Garmus, Bonnie "Lessons in Chemistry"

Garmus, Bonnie "Lessons in Chemistry" - 2022

A member of my German book club had suggested this book  but despite everyone agreeing to it at first, it wasn't chosen in the end. But I had already ordered the book, so I wanted to read it.

It certainly would have been a good choice to discuss. I doubt I would have chosen it, had I only seen the cover. On the other hand, I suppose those people who are looking for a romantic chick lit, might be disappointed.

It's hard to describe this book. I would probably declare it as chick-lit though it has some deeper meanings. However, I did like the protagonist a lot, I wish I would have had an Elizabeth Zott in my life when growing up. Even though I am certainly about a decade younger than her, all those obstacles that were placed in the way of women were still around. And there was nobody, absolutely nobody who supported me in my education, not my parents and definitely not my teachers (except for the one in elementary school but he wasn't there anymore later). On the contrary, all I heard was "you will get married and don't need a job". And my boss got a guy in from outside instead of promoting me. For the same reason.

Same as Elizabeth, I had the feeling my whole life that I worked for men less intelligent than me.

The books is described as humorous and there are certain aspects of humour in it, but overal, the sadness is more important and stays more in our memories.

Maybe this story speaks more to a younger audience, it just brought too many bad memories for me. (Although that speaks in favour of the book.) I wouldn't say I disliked the book completly, but it brought me back to a time I'd rather forget. I would have loved to discuss it with my book club and hear what the other women have to say about it.

And last, but not least, some things have changed but not enough. What do you think???

From the back cover:

"Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.

But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation. Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time."

"Lessons in Chemistry" has been chosen favourite book of the year 2022 by the German Indepent Book Shops.

Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne "Absalom's Hair"

Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne "Absalom's Hair" (Norwegian: Absalons Haar) - 1894

I enjoy reading books by Nobel laureates from time to time. So when I came across this novel, I had to check it out. It's a novella, so not very long. A bit more plot certainly wouldn't have hurt the story. I wasn't particularly impressed. The narrative jumped around, and the protagonists lacked any compelling qualities. It's simply a very old book that hasn't aged well.

And if it was meant as a satire, I would have expected some humor.

Bjørnson also wrote the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" (Yes, we love this country).

Book Description:

"Harald Kaas was sixty. He had given up his free, uncriticised bachelor life; his yacht was no longer seen off the coast in summer; his tours to England and the south had ceased; nay, he was rarely to be found even at his club in Christiania. His gigantic figure was never seen in the doorways; he was failing. Bandy-legged he had always been, but this defect had increased; his herculean back was rounded, and he stooped a little. His forehead, always of the broadest-no one else's hat would fit him-was now one of the highest, that is to say, he had lost all his hair, except a ragged lock over each ear and a thin fringe behind. He was beginning also to lose his teeth, which were strong though small, and blackened by tobacco; and now, instead of 'deuce take it' he said 'deush take it.'"

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903 "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Top Twelve Tuesday ~ On a Wednesday ~ Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists. It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week's topic is Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 (New-to-me authors I discovered, new genres I learned I like, new bookish resources I found, friends I made, local bookshops I found, a book club I joined, etc.)

I have read a lot in my in my life. I have found what I like and what I dislike ages ago. Sometimes, I stumble upon a book that is not my genre and I like it. But that is a rare exception. Still, I found some new books which I really liked but they are all in my Top Twelve Tuesday ~ Best Books in 2025. But there are no new genres. Also no new bookshops since there is only one in our little town and I've known this for ages, even before we moved here.

2025 was Jane Austen's birthday year and I participated in the #Reading Austen project. I found lots of books about Jane Austen and re-read all of her books. I could have included all of them but I thought I also need to show some of the other great books I found during the year. So, here is my Top Twelve of 2025. Just add anything by or about Jane Austen in your mind.

Adkins, Roy & Lesley "Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England: How our ancestors lived two centuries ago" (aka "Jane Austen's England) - 2013
Austen, Jane "The History of England: By a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian" - 1791

Brooks, Geraldine "Year of Wonders" - 2001
Deresiewicz, William "A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter" - 2011
Haig, Matt "The Midnight Library" - 2020
Harris, Kamala "107 Days" - 2025

Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023
Mak, Geert "The Dream of Europe. Travels in a Troubled Continent" (NL: Grote verwachtingen. In Europa 1999-2019) - 2019

Mann, Heinrich "The Blue Angel" (GE: Professor Unrat)- 1904

Rushdie, Salman "Knife" - 2024
Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (J: ちびねこ亭の思い出ごはん 黒猫と初恋サンドイッチ/Chibinekoteino omoidegohan kuronekoto hatsukoisandoitchi) - 2020
Worsley, Lucy "Jane Austen at Home" - 2017 

📚 Happy Reading 📚

This was supposed to be published at the end of January. But we had to attend a funeral and I totally forgot. Well, if anyone is interested, this is it.

Austen, Jane "The History of England"

Austen, Jane "The History of England: By a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian" - 1791

This was the last of my Jane Austen reads in 2025, the #Reading Austen project.

The booklet has 55 pages, very small ones. Yet, only 18 of them are about the History of English, the rest of the book is taken up by the correspondence between (mainly) two girls at the beginning of the 19th century, a short story called Lesley Castle.

I really enjoyed the first part. It was interesting to read how the kings and queens of England were seen by a partial and prejudiced person. Jane like the York and hated the Lancastrians, so anything they did were seen through her rose- or black-tinted glasses. Hilarious, though, and not necessarily to be taken seriously. 

Also the second part has its hilarious moments. Like when women are judged by their height and being tall is supposed to be a fault. Just read it, it doesn't take long.

Book Description:

"'The History of England', written when Jane Austen was in her late teens, is a lively and somewhat disrespectful overview of the history of England's monarchy. She sees nothing reprehensible in Richard III, yet burns with contempt for Elizabeth I, and documents several reigns with breezy nonchalance.

This volume also contains 'Lesley Castle', a delightful and often hilarious correspondence detailing the mishaps and misapprehensions that befall five young ladies."

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Flashlight

Susan Choi
"Flashlight" - 2025

#6Degrees of Separation:
from Flashlight (Goodreads) to Things Fall Apart 

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here. 

As most months, I have not read the starter book. It is too new and, therefore, only available in hardback. Here is the description:
"One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.

Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.

But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?

Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history."

The description sounds good but I also have not made the best experiences with Booker prize novels, they often don't keep what they promise and are a lot more shallow and superficial for me to like them. So, I will give this a miss and start with a book I read about.

My first book is, like the starter, about Koreans abroad.
Lee, Min Jin "Pachinko" - 2017

Then, I go with a family who adopts a Korean baby.

Tyler, Anne "Digging to America" - 2006

The adoption reminds me of another story:

Mankell, Henning "Daniel" (SW: Vindens son) - 2000

The Swedish title to this is Vinden's Son, the Son of the Wind which leads me to another book that talks about the differences in cultures.

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930

Pearl S. Buck has written many books about the differences between east and west. And this leads me to a story between North and South, black and white, written by another female Nobel Prize winner:

Gordimer, Nadine "Burger's Daughter" - 1979

From here, I go to another African country where we learn about the influence of the colonists.

Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart" - 1958

* * *

We have travelled the world now, from Korea to America, to Sweden, die Africa, back to Asia, then to Africa again. And everywhere we have learned about the difference in cultures and what the influence of one country over the others does. I.e. what we have done to them all. Mostly, nothing good.

📚📚📚

Spell the Month in Books ~ February 2026

Reviews from the Stacks

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

February:  Freebie

I find it harder and harder to choose books that I haven't presented in this challenge, yet. And I cannot promise that here are going to be only books I never chose. I have tried to stick to a theme:  Reading/Writing. That can be a book, a letter or a diary. And I even found a book with Y in the original language, so in order not to take the same book for the umpteenth time, I took that!

FEBRUARY

F
Brooks, Geraldine "Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over" - 1997

Geraldine Brooks describes how she started writing to many different people from all over the world because she felt so far away from everything. That was the same for me.

E

Truss, Lynne "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" - 2005

A hilarious book for those people who do know the use of the apostrophe (and other parts of the English grammar that seems to be so difficult to learn for some) and see a mistake right away. It's hilarious.

B

Taylor, Andrew James "Books That Changed the World" - 2008

A list of important books that made a major impact on our present view of the world.

R
Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022

Another book by Shaun Bythell about his shop and his customers, his clients and his friends. Absolutely hilarious

U

Hanks, Tom "Uncommon Type. Some Stories" - 2017

A ollection of short stories, in all of them, there is a typewriter, mostly an older one, not an electric one, not a computer, no, one of those nice old mechanical ones.

A

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander "August 1914" (RUS: Солженицын, Александр Исаевич/Узел I - «Август Четырнадцатого», Красное колесо/Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo) - 1971

A tale of the First World War - or the Great War as it was called before the Second World War happened - from the Russian side. 

R

Taschler, Judith W. "Novel without a U" (GE: Roman ohne U) - 2014

I was drawn to this book because of the typewriter on the cover. One story takes place during World War II and afterwards in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp; the other is set in present-day Austria.

Y

Pamuk, Orhan "The New Life" (TR: Yeni Hyat) - 1994

In this novel, the protagonist reads a book. And it changes his entire life.

* * *

Happy Reading!

📚 📚 📚

#ThrowbackThursday. February 2016

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while, actually, my very first one was October 2021 and now I reached my posts from ten years ago. These are my reviews from February 2016.

Delacourt, Grégoire "The list of my desires" (aka My wish list) (French: La liste de mes envies) - 2012

Jocelyne is married to Jocelyn, they have two grown up children, both work, their marriage seems perfect on the outside but there are a lot of cracks in the shell. When something unexpected happens, Jocelyne can't cope and everything seems to fall to pieces.

Dickens, Charles "Hard Times" - 1854

This could be the title of any of Dickens' novels. Another tale of how different lives were for the rich and the poor, how hard it was to get through life if you were not born on the lucky side. And still, there is so much humour in this story, The characters are all brilliant. 

Fleischhauer, Wolfram "In a Tender Hold" (German: Schule der Lügen - aka Die Inderin)  - 2014

This is a historical novel about history in general but also about the history of philosophy, in this case about the influence of Eastern philosophy on Europe, about how certain directions were taken in order to get the people where they wanted them.

Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (German: Tintenherz) - 2003

This books didn't contain any weird creatures but was just about magic and the middle ages where people believed in that sort of stuff. And - more importantly - a book. I love anything about books. There is a beautiful library and some interesting characters that make the story gripping.

Hawkins, Paula "The Girl on the Train" - 2015

The girl on the train looks at the people in the gardens while she passes them by. It's interesting to see how much she can see from the short glances she gets. Makes you think whether you can spin a story from every glimpse you get from anybody's life.

Kristof, Nicholas; WuDunn, Sheryl "A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity" - 2014

The authors have done some great research, as I had already experienced in their former book. What it comes down to, in a nutshell, if you want to donate money, find a cause that you consider is worthy and make sure you give it so that this money really makes a difference to someone. The authors make us understand that even a small donation can make a big change. Or if we don't have money that there are still things we can do, volunteer or write, for example.

Lalami, Laila "The Moors' Account" - 2014

We hear a story that has been told before - but by Spanish people, white people who came as conquerors to the new continent to be called America. This is told by one of their slaves, a guy from Morocco, who survives a lot of ordeals because of his determination to get back home again. 

Mantel, Hilary "Wolf Hall" - 2009

Such a great novel about Thomas Cromwell and all the other people that played an important part in the life of probably the most interesting king among all the kings of England, Henry VIII. Hilary Mantel tries to look behind the curtain of the throne, of the court, of the royal family.

Paull, Laline "The Bees" - 2014

The story about a bee who does not conform with what she is supposed to be doing, she is smarter than other bees from her status, she is "above her class".

Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
This is the story of the son of a baker about his problems of growing up but also about the political problems in his country and how he gets involved.

Schimmel, Betty "To See You Again" - 1999
This is a remarkable account of a strong woman, of several strong women indeed, who survived the most awful ordeal anyone can survive and grow stronger through this survival.