'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus (4.0)

I really enjoyed this book, though had to suspend belief at times. Set in the male dominated science world of the sixties, the main character, Elizabeth, fights her way for respect and a position to do her work. Along the way she meets many who stand in her way. At the core of the story, I found multiple love stories: woman and man, woman and child, woman and dog. I loved the way the main character interacted with each – never demeaning and always treating them as equals (which is what she strove for herself from others). A few of my pet peeves were present: did the author have to make her beautiful? Isn’t super smart and confident enough? Why make the misogynistic men two dimensional villains? Given those complaints and a few scenes that were very painful to read, the outcome was worth it.

'A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham' by Steve Kemper

A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham, Steve Kemper (4.0)

Frederick Burnham may be the most interesting person you’ve never heard of. His adventures span from the wild west of the US, to the newly discovered areas of Africa, finally to the Alaskan gold rush in the Klondike. His two passions were scouting (i.e. spying) and prospecting and he does both throughout his life across multiple continents. I particularly liked his description of the scouting/tracking. His powers of observation were remarkable. He even knew that smoking would hurt his sense of smell, an advantage to a good tracker. While it was difficult to read about the attitudes of the ‘conquerors’, the author does a good job of addressing this turn of the century mentality. Burnham was often surprised that the Native Americans or Africans were hostile to having their land taken over. Huh? There is a lot of interesting history of the time brought to life through an interesting character.