Lessons in Chemistry is a novel about being on the verge discovery, both in a scientific sense and in a self-discovery sense.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist on the verge of an amazing research breakthrough about the origins of life. Unfortunately she’s a woman in the 1960s and her male colleagues belittle her, steal her work, and take advantage of their privilege in many ways that are appalling (and familiar to most successful women today).
Elizabeth is resilient. A series of events lead to her being kicked out of Hastings Research Institute and becoming the host of an afternoon cooking show, Supper at Six. She’s a superstar at whatever she does.
Elizabeth is smart. She refuses to pander to the tv executives. She refuses to believe there is an “average housewife” who prefers fun over science. Elizabeth brings chemistry to the kitchen (literally and figuratively), which makes this novel a delightful and educational read.
The marketing copy says it will appeal to fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I think that’s a good comparison. Both novels are laugh-out-loud funny and both include shrew observations of society.
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is a BookTok fav that I heard about in a BookNet Canada webinar. Olivie Blake totally delivers! I can see why early fans were so enthusiastic and why Tor picked up this self-published novel and re-issued it.
The six are a group of medeians (magicians) handpicked by Atlas Blakely for initiation into the Alexandrian Society, a secret society that protects the assumed-destroyed works of the Alexandrian Library.
TV show Survivor meets Harry Potter? Atlas is the reality show host?
Six are chosen to spend a year at the library in a sort of fellowship. But only five can be initiated into the society and continue on with their studies. Atlas (also a telepath), and his colleague Dalton (animator), act as the program director and esteemed professor.
The six are chosen for their outstanding abilities. Libby Rhodes and Nico Ferrer de Varona are physicists, or rather they can manipulate physical space. They are highly competitive and their love/hate relationship is clear from the beginning. Reina Mori is a Gaia (Mother Earth) figure. She can breathe life into plants, but she’s reluctant to use her powers because it’s draining. Tristan Caine can see quanta. Basically magic is visible to him. Callum Nova is an empath, a manipulative one. He can sense people’s emotions and make them feel things, which in turn makes them act according to his wishes. Parisa is an incredibly beautiful telepath. She uses her powers to seduce people into doing her will. So three with physical powers, two with mental powers, and one who can see power.
The novel is full of secrets, betrayals and seduction. Everyone is seeking power in different ways, so perhaps it’s also about greed. I loved how the story unfolds like a puzzle. Each of the characters can only take out certain books from the library. In many ways as readers we are limited in our access of understanding too.
Absolutely intriguing story.
The Atlas Six is perfect for readers who like the mystery of secret societies, the drama of relationships that unfold in intense situations, and the magic of physics, space, and time.
Could this book be any more funny! Aisling (ASH-ling) is a small-town Irish girl who is desperate to marry her man John. They have been dating for 7 years. Many of their pals have gotten married. She is still waiting.
Ash is desperate for the husband with the house and the road frontage, and the utility room for her, and the man-cave for him. She wants the hotel wedding and the continental breakfast.
She is lovely and sweet, and hilarious about counting her Weight Watchers points. Aisling is an Irish Bridget Jones.
I think there are a ton of insider jokes that you’ll only get if are from Ireland or lived there in the last 10 years. But lots of the sentiments and relationship twists travel well across the pond.
There are many funny moments in this novel. It opens with Aisling taking a fiver in the ladies. She’s gone into a stall to rest her feet when two girls come in, and they are talking about her.
‘Your one Aisling is absolute gas, isn’t she?’
That’s definitely not a local accent. But I know the voice — it’s the brunette with the complicated updo sitting two up from me on Titanic — all the tables are named after Denise and Liam’s favourite films, you see. Lovely idea, very personal. His cousin, I think she is. There are two of them — down from Dublin and very glamorous altogether. Shellac this, that and the other. Nice and chatty too, and not making beasts of themselves with the bread. The only thing worse than being at a zero craic table is when some brazen shnake takes a second bread roll when they think no one’s looking. Well, I’m always looking. Eight Points in a bread roll and worth every single one. But you can’t be getting into bread-basket politics with strangers at a wedding.”
El is in her penultimate year at the Scholomance. The Scholomance is a bewitched school that educates young sorcerers on the fine art of surviving mals (incredibly hungry monsters that hunt magical beings).
El is not well liked. She sounds like the goth girl in high school that was rude to everybody. She’s the kind of girl who wants friends, yet can’t get passed being betrayed too often by people close to her. The problem is that the only way to really survive mal attacks is to work together. Sorcerers who graduate (aka survive) the school tend to live in enclaves (closed communities who protect each other).
Well turns out Galadriel (El) is an all-powerful wizard who is trying to hide her powers because they are mostly the evil-doing, super dangerous kind. Some kids at the school are really good at making things, others are good at forming protective spells. El is good at bringing down reins of terror. Her grandmother’s prophecy says that El is a burdened soul and will bring death and destruction to all the enclaves in the world if she isn’t stopped. Oops. Well good thing she’s the daughter of a well-loved healer. El is working hard to fight against the prophecy. She’s does things by the book in order to not turn evil. She fights against her powers by thinking through every little spell (her powers are a bit like asking a genie for a wish in that she’s going to get the evil outcome of a spell vs. the benign one her classmates might get).
El is used to doing things on her own. But damn it all if Orion Lake won’t stop running around the school saving everyone from mals, including her.
If El is the goth girl then Orion is the football hero. Of course they are destined to be friends. But that path is full of painful laughs.
Sweet Valley High or Archie meets Harry Potter and the X-Men?
Hench is a hilarious and snarky novel about a woman who works for a temp agency. The twist is that the temp agency hires henches for villains. Anna is particularly good at data entry.
There is also a temp agency for meat (hired goons) and it’s called The Meat Market.
Hench was recommended to me by my brother-in-law. It’s the perfect mix of bureaucracy and superhero/villainy.
Since I was already reading A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, I decided to listen to the Hench audiobook during my daily walks. It was definitely a great way to experience this novel.
Anna is bored but also likes to play it safe. Unlike her friend June (who does field work), Anna is happy at her laptop. But she’s soon thrown into the fray when her evil villain boss kidnaps a kid. Anna becomes collateral damage when the kid is rescued by a superhero who collides into her and shatters her leg.
Left unable to work, Anna finds herself ruminating on just how much damage superheroes actually cause to their communities. Her data analysis is surprisingly revealing and soon another mad-genius villain is interested in her work.
I mean, come on, this is a novel about a data nerd who is able to weaponize her snark! Totally up my alley.
A beautiful story about belonging, friendship, and home.
TJ Klune deserves all the accolades this book has received and more.
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
A 2021 Alex Award winner
The 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Winner
An Indie Next Pick
One of Publishers Weekly‘s “Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020”
One of Book Riot’s “20 Must-Read Feel-Good Fantasies”
Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune’s bestselling The House in the Cerulean Sea is considered his breakout contemporary fantasy — “1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in.” (Gail Carriger)
I am happy to read more from this author. The story is cheeky, magical, and funny (yet somber at times).
Linus Baker is a caseworker with DICOMY, the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Imagine a caseworker who shows up at places like the X-Men school. But then add the layer of ridiculous bureaucracy.
Linus is full of reports. He sits at a small wooden desk, Row L Desk 7, in a room with 26 rows with 14 desks in each row. It’s stifling. No personal items. No talking. The threat of demerits.
Then one day he is summoned to the fifth floor, Extremely Upper Management, and assigned to a highly classified assignment: visit a far-gone orphanage where only the children with the most dangerous powers are kept. Gulp.
Linus meets a female garden gnome, a sprite, a wyvern (winged creature), an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist.
There are so many great moments in this book where Linus is struggling with his interior monologue (all fear based) and what actually needs to come out of his mouth (words of support and encouragement). In the quote below he has been dragged on a forest adventure with the children. The son of Lucifer is in charge today. He’s six.
“Okay,” Lucy said, stopping at the edge of the trees. He turned back toward the group, eyes wide. “As you all know, there is an evil sprite—”
“Hey!” Phee cried.
“Lucy, we don’t call people evil,” Arthur reminded him as Theodore settled on his shoulder. “It isn’t polite.”
Lucy rolled his eyes. “Fine. I take it back. There is a murderous sprite…” He paused, as if waiting for any objections. There were none. Even Phee seemed gleeful. Linus felt the point had been missed entirely, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut. “A murderous sprite who has a treasure hidden deep in the woods that is ours for the taking. I cannot promise your survival. In fact, most likely even if you make it to the treasure, I will betray you and feed you to the alligators and laugh as they crunch your bones—”
“Lucy,” Arthur said again.
Lucy signed. “It’s my turn to be in charge.” He pouted.
chapter 10
Linus’ job is to report back to Extremely Upper Management on the house manager Arthur and the children’s welfare. He’s to recommend either it stays open or not. What he finds is a home full of magic—the fantasy kind and the kind that’s fostered by love.
This is a fairy tale for adults and any kid wise enough to understand the nuances of prejudice.
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day is a classic Agatha Christie style mystery. Indeed the novel is set during World War II at Agatha Christie’s real-life country home, Greenway.
In real life, the home hosted a war nursery—children who were evacuated from London. In the novel, the children are managed by a couple—the Arbuthnots—and two hospital nurses. The thing is, neither of the nurses is certified. Gigi is some sort of spy or at least on the run, and Bridget Kelly is a disgraced nurse-in-training. She’s been sent on the assignment as a favour by the hospital Matron.
What transpires is not one murder, but two! And it is Bridget Kelly who manages to do the sleuthing.
Greenway is home to the Scaldwells, who are butler and cook, The Hannafords, gardener and chauffeur, and a colourful cast of village folks who are not keen on evacuees. Mrs. Mallowan (Agatha Christie) makes a brief cameo.
I found this novel thoroughly enjoyable. It’s historical fiction meets murder mystery. Think Poirot, but solved by the new girl.
Maud is almost 90 years old and you might think she’s a flighty old bird but you’d be wrong. She a calculated killer. I really wanted her to be eaten by lions on her safari trip because she’s so nasty. She did sort of warm on me in the end, but I wouldn’t drink anything she’s offering.
This tiny book looks super cute (it’s 6″ x 4.5″) but it’s an alarming set of six stories that present the unfortunate memories of Maud’s earlier days (well, one murder is rather recent). Each trick or murder is weirdly justified in Maud’s mind, and she seems to get away with it.
In some ways the book reminds me of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Night Murder Club, but instead of the little old lady solving murders, the little old lady is committing them.
Absolutely haunting, and hilarious, novel about two men who find themselves searching for a dozen eggs during the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad.
Lev Beniov is on citizen patrol when he and his friends see a dead paratrooper drift to ground near their apartment. It’s after curfew but they are starving and are drawn to the treasures this man must have on him, like warm boots, chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes, weapons, anything.
Unfortunately the patrols catch the friends in the act and Lev is captured and thrown into the Crosses. The Crosses is where people are brought and shot. During the night Koyla, a soldier and apparently deserter, is thrown into the same cell as Lev. Koyla is full of confidence and swagger.
“So you think they’ll shoot us in the morning?”
“I doubt it. They’re not preserving us for the night just to shoot us tomorrow.” He sounded quite jaunty about it, as if we were discussing a sporting event, as if the outcome wasn’t particularly momentous no matter which way it went.
chapter 2
Where Koyla is full of drive, Lev is cowardly. The two—a thief and a deserter—are sent out to find a dozen eggs for a wedding cake. A top colonel’s daughter is getting married. The absurdity of war.
One moment they have minutes to live, the next a sniper is flirting with them, they have a lead on eggs, they are running from cannibals who are making sausages out of unsuspecting market goers, apartments collapse, soliders freeze, girls are kept warm and fed to be prostitutes to the Germans. It’s sad and funny and desperate all at the same time.
If you like Chekhov and adventure stories, this is a well-paced novel with all the joy and misery of war that you can imagine.
The True Confessions of a London Spy is the second novel in this trilogy. Our heroine, Mary Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, finds herself acting as a spy for the British government. She must juggle the expectations of a lady (extravagant balls, chaperones, and asking her brother-in-law permission to leave the house) along with solving the murder of a government messenger, spying on members of parliament, and avoiding harm.
If you’re an Austen fan then you know that Mary Bennet is the lesser known of the Bennet sisters. Elizabeth (Darcy) is often the star of the show. Mary is the middle child, with Jane and Elizabeth as her older sisters and Kitty and Lydia as her younger sisters. Being overlooked is quite familiar to Mary. It’s also what helps her.
Mary could admire Elizabeth. She could aspire to some of Elizabeth’s attributes, and she could use her knowledge of how Elizabeth acted in particular situations to help her take the best possible actions as a spy. But she would not let herself be consumed by envy. She could set it aside, and not let it be a focus of her attention. It was better to become one’s fullest self than to attempt to become someone else.
chapter 8
You don’t have to be a Jane Austen fan to love and appreciate these books, but if you are then I think you will come to adore Mary Bennet the way I do. She’s vain and pedantic and actually quite as beautiful as her older sisters and just as quick and mischievous as her younger sisters.
I absolutely cannot wait for the third book in this series. Full applause to Katherine Cowley for such a fun read.
