Lessons in... Chemistry

 

Good morning.

In my residual anesthesia stupor over the weekend, when I was too lazy to do anything else, we watched the Apple TV mini-series, Lessons in Chemistry. Starring Brie Larson, it's based on the 2022 novel by Bonnie Garmus. She was 65 years old when she wrote it.

I give it  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Then we found out, there's an "unofficial" companion cookbook, so you can make the food the character makes in the book / series. Because cooking is chemistry, and it's the only way she's allowed to showcase her knowledge. Fascinating. So, Lessons in Chemistry is the struggle of 1950s - 60s women to be accepted into professions outside the "norms" of the time.

I've also ordered the novel James, by Percival Everett, which is the story of Huck Finn told from Jim's perspective. This is the same author whose 2001 book, Erasure, became this year's Oscar-nominated film, American Fiction. Since I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a kid (numerous times), this is going to be an eye-opener.  Sadly, for me, it won't get here until next week. Happily for Everett, it's selling faster than they can send them out.

Some day, I expect my buddy's work to reach that level. He has a new play that will be getting a public reading later this month. And a new novel he's preparing to send out to the publisher.