child and that he's not in the picture so I was like okay this is building up to like why it really ultimately didn't work out between them why ultimately they broke up because it turns out like he seemed like he maybe was like the one man out of literally every single man in this world who gets it and then it turns out even he doesn't get it so then like they're gonna break up except no he tragically dies again I told you spoilers he tragically dies and then after he dies is when she finds out that she's pregnant and the way she thinks of him is that like he was her one true love and they were totally compatible and perfect together and there will never ever be anyone else for her because he was like her one and only like they just connected on a soul level he was perfect and I was like he but he wasn't though like you and it wasn't painted as one of those like interesting character studies where like sometimes we romanticize relationships that end early like you know we have actors that died young like James Dean and they'll forever be this like person who died young and that there's a certain like aura about that it's not written like that where she's like romanticizing him because she's thinking of everything that never could be and that probably wouldn't be as good as she's imagining it because it never came to be kind of thing no it's just like he was perfect and it's so sad that he's dead because he was literally perfect and I was like but he wasn't like I don't I don't understand I don't understand and then her daughter who is like you know even more of a prodigy than either of her parents I have a huge problem with how this is depicted because again the kid is just like her mom like she doesn't she gets the social cues of like it's awkward at school because I'm smarter than everybody else I'm gonna pretend to be dumb I'm gonna pretend that I can't read as well as they can because it's awkward that I can read novels and they're learning the alphabet but she doesn't get social cues other times where she's like talking with adults and she like doesn't understand like like she act you know she kind of like her mom where she like doesn't answer questions like in a way that she would think and like it's just it doesn't she doesn't act like a character and also also also they they keep it's like a comedic beat where like every so often like the little kid pops up and she's like entering a room and she's like reading the sound and the theory or Dostoevsky or something like that and she's like five or six or something like that and I'm like I will buy that she can read like complicated words and complicated sentences and has achieved that level of like technical skill at such a young age but the reason that you don't give the reason we have middle grade books that are different from adult books is I mean it's partly to do with the difficulty level of the the prose itself but it's more to do with the subject matter being something that a young person can relate to can understand has experienced is like in that sense on their level even like high schoolers like I a lot of the books that we make high schoolers read they're not really something that a high school age kid can most of the time identify with which is why it's kind of a bad idea to make people at that age read it because we're not talking about reading comprehension like you can read the sentence and understand it and if you're telling me this five-year-old can read the sentence and understand what these words mean I mean sure she's a prodigy she can do that but she's not emotionally mature enough to handle these themes she's not emotionally developed enough to understand what's going on and she's not even cognitively developed enough to understand this and even if she can understand it she can't relate to it like what does this mean to her like if it's a a book written by and for you know 40-year-olds who have lived and loved and lost and experienced you know midlife crises and experienced financial hardship and have et cetera et cetera et cetera you know have been married have had kids understand what it's like to experience and feel those things like even if this five-year-old can't understand these sentences she would not be able to relate on any level to what's going on or to the experience being depicted so I guess it's funny that she walks in the room reading these books and it's like because she's so smart but like it doesn't make sense like she wouldn't be interested in this for those reasons not because she doesn't understand that the words but because the you know what I'm saying and it's stuff like this that's constantly like this is just like not how people behave like people are not like this I can't buy this story and like it's not like a if it was like a straight-up comedy book where like we're not really taking anything seriously and it's like you know it's kind of like something from like the big bang theory which is a show that I hate like if a kid walks on you know like if you have like five-year-old Sheldon reading Dostoyevsky you'd be like ha ha because he's a genius but like this isn't a serious thing we're doing here these aren't going to be characters that we like are really serious about so that annoyed the piss out of me so anyway I was trying to say so where this goes is she gets fired because she's pregnant um so and you can't have a pregnant woman in the workplace and again this is where she doesn't behave like somebody in the time period because she's shocked that she's pregnant but then when she learns that she's pregnant and like she's being ousted from the office for this reason then she like yells at her boss and is like well would you fire you know because he's dead now you know her Mr. Right so she's like if he was here would you fire him and they're like well no of course we wouldn't and she's like but he helped make the baby it's not fair like we are we're both you know we both participated in the making of this baby why am I getting fired and not him which like is of course like an argument that has been made many a time like why are women punished for this when men participated in as well this is the 1950s and 60s and she's like working in a like every single man that she's encountered in this world has been a horrible misogynist so the fact that she's acting genuinely surprised like if she would later like if she had said these exact same things it would have been a little bit on the nose but if she had been you know like hanging out with her friend or her mom or whoever later and was like it's just so unfair because you know like they would never do it to him but they're doing it to me and you'd be like yeah that's how the world is and it's it's really shit then I'd be like yeah like okay that's a conversation you might have but the fact that she's like genuinely surprised that this is happening to her when like I don't know how I mean even today it happens and this is the 60s and then the fact that she like literally talks back at her boss like that and is like but you wouldn't do that to him would you well then why are you doing it to me it's just like I just don't believe that this conversation would happen I don't believe that she'd be surprised and I don't believe that she would say these things like and if she is that unaware of how things work then she wouldn't have the awareness to form these ideas about how sexist things are because she seems to be unaware of it for that scene and it's the prize that it's happening to her you know what I mean so anyway she like builds a chem lab in her own kitchen and she ends up like basically freelancing for the same place that she worked for before because like she's so good at science so they really cannot do their work without her like they literally cannot so then even though she just worked there anymore the like other scientists that worked there they still come to see here and she still works with them like on a freelance basis and then because of like a school lunch situation she ends up meeting the father of a little girl that goes to school with her daughter and he's like a tv producer and I did not mention that quirky science girl who doesn't understand things is also like drop dead gorgeous like everyone is like damn beautiful but she like doesn't know that she's pretty because she's like quirky science girl that doesn't understand social cues so he sees her and he's like I want to put you on television and he happens to have this like afternoon slot that he needs to fill and he wants to do a cooking show for that and you know because the whole lunch school lunch situation is to do with like these basically like gourmet lunches that she was packing for her daughter that like his daughter was then eating and so he's like you know clearly you can cook and you're like gorgeous like I want to put you on my show but then she ends up when she's on the show and again the way she behaves this makes me so this book may be so angry they just like would never put her on TV she's such a problem from the very beginning she doesn't have a show yet it is popular but she's making demands about how the show's gonna go she won't follow the script she won't say what they want her to say she won't wear what they want her to wear she hates everything about it is like it has to be her way or no way and the guy who wanted to hire her is like okay like I mean I get it but like you kind of have to just do stuff because like that's how the studio wants it and you just kind of have to do it and she's like no I refuse and somehow she ends up with a show that is really successful because like on the show instead of like just being personable and chatting or whatever she like gives the science behind cooking which like in theory like that's like a cool little concept for a show and I think it'd be more popular now than it would be in the 60s but like the whole idea is that she's not talking down to housewives that like her entire show is an opportunity to soapbox at the audience where she's like you know like the women who like come to the tapings you know they're like I'm just a silly housewife I don't know what you're talking about and she's like you're not a silly housewife you're a smart intelligent woman who basically has your own job because you have to cook and you have to clean and you have to blah blah blah blah and like that's really difficult and like tell me what you studied and like oh you wanted to be a surgeon well you still could be this isn't just because it's you know it shouldn't be a man's world you can do whatever you want to do and it's just like oh wow like she's not talking down to us and then like her entire show is like instead of saying you know you add the vinegar to the mustard and you put it on the salad she's like here's the chemical composition of this and this is why you know on a chemical level this is how these two things interact and that's why it produces this effect in your food and that's what we're looking for and that's why we combine these ingredients but she like explains it in like a science professor kind of way and the book is trying to convince us that this is relatable and this makes the housewives feel like they're being talked to like intelligent human beings and that that's why they love this show and that they're learning so much science from it and I'm like no that would be extremely alienating because like they talk about how they get phone calls from housewives into the studio who are wanting to know because she doesn't refer to anything by its common name like she won't say vinegar she'll say whatever like the chemical name is for like what that is and so instead of being like a show that everyone's like the fuck is this I'm not watching it they call the studio to be like we're buying ingredients for the recipe and we don't know what that is because she uses a science name for it and so they all have to tell every housewife the calls and I'm like that I find it very difficult to believe that the show would be successful for that very reason and then she like announces on television that she's an atheist which is bringing me to my next point is that this book about a quirky science girl is virulently anti-religion and I don't just mean like this character happens to be an atheist and that's a part of her character which like that's fine if your character is an atheist you can tell me that they're an atheist and they can be atheist but as much as its soapbox is about feminism and about how wrong that is it's constantly talking about how religion is awful and how you know every priest is a pedophile and how religion is like the way that stupid people explain the world to themselves because they don't know science and I just it's so rude I don't understand what this book had to go so hard at religion and again it feels like it has an agenda like again if this main character she personally was like I don't get religion like I have science brain and I can only function in terms of like you show me the thing I see the proof of it faith does not come into it like that's how I function like if that's what she was I'd be like that makes sense but there's multiple so her Mr. Wright before he died makes an extremely anti-religion like little soap boxing moment for him as well and she on television in her show when someone asks her it's like you know we love your show we were wondering you know like what grace you say like before you have your delicious meals we would like to know or something like that which already feels a little bit like would they ask that like I guess maybe and then she's like oh yeah I'm an atheist trauma and like the studio goes crazy because she's just said that on television and she's like what's the problem but of course this doesn't really hurt her popularity it results in some like slandering of her in a newspaper but just like even nowadays people are kind of like iffy around like talking about that kind of thing on TV in the 60s a show for housewives that's for cooking and the the host of the show is like yeah I'm an atheist like I just and this does not hurt her popularity with those housewives I'm just like I don't I don't believe it I don't believe it and I also don't understand why this has to be such a big deal for this book that like this character is like extremely anti-religious it's so annoying to me so anyway there's like this this b-plot about like the orphanage where Mr. Wright grew up and how he's actually the child of this other person and how like they were lied to and there was money involved and then like because he's dead now then like those people end up finding her and like the daughter that he didn't know he was gonna have after he died and they all like reconnect and everything and all isn't that nice and it's yet another opportunity for her to bond with his mother because his mother you know had to hide behind the name of a man to make arrangements and she basically runs a company uh de facto wins a company but like there's technically a man in charge because like you know woman can't run this company but she basically runs everything in his name and so we have another conversation about you know men suck and the world is awful to women and I'm like I gift you no I got it that was your message it's just very very clear don't worry and yeah it's just the whole book is like that and it's awful and I hate it I really really really hate it because it's not a story it's not a story I just oh and then as to like inaccuracies the other stuff you could be like well how do you know maybe people did talk like this in the 60s I mean I don't think so but okay maybe she did maybe she did but there's a part where literally like in order to make a feminist point and this is when she I don't think she said this out loud I think she just thinks it to herself about how like well in Sweden they have like best in such built in you know government funded childcare like maternity and childcare and um based on when this is supposed to be taking place that would not be true in Sweden for another like 20 years I think 15 or 20 years so basically like it's unlikely even if Sweden did have like such a policy it seems very unlikely to me that like mischemistry science brain in America in the 60s would be that aware of like Swedish government programs and policies but let's say that she is let's say she really truly is that wasn't the thing in Sweden so even if she is that aware of like the governments of other countries and their social policies that wasn't a thing in Sweden so it's only put in this book because the modern day author thought that the modern day audience like would be like oh yeah that's right those great socialist Scandinavian countries that have all of those amazing government benefits we should be like that this isn't fair but in the 60s that was not true even in Sweden so this is why I mean in addition to the other things that I feel like I cannot so easily fact check but the other stuff where I'm like this I don't think this is how things were ever but okay but that one you can fact check and you're like that's that wasn't a thing you only put that in because you wanted to make that point which is why again the author interview at the end of the audio book when she's like tell me about all the research you did to make this feel so real and authentic and about the time period and I was like well she didn't research when Sweden decided to institute that policy so that wasn't part of it and the last thing I want to mention just because it's bizarre is that one of the perspectives in this book is her dog and it does not work it does not work it's it's in theory something that's like kind of quirky and fun and could be used to great effect but it doesn't it doesn't work just the same as she doesn't know how to write people she doesn't know how to write a dog and like I truly cannot tell you how the mind of a dog works but like when I read Robin Hobb and she's telling me the thoughts of a dog that you know is wit bonded with a main character I'm like yeah that checks out that seems like what a dog would think that seems like dog logic to me there's a thriller horror book that I read last year that has a cat perspective the I think the last house on needless street um I think is what it was called and the cat perspective absolutely worked but the dog perspective here it feels like this bizarre quirky choice that even the name of the dog is quirky because it's a a dog that like follows them home one day and they name it 630 and it's like an ex-military dog that like the dog didn't like the all the bomb because he was supposed to be like a bomb sniffing dog and he like didn't like all the explosions he like gives him anxiety so then he ended up being like kicked out of that program because it's like his own little like social justice narrative about how like his you know his anxiety issues you know are not being addressed by the system so he uh is extreme he's about he's a dog prodigy basically she's like teaching him words and like you know dogs you're supposed to only know be able to know like a hundred words and he knows like four thousand or something ridiculous and there's like multiple comedic beats where like the fact that his name is 630 is one of those like who's on first type moments and it's just like huh okay that's great and it just like I don't understand why this was in here like it doesn't really add anything to the story there's a there's a couple times where like I mean I have to say like of the of the things we got in this book the parts that I maybe related to the most or found the most compelling were actually the dog parts but like I don't think it was good like I don't think this like worked I don't think it was a good choice I don't think this is actually like a well done dog perspective but like I liked it better than everything else which that should tell you all you need to know about this book and in case um you were wondering where the section where the second occurs it's in the tv studio like the big exec who's like been hating on her show because she doesn't do what he wants her to do he he has to see her and it happened it's like a Harvey Weinstein basically like me too type thing where like she gets almost in his office and then he gets fired and they find out that actually even though he keeps saying that the show is terrible and they need to do what he says the show has been getting amazing ratings and amazing reviews and every sponsor in the world wants to work with it which is again why it just like beggars believe that an exec who's make who's like has an extremely successful show would be like but I hate this woman who won't do exactly what I say therefore I'm gonna tank this really successful show because I'm an evil man that hates women like I'm not saying that that's impossible I'm not saying that that would never happen but it seems extremely unlikely that like this the profit motive wouldn't outweigh the like I want to control every woman in my life because I'm an evil man motive so again I was just like like I just saw it coming like I was like there's he keeps saying the show's not doing well but like like we keep getting calls in the studio but like all these women wanted to make these recipes but he's saying the show's not doing well and then as soon as they like find his files they're like actually the show's been doing great I'm just like I'm so surprised so any who sees I do not recommend lessons in chemistry um absolutely not this is like almost everything that I hate in a book there's you know there's a few things that I hate in books it's not in here mainly to do with the fact that this is not speculative well I would argue that it is speculative fiction because this is an entirely alternate universe because none of this is actually how the world is you know it's not fantasy it's not sci-fi so I can't do things that I hate when it comes to those kinds of things but otherwise kind of everything that I hate including using the word non-flust incorrectly when I did that I was like of course of course you don't know the correct usage of non-flust why would I expect better so yeah zero out of ten to not recommend if you have read it let me know your thoughts if you have not read it uh let me know your thoughts whatever you let me know I post videos on saturdays other random times well definitely saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you