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shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (844)
[3.5 rounded up for now until I try another Silva book]
I met an actual FBI agent on vacation one summer who recommended this author if I was interested in spy thrillers. So obviously, I had to read one. This is his first book, written in 1996.
It’s possible my expectations were too high based on the source of the recommendation. I felt a bit disappointed.
This book isn’t technical, but what makes it a bit hard to read are all the characters. It felt like every chapter introduced another character with a little backstory. Then most were only in the book for a short period.
Add to that I felt there wasn’t much character resolution at the end. All of a sudden a few of the main characters are just dead. Which feels abrupt when prior you were privy to some of their thoughts and actions.
The book was convoluted and long. The pace picked up in the last 100 pages or so but by then it was too late for me.
There were a few good parts and interesting themes to think about (see below) and I may try his other series but not really the book I was looking for.
Brief Summary and Characters
It’s WWII on the precipice of D-Day, the turning point in the war.
Therefore, the secret of D-Day is of utmost importance and must be protected at all costs. The Germans will do anything to know where the Allies plan to attack and they have the sleeper spies installed in the Allied Forces to obtain such information.
Here are a few of the main characters:
- Sir Alfred Vicary: “a fussy, bookish little man”; leader of the task force to expose the German spies and operating a complex system of turned agents delivering false information back to Germany
- Catherine Black (aka Christa Kunst aka Anna Katerina): “strikingly beautiful… she had used her looks as a weapon her entire life.”; forced to spy for the Germans to protect her father she uses her beauty and charm to seduce men for information; a traumatic childhood experience has enabled her to be the detached killer her job requires
- Kurt Vogel: “he planned to steal the most closely guarded secret of the war with a woman, a cripple, a grounded paratrooper, and a British traitor”; part of the German intelligence organization who trains and runs spies
- James Porter (aka Horst Neumann aka Nigel Fox): the second German spy working with Catherine to transfer her information back to Berlin; hiding in a small coastal island trying not to get caught and preparing a way for them to escape should the need arise
- Jenny Colville: “she had been stripped of her childhood, her time of innocence, forced to confront the fact very early in life that the world could be an evil place”; daughter of an abusive father in Porter’s small town hideaway; becomes enamored with Porter and will be forced to reconcile the man with the truth
- Peter Jordan: widowed British engineer brought on to help design the concrete harbor D-Day requires to be successful in storming the beaches of Normandy; the man Catherine Blake is tasked with seducing in order to steal information
- Wilhelm Franz Canaris: part of a different section of the German intelligence operation but works closely with Vogel; both men distrust either and suspect treason
- Basil Boothby: unlikable supervisor of Vicary; threatens to fire Vicary if he doesn’t deliver quick results; Vicary suspects Boothby is hiding something
SOOOO…. Catherine is working Peter Jordan for secrets and Vicary, while suspicious of his own team, is in a cat-and-mouse game with Vogel and Canaris trying to control what information gets through the spy networks at play and protect the most vital attack the Allied Forces is planning.
[If you are interested in D-Day, check out the historical fiction book All The Lights Above Us by M.B. Henry]
Historical Truth
I don’t know a whole lot about D-Day so I can’t determine how well he followed history in his story, but the historical aspect was really interesting.
Operation Fortitude was real. This was a campaign to spread false information that would convince the Germans they were planning to attack a different port and that they had more troops than they actually did. They created fake planes that appeared real from the sky, set up a whole bunch of tents, and played plane sounds from the loudspeakers. At the very least it created uncertainty.
The portable harbor was real. I had never heard of this before. What a feat in engineering! To create huge floating concrete stations that could be hauled across the channel and sunk near Normandy beach to act as a port and help deliver supplies and equipment was quite the elaborate and complex plan. It sounds like it may not have been worth the resources put into it, but hindsight is 20/20. Seems like a good contingency plan.
In a brief google search I couldn’t find much to indicate any special spy operations for this particular project other than the general secrecy of it.
It was a great historical event to shape a spy novel on! I really liked how Silva incorporated that and was able to make the reader feel the gravity and urgency of keeping such a major secret.
One question I had while reading was how much each country spent during WWII. HERE is what I found. [links found in original post]
Interesting Themes
There were a couple themes in the book that were interesting to think about. Vicary, a professor at a university reflects on patriotism:
“Patriotism. During his lifetime of study he had concluded it was the most destructive force on the planet. but now he felt the stirring of patriotism in his own chest and did not feel ashamed. We are good and they are evil. our nationalism is justified.”
These days being a patriot is basically an abomination.
It seems to take a major war or tragedy to create unity towards one cause. But he makes a good point. Patriotism becomes destructive when it creates an us vs them system. Painting good and evil with broad strokes. It also becomes destructive when it attempts to elevate one country above another by merit.
There is no perfect country, no perfect culture, no perfect political system. There are definitely some that are better than others in pretty major ways, but what’s most important is people.
However, you look at WWII and you look at the ways patriotism inspired people to do some pretty heroic things. Patriotism is a complex label.
Second:
“Vicary liked the character studies in mysteries and often found parallels to his own work— why good people sometimes did wicked things.”
I guess the complicated part of this sentence is how you define ‘good.’ But WWII is an unending pile of psychological material in how far someone will go when pushed to their mental limits or faced with harm.
What leads people to do wicked things? They don’t just wake up one day and decide to kill someone. What progression happens to make a good person do a bad thing. That’s the simple question but there are many layers and depths to this theme.
In regards to the book Vicary is probably the primary character study in this thing. After all, people who give certain orders, though they aren’t holding the gun, are indirectly responsible for death and destruction.
There are also the two spies who are required to kill to obtain secrets or conceal their real identities. The age-old question- is sacrificing one life for the good of many just?
War changes people. It awakens self-preservation in a dangerous way. And it changes their perspective on what’s important.
After a few years working in espionage Vicary has a realization:
“When he stood back and looked at his life objectively, it was missing something: laughter, tenderness, a little noise and disorder sometimes. It was half a life, he realized. Half a life, half a home, ultimately half a man.”
[If you like to explore the psychology of morality and ethical dilemmas check out books by Steven James (thrillers) or Randy Singer (legal thrillers)]
Grosvenor House
Fun Fact: the Grosvenor House mentioned in this book is a hotel right by Hyde Park. I had the privilege of staying there for a week in 2015 so that was pretty cool. Here’s a very non-professional Shutterfly collage of it: [Picture in original post linked above]
What I Didn’t Like
What colored my reading of this book and makes me question whether to read more from him are mostly the sexual content and the f-words.
Because of the nature of Catherine’s plan of seduction there are several sexual encounters that are detailed, some more than others, but are fairly graphic (especially one somewhat kinky one). Some of these occur in the present time and some of them are flashbacks to Catherine’s past.
It seemed like all the female characters were only in the book for sex. They all seemed vapid and content to be call girls, taking pride in it. We see some resistance to that, but it’s a far cry from all the WWII novels that depict the women heroes of the time and their desire to be more than their looks.
There are also several homosexual characters in the book, which seems odd for a book from the 90s? But they are called sexual deviants so it’s not completely progressive.
The other main issue I had with the book was the introduction of so many characters that kind of fall off the grid in the end.
For example, we seem to be gradually getting a fuller picture of who Catherine is and what made her into what she is, but I didn’t feel like we got any sort of resolution with her.
Same with Peter Jordan. In the beginning we see his life with his wife and then her car accident. But in the end I don’t feel like I got to see the full arc of his character.
Vicary and Boothby have a conversation in the end that acts as an epilogue of sorts but that wasn’t a very satisfying way to wrap things up and explain.
If the book primarily followed Vicary this would make more sense, but since we spend so much time being with other characters I think Silva should have finished all the storylines better.
Recommendation
I’m not sure how to recommend this one.
I asked some other readers about this author. Daniel Silva has written a series (starting with The Kill Artist) surrounding a character named Gabriel Allon who is an Israeli operative and art restorer. I’m thinking I might give Silva another try eventually and go with this series. With a series we will see more character development and I’m intrigued by the art aspect as well.
Maybe my recommendation for you, if you’ve never read Silva, would be to start there instead of The Unlikely Spy.
If you already know you like Daniel Silva, you’ve either already this book or you’ll probably like it, but I have absolutely nothing else to compare it to so what do I know?
[Content Advisory: lots of f-words, some graphic sexual encounters as mentioned above]
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I met an actual FBI agent on vacation one summer who recommended this author if I was interested in spy thrillers. So obviously, I had to read one. This is his first book, written in 1996.
It’s possible my expectations were too high based on the source of the recommendation. I felt a bit disappointed.
This book isn’t technical, but what makes it a bit hard to read are all the characters. It felt like every chapter introduced another character with a little backstory. Then most were only in the book for a short period.
Add to that I felt there wasn’t much character resolution at the end. All of a sudden a few of the main characters are just dead. Which feels abrupt when prior you were privy to some of their thoughts and actions.
The book was convoluted and long. The pace picked up in the last 100 pages or so but by then it was too late for me.
There were a few good parts and interesting themes to think about (see below) and I may try his other series but not really the book I was looking for.
Brief Summary and Characters
It’s WWII on the precipice of D-Day, the turning point in the war.
Therefore, the secret of D-Day is of utmost importance and must be protected at all costs. The Germans will do anything to know where the Allies plan to attack and they have the sleeper spies installed in the Allied Forces to obtain such information.
Here are a few of the main characters:
- Sir Alfred Vicary: “a fussy, bookish little man”; leader of the task force to expose the German spies and operating a complex system of turned agents delivering false information back to Germany
- Catherine Black (aka Christa Kunst aka Anna Katerina): “strikingly beautiful… she had used her looks as a weapon her entire life.”; forced to spy for the Germans to protect her father she uses her beauty and charm to seduce men for information; a traumatic childhood experience has enabled her to be the detached killer her job requires
- Kurt Vogel: “he planned to steal the most closely guarded secret of the war with a woman, a cripple, a grounded paratrooper, and a British traitor”; part of the German intelligence organization who trains and runs spies
- James Porter (aka Horst Neumann aka Nigel Fox): the second German spy working with Catherine to transfer her information back to Berlin; hiding in a small coastal island trying not to get caught and preparing a way for them to escape should the need arise
- Jenny Colville: “she had been stripped of her childhood, her time of innocence, forced to confront the fact very early in life that the world could be an evil place”; daughter of an abusive father in Porter’s small town hideaway; becomes enamored with Porter and will be forced to reconcile the man with the truth
- Peter Jordan: widowed British engineer brought on to help design the concrete harbor D-Day requires to be successful in storming the beaches of Normandy; the man Catherine Blake is tasked with seducing in order to steal information
- Wilhelm Franz Canaris: part of a different section of the German intelligence operation but works closely with Vogel; both men distrust either and suspect treason
- Basil Boothby: unlikable supervisor of Vicary; threatens to fire Vicary if he doesn’t deliver quick results; Vicary suspects Boothby is hiding something
SOOOO…. Catherine is working Peter Jordan for secrets and Vicary, while suspicious of his own team, is in a cat-and-mouse game with Vogel and Canaris trying to control what information gets through the spy networks at play and protect the most vital attack the Allied Forces is planning.
[If you are interested in D-Day, check out the historical fiction book All The Lights Above Us by M.B. Henry]
Historical Truth
I don’t know a whole lot about D-Day so I can’t determine how well he followed history in his story, but the historical aspect was really interesting.
Operation Fortitude was real. This was a campaign to spread false information that would convince the Germans they were planning to attack a different port and that they had more troops than they actually did. They created fake planes that appeared real from the sky, set up a whole bunch of tents, and played plane sounds from the loudspeakers. At the very least it created uncertainty.
The portable harbor was real. I had never heard of this before. What a feat in engineering! To create huge floating concrete stations that could be hauled across the channel and sunk near Normandy beach to act as a port and help deliver supplies and equipment was quite the elaborate and complex plan. It sounds like it may not have been worth the resources put into it, but hindsight is 20/20. Seems like a good contingency plan.
In a brief google search I couldn’t find much to indicate any special spy operations for this particular project other than the general secrecy of it.
It was a great historical event to shape a spy novel on! I really liked how Silva incorporated that and was able to make the reader feel the gravity and urgency of keeping such a major secret.
One question I had while reading was how much each country spent during WWII. HERE is what I found. [links found in original post]
Interesting Themes
There were a couple themes in the book that were interesting to think about. Vicary, a professor at a university reflects on patriotism:
“Patriotism. During his lifetime of study he had concluded it was the most destructive force on the planet. but now he felt the stirring of patriotism in his own chest and did not feel ashamed. We are good and they are evil. our nationalism is justified.”
These days being a patriot is basically an abomination.
It seems to take a major war or tragedy to create unity towards one cause. But he makes a good point. Patriotism becomes destructive when it creates an us vs them system. Painting good and evil with broad strokes. It also becomes destructive when it attempts to elevate one country above another by merit.
There is no perfect country, no perfect culture, no perfect political system. There are definitely some that are better than others in pretty major ways, but what’s most important is people.
However, you look at WWII and you look at the ways patriotism inspired people to do some pretty heroic things. Patriotism is a complex label.
Second:
“Vicary liked the character studies in mysteries and often found parallels to his own work— why good people sometimes did wicked things.”
I guess the complicated part of this sentence is how you define ‘good.’ But WWII is an unending pile of psychological material in how far someone will go when pushed to their mental limits or faced with harm.
What leads people to do wicked things? They don’t just wake up one day and decide to kill someone. What progression happens to make a good person do a bad thing. That’s the simple question but there are many layers and depths to this theme.
In regards to the book Vicary is probably the primary character study in this thing. After all, people who give certain orders, though they aren’t holding the gun, are indirectly responsible for death and destruction.
There are also the two spies who are required to kill to obtain secrets or conceal their real identities. The age-old question- is sacrificing one life for the good of many just?
War changes people. It awakens self-preservation in a dangerous way. And it changes their perspective on what’s important.
After a few years working in espionage Vicary has a realization:
“When he stood back and looked at his life objectively, it was missing something: laughter, tenderness, a little noise and disorder sometimes. It was half a life, he realized. Half a life, half a home, ultimately half a man.”
[If you like to explore the psychology of morality and ethical dilemmas check out books by Steven James (thrillers) or Randy Singer (legal thrillers)]
Grosvenor House
Fun Fact: the Grosvenor House mentioned in this book is a hotel right by Hyde Park. I had the privilege of staying there for a week in 2015 so that was pretty cool. Here’s a very non-professional Shutterfly collage of it: [Picture in original post linked above]
What I Didn’t Like
What colored my reading of this book and makes me question whether to read more from him are mostly the sexual content and the f-words.
Because of the nature of Catherine’s plan of seduction there are several sexual encounters that are detailed, some more than others, but are fairly graphic (especially one somewhat kinky one). Some of these occur in the present time and some of them are flashbacks to Catherine’s past.
It seemed like all the female characters were only in the book for sex. They all seemed vapid and content to be call girls, taking pride in it. We see some resistance to that, but it’s a far cry from all the WWII novels that depict the women heroes of the time and their desire to be more than their looks.
There are also several homosexual characters in the book, which seems odd for a book from the 90s? But they are called sexual deviants so it’s not completely progressive.
The other main issue I had with the book was the introduction of so many characters that kind of fall off the grid in the end.
For example, we seem to be gradually getting a fuller picture of who Catherine is and what made her into what she is, but I didn’t feel like we got any sort of resolution with her.
Same with Peter Jordan. In the beginning we see his life with his wife and then her car accident. But in the end I don’t feel like I got to see the full arc of his character.
Vicary and Boothby have a conversation in the end that acts as an epilogue of sorts but that wasn’t a very satisfying way to wrap things up and explain.
If the book primarily followed Vicary this would make more sense, but since we spend so much time being with other characters I think Silva should have finished all the storylines better.
Recommendation
I’m not sure how to recommend this one.
I asked some other readers about this author. Daniel Silva has written a series (starting with The Kill Artist) surrounding a character named Gabriel Allon who is an Israeli operative and art restorer. I’m thinking I might give Silva another try eventually and go with this series. With a series we will see more character development and I’m intrigued by the art aspect as well.
Maybe my recommendation for you, if you’ve never read Silva, would be to start there instead of The Unlikely Spy.
If you already know you like Daniel Silva, you’ve either already this book or you’ll probably like it, but I have absolutely nothing else to compare it to so what do I know?
[Content Advisory: lots of f-words, some graphic sexual encounters as mentioned above]
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I’ve got Freeman’s newest Stride book on my TBR so I had to get caught up. I started reading this series partway through with his book, Marathon, and have enjoyed it from that point on.
Then I went back and read book one— Immoral— and wouldn’t recommend the first few in this series.
Chances are, if you’re reading this review you’ve probably read other books in this series. If that doesn’t describe you, I’d probably just recommend starting at Marathon or a book before.
Brief Summary
This book takes up 6 months after the last one— Alter Ego.
Stride’s good friend for 36 years is on his death bed and confesses to Stride: “Don’t worry. I found the body after you left, and I took care of it. I buried him. You’re safe.”
This sets off an investigation into a murder from years ago and now Stride is the prime suspect.
The victim was a journalist who was digging into rape allegations made against a political figure currently up for election. He was in town to find the anonymous source of the accusation and get the story.
The anonymous source is Stride’s second wife, Andrea, which unfortunately provides Stride with a pretty good motive to silence the man who could have gone public with his discovery.
Meanwhile, Kat is receiving creepy messages from an obsessed stalker— who’s closer than she realizes— and gets ‘burdened’ with cop protection wherever she goes. But her guard is easy on the eyes and she’s not complaining too much.
Stride has his work cut out for him, and faces death himself as he tries to clear his name, protect his ex-wife, and keep Kat safe.
Comments
As with most long series like this, there’s not a whole lot to be said about it. It’s another great book in the series filled with action, suspense, and a ‘mystery’ to figure out.
It had a new element of putting Stride in the hot seat. Did he really murder someone? Will it catch up to him and ruin his career and his family?
The series’ hero is now on the precipice of ruin.
I liked how Freeman wrote it in a certain way that causes the reader to be unsure of Stride’s innocence and what really happened that night all those years ago.
Trigger warning for rape. Considering the investigation partly centers around what happened the night of the alleged rape, there is a lot of dialogue and description about events surrounding it. It’s not graphic but it’s prominence in the story may be reason for you not to read if that is a sensitive thing for you.
One thing I didn’t like about this book was Kat’s character. Granted, I’ve never experienced the trauma she has in her life so I don’t know if her behavior and thought process is in line with that or not, but from my perspective I was annoyed with a lot of her choices and her overall demeanor.
Yes, her innocence was stolen from her. Yes, her relationship with men is damaged. But she’s been with Stride and Serena in a safe and healthy environment. Plus she was almost raped in the last book, so why does she continue to be a seductress? And why is she so dumb to continue to try to shake her protection and go off on her own. She should know by now that that doesn’t end well.
She’s still young and has some maturing to do so I suppose there’s grace for that, but seems like she’s content to be a sulky victim destined for failure. Just got to be annoying for me.
I’ll be looking for her character to develop more in the next book.
Unpopular Opinion Alert. Another thing that annoyed— well maybe that’s not the right word. Perhaps ‘striking’ is better. What is striking is how book after book, movie after movie, story after story, real life and fiction, we see the consequences of drinking and partying and being reckless. And yet it appears irrelevant to the population at large. It seems like history has given us endless examples to realize that to significantly decrease the drama, trauma, and regrets in our lives, is probably avoiding alcohol and sexual promiscuity. It would at least be a great place to start.
[Disclaimer: I’m not referring to the rape. People who are raped are not to be blamed. I’m talking about the other stuff.]
Imagine how much we could avoid or how many crimes we could solve if people weren’t drunk and oblivious all the time. Just a thought.
Recommendation
If you already like this series, you’ll enjoy this book too. It’s the same Freeman writing you’re used to.
Personally, I think I like the Frost Easton series better, but that only has 3 books. I’m not sure why Freeman has advanced this series and not that one because that third book left on a cliffhanger.
But anyway, as long as you don’t read the first few of this series, I would recommend it.
Freeman is one of my favorite authors because he spins such good and surprising stories!
[Content Advisory: A couple handfuls of f- and s-words; talk of rape and sex]
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Then I went back and read book one— Immoral— and wouldn’t recommend the first few in this series.
Chances are, if you’re reading this review you’ve probably read other books in this series. If that doesn’t describe you, I’d probably just recommend starting at Marathon or a book before.
Brief Summary
This book takes up 6 months after the last one— Alter Ego.
Stride’s good friend for 36 years is on his death bed and confesses to Stride: “Don’t worry. I found the body after you left, and I took care of it. I buried him. You’re safe.”
This sets off an investigation into a murder from years ago and now Stride is the prime suspect.
The victim was a journalist who was digging into rape allegations made against a political figure currently up for election. He was in town to find the anonymous source of the accusation and get the story.
The anonymous source is Stride’s second wife, Andrea, which unfortunately provides Stride with a pretty good motive to silence the man who could have gone public with his discovery.
Meanwhile, Kat is receiving creepy messages from an obsessed stalker— who’s closer than she realizes— and gets ‘burdened’ with cop protection wherever she goes. But her guard is easy on the eyes and she’s not complaining too much.
Stride has his work cut out for him, and faces death himself as he tries to clear his name, protect his ex-wife, and keep Kat safe.
Comments
As with most long series like this, there’s not a whole lot to be said about it. It’s another great book in the series filled with action, suspense, and a ‘mystery’ to figure out.
It had a new element of putting Stride in the hot seat. Did he really murder someone? Will it catch up to him and ruin his career and his family?
The series’ hero is now on the precipice of ruin.
I liked how Freeman wrote it in a certain way that causes the reader to be unsure of Stride’s innocence and what really happened that night all those years ago.
Trigger warning for rape. Considering the investigation partly centers around what happened the night of the alleged rape, there is a lot of dialogue and description about events surrounding it. It’s not graphic but it’s prominence in the story may be reason for you not to read if that is a sensitive thing for you.
One thing I didn’t like about this book was Kat’s character. Granted, I’ve never experienced the trauma she has in her life so I don’t know if her behavior and thought process is in line with that or not, but from my perspective I was annoyed with a lot of her choices and her overall demeanor.
Yes, her innocence was stolen from her. Yes, her relationship with men is damaged. But she’s been with Stride and Serena in a safe and healthy environment. Plus she was almost raped in the last book, so why does she continue to be a seductress? And why is she so dumb to continue to try to shake her protection and go off on her own. She should know by now that that doesn’t end well.
She’s still young and has some maturing to do so I suppose there’s grace for that, but seems like she’s content to be a sulky victim destined for failure. Just got to be annoying for me.
I’ll be looking for her character to develop more in the next book.
Unpopular Opinion Alert. Another thing that annoyed— well maybe that’s not the right word. Perhaps ‘striking’ is better. What is striking is how book after book, movie after movie, story after story, real life and fiction, we see the consequences of drinking and partying and being reckless. And yet it appears irrelevant to the population at large. It seems like history has given us endless examples to realize that to significantly decrease the drama, trauma, and regrets in our lives, is probably avoiding alcohol and sexual promiscuity. It would at least be a great place to start.
[Disclaimer: I’m not referring to the rape. People who are raped are not to be blamed. I’m talking about the other stuff.]
Imagine how much we could avoid or how many crimes we could solve if people weren’t drunk and oblivious all the time. Just a thought.
Recommendation
If you already like this series, you’ll enjoy this book too. It’s the same Freeman writing you’re used to.
Personally, I think I like the Frost Easton series better, but that only has 3 books. I’m not sure why Freeman has advanced this series and not that one because that third book left on a cliffhanger.
But anyway, as long as you don’t read the first few of this series, I would recommend it.
Freeman is one of my favorite authors because he spins such good and surprising stories!
[Content Advisory: A couple handfuls of f- and s-words; talk of rape and sex]
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“Every seeming roadblock to faith in Jesus becomes a signpost.”
Rebecca McLaughlin has written many books including Confronting Christianity and The Secular Creed, among others. The former was written, McLaughlin said, as a kind of love letter to her friends who had objections to her faith and this is the ‘sequel.’
Whereas Confronting Christianity spoke to 12 of the most common objections to Christianity, Confronting Jesus narrows in on the person of Jesus.
Who was he? Why was he important? How does Jesus set Christianity apart from all other religions?
Similarly to my feelings about Confronting Christianity, my recommendation would be, sure, read this book, but don’t ONLY read this book. At the end I’ll give a couple other books that I may even recommend to people instead of this one and I’ll explain why in this review.
I also read the study guide that goes along with this book. It’s only 62 pages- 10 reflection questions per chapter with space to write. It’s helpfulness depends on the type of reader you are. I didn’t find most of the questions particularly thought-provoking, but if you plan to read this book with a group, it would be good to have some conversation starters. Many of the questions are answered in the book and the questions provide the corresponding page numbers.
[for pictures see original blog post]
The 9 Encounters
There are nine chapters, each one focusing on a characteristic of Jesus:
- Jesus the Jew
- Jesus the Son
- Jesus the King
- Jesus the Healer
- Jesus the Teacher
- Jesus the Lover
- Jesus the Servant
- Jesus the Sacrifice
- Jesus the Lord
She shares a story or two in each chapter from Scripture that depicts the person of Jesus and how he relates to his people. They showcase his humanity, his divinity, his love, grace, and power.
She also touches on some bigger questions within a few of the chapters like: Why can we trust the Gospel accounts about Jesus’s life? Did Jesus even claim to be God? What do we do with the evil in the world? Isn’t Christianity oppressive to women? Aren’t Jesus’s teachings on sexuality really restrictive? Doesn’t the Bible condone slavery? Is there diversity in the Bible? How can we believe the resurrection?
My Favorite Chapters
I think my two favorite chapters were Jesus the Lover and Jesus the Servant.
Jesus the Lover
The idea of ‘marriage’ these days has largely been hijacked. People have forgotten that marriage originated from God from the very first. Why? Because it is a picture of Christ and the Church.
Marriage is not just a piece of paper. It’s not just a tax benefit. It’s not just convenient or something you do when your feelings direct you to it. It’s not a cultural construct. It’s a God-designed covenant to image himself.
“The greatest human romance is at best an imitation of that love… if we treasure human marriage more than Jesus’s love, we’ll find it disappoints. But if we treasure Jesus’s love above all else, we’ll find it has the power to turn our weakness into death-defying strength.”
This chapter reminds us the power and wonder of marriage. The beauty and significance of its creation. For those who wonder why Christians are so uptight about the ‘redefinition of marriage,’ this chapter will shed some light on that.
It will explain that while marriage is important, it’s not ultimate. Yet it’s worth protecting as God designed it because otherwise we are distorting the image of God.
“The fundamental reason why Christians believe that sex belongs only in the permanent bond of male-female marriage is because of the metaphor of Jesus’s love for his church. It’s a love in which two become one flesh. It is a love that connects across sameness and radical difference: the sameness of our shared humanity and the radical difference of Jesus from us. It’s a love in which husbands are called not to exploit, abuse, or abandon their wives, but to love and sacrifice for them as Jesus did for us."
It will explain how the boundaries God puts on sex is good. How you protect something that’s precious. How his laws in Scripture don’t oppress women but when considered in the cultural context reflect his utmost love and protection for the widows, children, and marginalized.
“Whether we are single or married, widowed or divorced, romantically fulfilled or disappointed, we’ll all relate to human marriage best if we see it as a copy of the real thing— the love that truly burns for all eternity. And when we put this masterpiece in pride of place, we’ll start to understand the Bible’s boundaries around sex.”
[For further reading on this check out these books: Born Again This Way; What God Has to Say About Our Bodies; or Gay Girl, Good God. All of these were written by people who experience same-sex attraction. Or for a closer look at the specific Bible passages related to sex and marriage try What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality]
Jesus the Servant
“The question for God’s people was never whether they were servants, but whose servants they were. Would they live enslaved to people who oppressed and hated them? Or would they gladly serve the God who made and loved them?”
“Enslaved people were drawn to Jesus the servant, who throws down the powerful and lifts up the disempowered.”
“How much must Jesus value you and me to give his life up as our ransom? Jesus’s sacrifice for us can breed humility if we will only let it. We won’t need to be recognized by others if we know we are seen and known and deeply loved by the King of all the universe himself. We can unclench our grip on status if we know we’re held in Jesus’s hands. We can kneel down if we are sure that he will one day lift us.”
In her book Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes-Du Mez critiqued the term ‘servant leader’ that has been used in many churches. It would seem she has forgotten that Jesus came to serve and not be served and that he is our example to follow. True leadership is serving in humility just as Jesus did. Of course, we cannot image Christ’s example perfectly and we need repentance and forgiveness for that.
But it’s a reminder that maybe if Christians spent more time serving then lifting themselves up, maybe people outside the church would recognize the godliness and freedom of submission.
This chapter connects a lot with the next one about Jesus the Sacrifice which is the ultimate form of serving.
It reminds me of the Downhere song- How Many Kings. The lyrics say,
‘How many kings step down from their thrones
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.’
Isn’t that amazing?! There is no other religion hinged on the sacrificial death— and further- resurrection— of its god. There is no other. Jesus, and only Jesus is Lord.
This is where she spends time explaining how we can believe the resurrection.
[She also has a new book coming out this spring called ‘Is Easter Unbelievable?’ which I’m sure will go into even more detail about it if this is something that you struggle with.]
My Critique
I have one main critique. And this is why I may not always recommend this book for someone wanting to study the truth about Jesus.
McLaughlin spent a lot of page real estate on references to popular movies, shows, or books.
I understand the audience for this book are those who may not believe in Jesus at all. Perhaps she has used these references as a point of connection, an approachable way to help keep people’s attention and have something familiar to compare these new ideas with.
To some degree, I can respect that. I can appreciate a good illustration or parallel in secular places.
That audience doesn’t describe me so I don’t know how all of this comes across for other people.
But, for me, it felt like too much.
She references: the Hamilton musical, Dr. Who, Shang-Chi, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Gladiator, A Tale of Two Cities, Ted Lasso, The Good Place, The Midnight Library, and Collateral Beauty.
But in such a short book, to have one or two of these within each chapter felt like a lot. And it often felt disjointed. She would spend a few paragraphs describing a scene from a movie, then the next paragraph starts a completely different idea that she doesn’t connect to the scene until later.
Maybe because the content wasn’t new for me, the analogies were too distracting for me rather than complimentary.
I had no issue with the theological content of her book, but her writing style and delivery is what takes this book down a notch for me.
I wouldn’t discourage someone from reading this book, but I may give them a heads up about all the references so they can decide for themselves whether they feel like that will be helpful or hindering in their taking in what McLaughlin’s saying.
Recommendation
As described above, my main critique of this book was the overuse (to me) of pop culture references that felt disjointed and largely underwhelming for their purpose in this book.
I love the subject matter of this book. I think it’s very important.
Christianity is predicated on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. What you believe about Jesus is of utmost importance. If you don’t know who Jesus was or why we can believe he is who he said he was, you should definitely wrestle with that!
This may be the book for you.
Or it may not.
Here are a few other books that I would most likely recommend to people above this one for people questioning Jesus:
- Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity by Neil Shenvi
- Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi
- Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism by Gavin Ortlund
If you want to read more of Rebecca McLaughlin’s books, she has written a lot of good ones. Other than the ones linked above:
- Is Christmas Unbelievable?: Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the World’s Most Famous Story (Is the virgin birth real?)
- Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord (Does the Bible oppress women?)
- The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims (What does the Bible say about marriage, women’s rights, race, immigrants, and diversity?)
Shelf Reflection Book Review Blog
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Rebecca McLaughlin has written many books including Confronting Christianity and The Secular Creed, among others. The former was written, McLaughlin said, as a kind of love letter to her friends who had objections to her faith and this is the ‘sequel.’
Whereas Confronting Christianity spoke to 12 of the most common objections to Christianity, Confronting Jesus narrows in on the person of Jesus.
Who was he? Why was he important? How does Jesus set Christianity apart from all other religions?
Similarly to my feelings about Confronting Christianity, my recommendation would be, sure, read this book, but don’t ONLY read this book. At the end I’ll give a couple other books that I may even recommend to people instead of this one and I’ll explain why in this review.
I also read the study guide that goes along with this book. It’s only 62 pages- 10 reflection questions per chapter with space to write. It’s helpfulness depends on the type of reader you are. I didn’t find most of the questions particularly thought-provoking, but if you plan to read this book with a group, it would be good to have some conversation starters. Many of the questions are answered in the book and the questions provide the corresponding page numbers.
[for pictures see original blog post]
The 9 Encounters
There are nine chapters, each one focusing on a characteristic of Jesus:
- Jesus the Jew
- Jesus the Son
- Jesus the King
- Jesus the Healer
- Jesus the Teacher
- Jesus the Lover
- Jesus the Servant
- Jesus the Sacrifice
- Jesus the Lord
She shares a story or two in each chapter from Scripture that depicts the person of Jesus and how he relates to his people. They showcase his humanity, his divinity, his love, grace, and power.
She also touches on some bigger questions within a few of the chapters like: Why can we trust the Gospel accounts about Jesus’s life? Did Jesus even claim to be God? What do we do with the evil in the world? Isn’t Christianity oppressive to women? Aren’t Jesus’s teachings on sexuality really restrictive? Doesn’t the Bible condone slavery? Is there diversity in the Bible? How can we believe the resurrection?
My Favorite Chapters
I think my two favorite chapters were Jesus the Lover and Jesus the Servant.
Jesus the Lover
The idea of ‘marriage’ these days has largely been hijacked. People have forgotten that marriage originated from God from the very first. Why? Because it is a picture of Christ and the Church.
Marriage is not just a piece of paper. It’s not just a tax benefit. It’s not just convenient or something you do when your feelings direct you to it. It’s not a cultural construct. It’s a God-designed covenant to image himself.
“The greatest human romance is at best an imitation of that love… if we treasure human marriage more than Jesus’s love, we’ll find it disappoints. But if we treasure Jesus’s love above all else, we’ll find it has the power to turn our weakness into death-defying strength.”
This chapter reminds us the power and wonder of marriage. The beauty and significance of its creation. For those who wonder why Christians are so uptight about the ‘redefinition of marriage,’ this chapter will shed some light on that.
It will explain that while marriage is important, it’s not ultimate. Yet it’s worth protecting as God designed it because otherwise we are distorting the image of God.
“The fundamental reason why Christians believe that sex belongs only in the permanent bond of male-female marriage is because of the metaphor of Jesus’s love for his church. It’s a love in which two become one flesh. It is a love that connects across sameness and radical difference: the sameness of our shared humanity and the radical difference of Jesus from us. It’s a love in which husbands are called not to exploit, abuse, or abandon their wives, but to love and sacrifice for them as Jesus did for us."
It will explain how the boundaries God puts on sex is good. How you protect something that’s precious. How his laws in Scripture don’t oppress women but when considered in the cultural context reflect his utmost love and protection for the widows, children, and marginalized.
“Whether we are single or married, widowed or divorced, romantically fulfilled or disappointed, we’ll all relate to human marriage best if we see it as a copy of the real thing— the love that truly burns for all eternity. And when we put this masterpiece in pride of place, we’ll start to understand the Bible’s boundaries around sex.”
[For further reading on this check out these books: Born Again This Way; What God Has to Say About Our Bodies; or Gay Girl, Good God. All of these were written by people who experience same-sex attraction. Or for a closer look at the specific Bible passages related to sex and marriage try What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality]
Jesus the Servant
“The question for God’s people was never whether they were servants, but whose servants they were. Would they live enslaved to people who oppressed and hated them? Or would they gladly serve the God who made and loved them?”
“Enslaved people were drawn to Jesus the servant, who throws down the powerful and lifts up the disempowered.”
“How much must Jesus value you and me to give his life up as our ransom? Jesus’s sacrifice for us can breed humility if we will only let it. We won’t need to be recognized by others if we know we are seen and known and deeply loved by the King of all the universe himself. We can unclench our grip on status if we know we’re held in Jesus’s hands. We can kneel down if we are sure that he will one day lift us.”
In her book Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes-Du Mez critiqued the term ‘servant leader’ that has been used in many churches. It would seem she has forgotten that Jesus came to serve and not be served and that he is our example to follow. True leadership is serving in humility just as Jesus did. Of course, we cannot image Christ’s example perfectly and we need repentance and forgiveness for that.
But it’s a reminder that maybe if Christians spent more time serving then lifting themselves up, maybe people outside the church would recognize the godliness and freedom of submission.
This chapter connects a lot with the next one about Jesus the Sacrifice which is the ultimate form of serving.
It reminds me of the Downhere song- How Many Kings. The lyrics say,
‘How many kings step down from their thrones
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.’
Isn’t that amazing?! There is no other religion hinged on the sacrificial death— and further- resurrection— of its god. There is no other. Jesus, and only Jesus is Lord.
This is where she spends time explaining how we can believe the resurrection.
[She also has a new book coming out this spring called ‘Is Easter Unbelievable?’ which I’m sure will go into even more detail about it if this is something that you struggle with.]
My Critique
I have one main critique. And this is why I may not always recommend this book for someone wanting to study the truth about Jesus.
McLaughlin spent a lot of page real estate on references to popular movies, shows, or books.
I understand the audience for this book are those who may not believe in Jesus at all. Perhaps she has used these references as a point of connection, an approachable way to help keep people’s attention and have something familiar to compare these new ideas with.
To some degree, I can respect that. I can appreciate a good illustration or parallel in secular places.
That audience doesn’t describe me so I don’t know how all of this comes across for other people.
But, for me, it felt like too much.
She references: the Hamilton musical, Dr. Who, Shang-Chi, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Gladiator, A Tale of Two Cities, Ted Lasso, The Good Place, The Midnight Library, and Collateral Beauty.
But in such a short book, to have one or two of these within each chapter felt like a lot. And it often felt disjointed. She would spend a few paragraphs describing a scene from a movie, then the next paragraph starts a completely different idea that she doesn’t connect to the scene until later.
Maybe because the content wasn’t new for me, the analogies were too distracting for me rather than complimentary.
I had no issue with the theological content of her book, but her writing style and delivery is what takes this book down a notch for me.
I wouldn’t discourage someone from reading this book, but I may give them a heads up about all the references so they can decide for themselves whether they feel like that will be helpful or hindering in their taking in what McLaughlin’s saying.
Recommendation
As described above, my main critique of this book was the overuse (to me) of pop culture references that felt disjointed and largely underwhelming for their purpose in this book.
I love the subject matter of this book. I think it’s very important.
Christianity is predicated on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. What you believe about Jesus is of utmost importance. If you don’t know who Jesus was or why we can believe he is who he said he was, you should definitely wrestle with that!
This may be the book for you.
Or it may not.
Here are a few other books that I would most likely recommend to people above this one for people questioning Jesus:
- Why Believe?: A Reasoned Approach to Christianity by Neil Shenvi
- Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi
- Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism by Gavin Ortlund
If you want to read more of Rebecca McLaughlin’s books, she has written a lot of good ones. Other than the ones linked above:
- Is Christmas Unbelievable?: Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the World’s Most Famous Story (Is the virgin birth real?)
- Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord (Does the Bible oppress women?)
- The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims (What does the Bible say about marriage, women’s rights, race, immigrants, and diversity?)
Shelf Reflection Book Review Blog
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
“It goes to show how dangerous it can be, thinking that you know someone.”
In the acknowledgements, Sally Hepworth says she writes: “funny books about family and murder.”
This fits the other two Hepworth books I read: The Good Sister and The Younger Wife— both of which I thought were really good.
I also thought The Soulmate was really good but it didn’t have quite the same humor.
It was a fast read with a few twists, some more surprising than others. The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I was hoping for, but it was at least more resolved than her other books I’ve read which are a bit open-ended.
As I process the book after finishing, I look back at the slow reveal and see more and more the crumbs of information Hepworth left for us to discover.
In all three of these books, she tackles some bigger topics— The Good Sister has an autistic character, The Younger Wife has three characters with vices- stealing, eating, alcohol, and The Soulmate has its own thing it gives insight to (it’s a spoiler or I’d tell you). How it can affect a person and a marriage.
“The line between normal and not normal had always been so thin for him; sometimes I didn’t know if I was talking to a genius or a madman.”
“He had just enough magic to make him brilliant, but not so much that it sent him mad—unlike his brother.”
What does it take to be soulmates and can they weather a potential murder investigation?
Brief Summary
Gabe and Pippa are soulmates with the picture-perfect family and marriage.
Gabe is the animated and engaged father to their two little girls. He is the hero. The kind of husband you marry where it feels like a dream.
“He’s your classic run toward a burning building kind of guy… When people meet Gabe, they feel safe. Seen.”
They live near a cliff, famously known as The Drop, where people come to commit suicide. Since they moved in, however: “out of the seven souls who have come to the cliff since we moved in, seven have walked away. Gabe has saved them all.”
Until the one he didn’t.
Their lives start to unravel when a woman (Amanda) jumps? falls? is pushed? off the cliff and dies. Because she and Gabe knew each other. She was the wife of Gabe’s former boss (Max) at a job he was fired from. And Gabe withheld that information from the police.
What really happened on that cliff? Why was she there? Is Gabe hiding something? Who is he protecting?
Max is convinced Amanda wouldn’t have jumped. She was not suicidal and she knew how suicide had already taken two of his family members and affected him deeply. He is determined to figure out the truth. He has ‘connections’ and will use whatever means necessary to get it.
Through alternating chapters between Pippa (before and after) and Amanda (before and after) we start putting the pieces together. And things are not what they seem.
Comments
One thing I wasn’t sure whether I liked or not were the Amanda chapters. I think the ‘before’ chapters make sense. It gives us background to who she is and what her marriage to Max is like.
But after her death, in order for the reader to know what’s going on with Max and give us some more ‘insider’ information, Hepworth writes the ‘after’ chapters from Amanda’s POV after death. It’s as if she is floating around and observing the investigation into her death.
Which, in a way, is fitting for the title. But there were a few times where it didn’t make sense. One in particular was her observing and narrating what was happening between a phone conversation between Max and Gabe as if she could see both of them even though they were far away from each other. I guess there aren’t any established rules with the afterlife, so maybe omnipresence is acceptable.
I liked how Pippa has a really good relationship with her family and her parents. It’s a very supportive group and it’s nice to see that stability— that they take care of each other. Plus her parents are the ones that bring the humor in this book.
“According to Mum, ‘All little kids are psychos. It’s a necessary, important phase of growth.’”
I love how much Pippa loves her people, even when it’s hard. She’s a very forgiving person, perhaps to a fault. But it’s a nice difference from the tropes of unstable and paranoid women who hate being a mom.
There were a lot of parts of this book that were relatable in terms of being a parent and the familial reactions so I enjoyed that connection point.
A couple examples: reading their kids the book- The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We bought that book in London to read to our kids and it’s a favorite; the way their girls fight and talk about food; two of the characters took a trip to Bora Bora and a safari in Tanzania, both of which are trips we’ve been considering.
Recommendation
I really enjoy Sally Hepworth’s books. They have good suspense, good characters, some humor, and are pretty clean.
I definitely recommend this book and the other two I already mentioned.
If you’re looking for a thriller that will read quickly, this is it.
New words I Learned:
limerence- the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, but typically nonsexually
‘Come on slowcoach’- the British version of slowpoke I guess?
doona- the Australian version of a down comforter
Freddo frogs- an Australian chocolate bar shaped like a frog
been on tenterhooks- another version of ‘on eggshells’; state of tension or anxiety
[Content Advisory: 7 f-words, 8 s-words; suicide; an LGBTQ couple]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
In the acknowledgements, Sally Hepworth says she writes: “funny books about family and murder.”
This fits the other two Hepworth books I read: The Good Sister and The Younger Wife— both of which I thought were really good.
I also thought The Soulmate was really good but it didn’t have quite the same humor.
It was a fast read with a few twists, some more surprising than others. The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I was hoping for, but it was at least more resolved than her other books I’ve read which are a bit open-ended.
As I process the book after finishing, I look back at the slow reveal and see more and more the crumbs of information Hepworth left for us to discover.
In all three of these books, she tackles some bigger topics— The Good Sister has an autistic character, The Younger Wife has three characters with vices- stealing, eating, alcohol, and The Soulmate has its own thing it gives insight to (it’s a spoiler or I’d tell you). How it can affect a person and a marriage.
“The line between normal and not normal had always been so thin for him; sometimes I didn’t know if I was talking to a genius or a madman.”
“He had just enough magic to make him brilliant, but not so much that it sent him mad—unlike his brother.”
What does it take to be soulmates and can they weather a potential murder investigation?
Brief Summary
Gabe and Pippa are soulmates with the picture-perfect family and marriage.
Gabe is the animated and engaged father to their two little girls. He is the hero. The kind of husband you marry where it feels like a dream.
“He’s your classic run toward a burning building kind of guy… When people meet Gabe, they feel safe. Seen.”
They live near a cliff, famously known as The Drop, where people come to commit suicide. Since they moved in, however: “out of the seven souls who have come to the cliff since we moved in, seven have walked away. Gabe has saved them all.”
Until the one he didn’t.
Their lives start to unravel when a woman (Amanda) jumps? falls? is pushed? off the cliff and dies. Because she and Gabe knew each other. She was the wife of Gabe’s former boss (Max) at a job he was fired from. And Gabe withheld that information from the police.
What really happened on that cliff? Why was she there? Is Gabe hiding something? Who is he protecting?
Max is convinced Amanda wouldn’t have jumped. She was not suicidal and she knew how suicide had already taken two of his family members and affected him deeply. He is determined to figure out the truth. He has ‘connections’ and will use whatever means necessary to get it.
Through alternating chapters between Pippa (before and after) and Amanda (before and after) we start putting the pieces together. And things are not what they seem.
Comments
One thing I wasn’t sure whether I liked or not were the Amanda chapters. I think the ‘before’ chapters make sense. It gives us background to who she is and what her marriage to Max is like.
But after her death, in order for the reader to know what’s going on with Max and give us some more ‘insider’ information, Hepworth writes the ‘after’ chapters from Amanda’s POV after death. It’s as if she is floating around and observing the investigation into her death.
Which, in a way, is fitting for the title. But there were a few times where it didn’t make sense. One in particular was her observing and narrating what was happening between a phone conversation between Max and Gabe as if she could see both of them even though they were far away from each other. I guess there aren’t any established rules with the afterlife, so maybe omnipresence is acceptable.
I liked how Pippa has a really good relationship with her family and her parents. It’s a very supportive group and it’s nice to see that stability— that they take care of each other. Plus her parents are the ones that bring the humor in this book.
“According to Mum, ‘All little kids are psychos. It’s a necessary, important phase of growth.’”
I love how much Pippa loves her people, even when it’s hard. She’s a very forgiving person, perhaps to a fault. But it’s a nice difference from the tropes of unstable and paranoid women who hate being a mom.
There were a lot of parts of this book that were relatable in terms of being a parent and the familial reactions so I enjoyed that connection point.
A couple examples: reading their kids the book- The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We bought that book in London to read to our kids and it’s a favorite; the way their girls fight and talk about food; two of the characters took a trip to Bora Bora and a safari in Tanzania, both of which are trips we’ve been considering.
Recommendation
I really enjoy Sally Hepworth’s books. They have good suspense, good characters, some humor, and are pretty clean.
I definitely recommend this book and the other two I already mentioned.
If you’re looking for a thriller that will read quickly, this is it.
New words I Learned:
limerence- the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, but typically nonsexually
‘Come on slowcoach’- the British version of slowpoke I guess?
doona- the Australian version of a down comforter
Freddo frogs- an Australian chocolate bar shaped like a frog
been on tenterhooks- another version of ‘on eggshells’; state of tension or anxiety
[Content Advisory: 7 f-words, 8 s-words; suicide; an LGBTQ couple]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
“Your sister died of what appears to be an accidental drug overdose.”
“This is not my sister.”
This was my first Briana Cole book so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised! The tension and mystery were there throughout the whole book and I liked the main character.
The premise was intriguing and I thought she did a good job of leading us through the clues.
The main thing that took this book down a notch was the swearing. I could have done without that. However, a couple of the characters are sketchy criminals so their way of talking, I suppose, requires it. But even the main character, Deven, swore a lot too.
I’m not sure if the ending is necessarily ‘likable’ but it kinda fit. It’s just not really a ‘feel good’ ending and is a little open. So if you don’t like that kind of ending, it may frustrate you. Unless she plans to do a sequel? Maybe…
It is told through a couple different perspectives: the present, several months ‘before,’ and a few different diary entries from her sister’s childhood diary.
Brief Summary
Deven is called to the morgue to identify the body of a woman found dead in her apartment, apparently by drug overdose. They say it is her (half) sister, Kennedy.
But when Deven sees the picture of the body she is certain that it’s not her sister. It can’t be. The body doesn’t reflect her cosmetic surgeries and her sister would never have done drugs. Something is amiss.
The police think she’s in denial and aren’t treating it as anything other than a routine suicide, so Deven is on her own to find her sister and find out what really happened.
The more she digs, the more she realizes she maybe didn’t know her sister as well as she thought. In fact, her entire childhood and family weren’t quite what she thought they were.
We follow Deven on her investigation to neighborhoods she never thought she’d go to, and even a visit to prison. We also follow her on a journey through grief, having recently lost her father to cancer, essentially her mother who has dementia, her twins that she miscarried, and now possibly her sister.
Is Deven strong enough and with it enough to find out and handle the truth?
Comments
I like books that deal with possible mistaken identities. It keeps you guessing even when you think you know what’s going on.
Even though it was a psychological thriller, it was also an exploration of grief and familial bonds— what would we do to protect our family and how much can we forgive?
I have had a miscarriage (7+ years ago) and since then I’ve had four kids, including twins. I was okay reading this book now. I think she handled writing that part pretty well. But I don’t think I would have wanted to read this book if that pain and grief was still fresh. Especially with the short dream sequence that is described after her miscarriage. I don’t think that would have sat well with me.
I thought Cole did a good job writing the diary entries as if they were from a 11-12 year old. Sometimes authors do a bad job and it sounds too grown-up or too childish, but I thought she wrote it just right!
However, I don’t like what Deven did with that diary at the end. I don’t think that was smart, especially with the slightly open-ended ending. I think that would have been something important to keep if she wanted complete justice eventually.
Though I thought it strange that Deven’s character admitted that she intentionally didn’t date outside her race, I did appreciate that the author didn’t try to do too much with the love story part of the book. That was not central to the plot and considering all the things Deven was dealing with, I think it’s more realistic to plot the relationship the way Cole did.
Another couple random thoughts— I don’t think she really wrapped up Benji’s part in all of it very well, unless I’m remembering wrong. I would have liked to know more of his deal. And was Kennedy’s pregnancy and miscarriage real or faked?
Recommendation
If you can handle the swearing, I would recommend this book. It’s a great read if you can get past that bit.
In her acknowledgements she makes a comment to a family member that this book isn’t “as raunchy” as her other ones. So based on that comment, I’m not sure if I will read her other books. The sex in this one was mostly mild but I could see her potential to do a lot more and I’m not sure I want to read that.
So just a note of caution that this book might not be indicative of her entire body of work but I can’t confirm that personally.
I’m glad I tried this book. I haven’t read much fiction by black authors (unintentionally) so it was good to expand my library in that way as well. There is a different flavor to the characters and the relationships that was new for me.
I’ll end with this quote from the book that I thought was really fitting for the ending:
“Grief is love with nowhere to go.”
[Content Advisory: 26 f-words, 64 s-words, 50 d-words; one short sex scene; suicide; miscarriage, including one dream post-miscarriage that was a little gruesome]
**Received a digital book from the author in exchange for an honest review**
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“This is not my sister.”
This was my first Briana Cole book so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised! The tension and mystery were there throughout the whole book and I liked the main character.
The premise was intriguing and I thought she did a good job of leading us through the clues.
The main thing that took this book down a notch was the swearing. I could have done without that. However, a couple of the characters are sketchy criminals so their way of talking, I suppose, requires it. But even the main character, Deven, swore a lot too.
I’m not sure if the ending is necessarily ‘likable’ but it kinda fit. It’s just not really a ‘feel good’ ending and is a little open. So if you don’t like that kind of ending, it may frustrate you. Unless she plans to do a sequel? Maybe…
It is told through a couple different perspectives: the present, several months ‘before,’ and a few different diary entries from her sister’s childhood diary.
Brief Summary
Deven is called to the morgue to identify the body of a woman found dead in her apartment, apparently by drug overdose. They say it is her (half) sister, Kennedy.
But when Deven sees the picture of the body she is certain that it’s not her sister. It can’t be. The body doesn’t reflect her cosmetic surgeries and her sister would never have done drugs. Something is amiss.
The police think she’s in denial and aren’t treating it as anything other than a routine suicide, so Deven is on her own to find her sister and find out what really happened.
The more she digs, the more she realizes she maybe didn’t know her sister as well as she thought. In fact, her entire childhood and family weren’t quite what she thought they were.
We follow Deven on her investigation to neighborhoods she never thought she’d go to, and even a visit to prison. We also follow her on a journey through grief, having recently lost her father to cancer, essentially her mother who has dementia, her twins that she miscarried, and now possibly her sister.
Is Deven strong enough and with it enough to find out and handle the truth?
Comments
I like books that deal with possible mistaken identities. It keeps you guessing even when you think you know what’s going on.
Even though it was a psychological thriller, it was also an exploration of grief and familial bonds— what would we do to protect our family and how much can we forgive?
I have had a miscarriage (7+ years ago) and since then I’ve had four kids, including twins. I was okay reading this book now. I think she handled writing that part pretty well. But I don’t think I would have wanted to read this book if that pain and grief was still fresh. Especially with the short dream sequence that is described after her miscarriage. I don’t think that would have sat well with me.
I thought Cole did a good job writing the diary entries as if they were from a 11-12 year old. Sometimes authors do a bad job and it sounds too grown-up or too childish, but I thought she wrote it just right!
However, I don’t like what Deven did with that diary at the end. I don’t think that was smart, especially with the slightly open-ended ending. I think that would have been something important to keep if she wanted complete justice eventually.
Though I thought it strange that Deven’s character admitted that she intentionally didn’t date outside her race, I did appreciate that the author didn’t try to do too much with the love story part of the book. That was not central to the plot and considering all the things Deven was dealing with, I think it’s more realistic to plot the relationship the way Cole did.
Another couple random thoughts— I don’t think she really wrapped up Benji’s part in all of it very well, unless I’m remembering wrong. I would have liked to know more of his deal. And was Kennedy’s pregnancy and miscarriage real or faked?
Recommendation
If you can handle the swearing, I would recommend this book. It’s a great read if you can get past that bit.
In her acknowledgements she makes a comment to a family member that this book isn’t “as raunchy” as her other ones. So based on that comment, I’m not sure if I will read her other books. The sex in this one was mostly mild but I could see her potential to do a lot more and I’m not sure I want to read that.
So just a note of caution that this book might not be indicative of her entire body of work but I can’t confirm that personally.
I’m glad I tried this book. I haven’t read much fiction by black authors (unintentionally) so it was good to expand my library in that way as well. There is a different flavor to the characters and the relationships that was new for me.
I’ll end with this quote from the book that I thought was really fitting for the ending:
“Grief is love with nowhere to go.”
[Content Advisory: 26 f-words, 64 s-words, 50 d-words; one short sex scene; suicide; miscarriage, including one dream post-miscarriage that was a little gruesome]
**Received a digital book from the author in exchange for an honest review**
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“It’s complicated, being a woman in STEM. Even more so when you’re young and unproven. And even more so when you have a semi-pathological need to get along with others.”
This is an enemies to lovers rom-com between a cheese-loving, coffee-hating (preach!) theoretical physicist (Elsie) who studies liquid crystals and a very muscled, Henley wearing, experimental physicist (Jack) who can basically do whatever he wants because he’s famous, and also did I mention he has muscles?
Disclaimer: You do not need to know what liquid crystals are. Just keep picturing the exact wrong thing, like I do. It won’t matter. And if you do actually understand this weird state of matter, you are superior.
I wish there was a PG-13 version of this book! There was a lot to like in here. Unfortunately, the profanity (everywhere) and sexual content (mainly in chapters 19-22) definitely make this a novel for a mature audience.
How spicy are those few chapters? If I were to put it on Buffalo Wild Wings spectrum of spicy, it would probably roll in around the Mango Habenero heat. I actually have a whole section of my review dedicated to this if you need more information.
This was my first Ali Hazelwood book. Her book, The Love Hypothesis (2021), became uber popular and I believe it’s also being made into a movie. She is known for writing romcom novels about women in STEM. Which I think is amazing!
I enjoy reading about a main character who is not just intelligent, but intelligent in the sciences, who is secure in her knowledge and ability to do her career and get the job she wants. And not only is she legitimately smart, she has a great sense of humor. Especially if you can understand all her science jokes.
I also really liked that Elsie has a really good friendship with her roommate. They’re both weird in their own ways, but very supportive as they live their own lives.
In case you were wondering, I am not in academia. I’m like the opposite of Elsie. Elsie is a physicist who got her PhD in theoretical physics. I’m an art major. I guess we overlap in terms of abstract concepts and a lot of matter that doesn’t make sense to most people.
But the point is… I cannot say one way or the other whether her science should be fact-checked. I have no idea if she is accurately portraying the field or the academic politics in the world of professors and research scientists. Honestly, I don’t even know if liquid crystals is a real thing. But if she’s fabricating, she’s a real good pretender.
It was a whole new world of characters that aren’t typically written about and I enjoyed being there.
A Brief Summary
This is your classic enemies to lovers romcom story-line.
Elsie has her PhD in theoretical physics and works as an adjunct professor teaching classes at three different universities. She has diabetes and no health insurance and is barely making ends meet to get herself the insulin she needs.
To counter this financial deficit, she started ‘fake-dating’ people. An app people can use to hire others to pretend to be their dates for things.
Her latest client is Greg. He’s hired her for multiple family occasions because he is gay and has not come out to his family yet. To get them off his back about getting married, he’s using Elsie as a shield.
Enter Jack. Greg’s brother.
Wearing his “Haute couture by Chuck Norris.”
He is skeptical of her relationship with his brother. And also he has the hots for her.
“He just studies me— attentive, calm, like he knows something secret about me. That I floss once a week, tops. That I can’t figure out what the Dow Jones is, even after reading the Wikipedia entry. Other, scarier, darker things.”
The main animosity here is that both Jack and Elsie are physicists. But Jack is an EXPERIMENTAL physicist while Elsie is a THEORETICAL physicist. [Thank goodness for spellcheck… I’ve misspelled physicist every time I’ve typed it]
To make matters worse, Elsie is interviewing for a major job change that would give her health insurance and allow her to do the research she wants to do without the teaching she hates (including all the annoying— yet hilarious— emails she receives from her students asking if they can pay their tuition in dogecoin).
“Teaching load: 100 percent. Despair load: incalculable.”
“All I want is to spend my days solving hydrodynamic equations to calculate the large-scale spatiotemporal chaos exhibited by dry active nematics. And maybe, if possible, buy life-compatible levels of pancreatic hormones at reasonable prices.”
Jack is on the search committee conducting the interviews, has major influence, and is known for hating theorists. In fact, years ago he ruined the entire field by submitting a prank paper on theoretical physics to an esteemed journal where it somehow got through and became the laughing stock of the science world.
So Elsie wants to hate Jack:
“I always had a bad feeling about him, and last night— that’s why he’s so good at Go. He was a physicist all along, that— that piece of Uranus—”
"Science insult. Nice.”
"I bet he thinks in Fahrenheit—”
"Ooh, sick burn."
But he’s “the electron to my nucleus… constantly spinning around me” and they can’t help but be attracted to each other. Because that’s how science neutrons work.
And really, her hatred isn’t very believable in the book. She’s just trying to convince herself to hate him because she’s afraid of her real feelings.
Thus, this book is correctly titled- Love, Theoretically— because it’s not love actually. Yet.
It’s a theory.
Jack has Elsie figured out, but it’s not until Elsie discovers there is more to Jack when the sparks really start to fly. Because chemical reactions. Science. (Have I convinced you of my science knowledge yet?)
The Spice Factor
As mentioned before, there is some graphic sexual content in this book. You can probably come away unscathed by it if you just skip chapters 19-22.
I am not an avid romance reader. My concept of what ‘graphic sexual content’ is may be skewed. I have no clue. There’s an entire genre called Erotica so I’m sure this isn’t the worst you could read. I don’t want to be able to explain to you from personal experience where this is on the spectrum. Use your best judgement.
But based on my personal preferences on what I want to read, this had stuff that went too far and too detailed.
So imagine my shock when I read this:
“Jack and I did a bunch of things that high schoolers today would barely consider a quarter of first base...”
What?!
I must be very naive to what is happening in high schools right now. It is ridiculous if what they did was not even first base. Clearly they don’t understand how baseball works.
Plus some of it isn’t realistic. Like the fact that he didn’t have “rotten-eggy morning breath.” Everyone has bad breath in the morning. It’s an unfortunate staple of life.
Anyway, I know a lot of readers won’t hold the same views of sex that I do, so I’ll try not to belabor the point.
But if Ali Hazelwood should read my review: Can you PLEASE make PG-13 versions of your books for people like me?
A couple other comments related to sex that I just decided I wanted to point out:
“Not that there would be anything wrong: sex work is legitimate work, and people who engage in it are just as deserving of respect as ballerinas, or firefighters, or hedge fund managers.”
I don’t know if Hazelwood actually believes this idea, though I would venture to guess that she does, but this is a harmful view to hold and completely ignores the fact that most ‘sex work’ is not legitimate. It increases the demand and creation of porn which is also harmful to people. It increases the demand for women which inevitably leads to sex and child trafficking. It is not an ‘innocent line of work’ as some are trying to suggest.
The sexual ‘freedom’ the general population is dying for isn’t quite the utopia they think they’ll get.
If you don’t believe me, do your own research. It’s not hard to find the wreckage in the wake of sex work and porn. Yes, I have strong feelings about this.
I can agree that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their ‘occupation.’ I am not condemning the people, but the industry.
[Some other related book suggestions: The Porn Problem, Taking Down Backpage]
If that paragraph made me some enemies, how about this one:
“Planned Parenthood is good people.”
I wasn’t planning to write all of this in this review but here I am. I guess there’s worse things I could be doing with my time.
There is a center in my town called Agape. They help women who are pregnant or who recently had babies. They help them with medical and emotional care. But they do not provide abortions. These are the kinds of centers we need more of.
It’s an oxymoron to have Planned Parenthood and good people in the same sentence. Abortion is the killing of babies and that is not good.
I’m sure many of you have lots of arguments you’d like to share with me about Planned Parenthood. I would direct you HERE.
Okay, I’ll get off my soap box.
The bottom line is: There is some graphic sexual content in a few of the chapters that I wish wasn’t there.
Elsie’s People-Pleasing
A core part of this book is Elsie’s desire to please people. She learned early in life that if she could change into what people wanted, they liked her. She became good at recognizing what people wanted to hear, see, etc and adapted to fit their desire or expectation of who she should be.
“I don’t really have time for that. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or makes you resent your pathological inability to set boundaries, one of the two.”
“I find that people like me better if they don’t have to expend emotional energy on me.”
This paired well with her fake-dating gig. She could be anyone!
This does not pair well with actual dating. Her roommate tells her:
“You’d rather walk into the sea with stones in your pockets than date— though that’s because of your basic misconception that human romantic relationships can only succeed if you hide and shape yourself into what you think others want you to be.”
Jack is different, though. He can see through her various personas. He recognizes when her personality changes. He calls her on it. And psycho-analyzes:
“That way if something goes wrong, if someone rejects you, then it’s not about you, is it? When you’re yourself, that’s when you’re exposed. Vulnerable. But if you hold back… Losing a game’s always painful, but knowing that you haven’t played your best hand makes it bearable.”
This is a somewhat common trope for romance novels/movies. A person who is afraid to be themselves because they don’t want to be rejected.
It wasn’t groundbreaking concepts, but I liked how Jack challenged her to speak her mind, to be honest, and say ‘no.’
She was not afraid to be confrontational with Jack when she was still in the hate-phase. I liked that side of her. I like when someone stands up for themselves. I get annoyed when people don’t say what they’re thinking especially in important situations. Go ahead. Give me an Enneagram number.
Obviously don’t be annoying and argumentative, but just strong-willed, secure, and confident to hold your own.
Randoms
Here are some things I thought were funny and I didn’t know where else to put them so this is the place.
“I sink into the heated seat he turned on for me and remember the time I swerved to avoid a squirrel, almost causing a multivehicle crash. The squirrel turned out to be a Wendy’s paper bag, but it’s fine. I’m good at other things. Probably.”
A character was wearing a “Breathe If You Hate Tom Brady shirt.” Haha. Classic. I’m totally going to use this concept on a shirt for my website’s store. So many possibilities.
A student comes up to her to “tell me about this super-cool movie he just watched and ask me if one could theoretically invert time (dang you, Christopher Nolan)” This is the movie Tenet. Which I have watched. And I would definitely be the student that would want to discuss the physics of it. Because it’s insane.
Recommendation
Okay, so after all that, what’s the deal?
If you have the self-control to skip over a few chapters, and don’t mind some swearing and sexual innuendo, I think you’ll enjoy this unique and humorous take on a rom-com.
If any of that doesn’t sit well with you, probably try something else. Possibly The Rom-Com Agenda.
And if Hazelwood comes out with some PG-13 material, SOMEONE PLEASE COME TELL ME!
Learning Corner
This book is about scientists, so of course they’re going to say words like ‘gravitational singularity,’ ‘sectoral heterochromic,’ ‘boson,’ and ‘biaxial nematics.’
We have permission to gloss over those. But there were also some other big words if you want to expand your vocabulary and sound like you have a PhD in something.
ignominy: public shame or disgrace (It would be an ignominy if you didn’t follow my reviews on Facebook.)
apotheosis: the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax (The apotheosis of your day was to stumble across my book reviews.)
inchoately: confused or incoherently (When you don’t know what book to read next, you may walk around inchoately.)
convivial:friendly, lively, enjoyable (Browsing my book reviews is a convivial way to spend an afternoon!)
And I finally researched how to actually pronounce these two reads: “canapes” and “annals". So that was cool.
[Content Advisory: 88 f-words (that tend to show up in groupings of 3), 96 s-words, sexual inneundos throughout; a couple graphic sex scenes (as talked about above)]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
This is an enemies to lovers rom-com between a cheese-loving, coffee-hating (preach!) theoretical physicist (Elsie) who studies liquid crystals and a very muscled, Henley wearing, experimental physicist (Jack) who can basically do whatever he wants because he’s famous, and also did I mention he has muscles?
Disclaimer: You do not need to know what liquid crystals are. Just keep picturing the exact wrong thing, like I do. It won’t matter. And if you do actually understand this weird state of matter, you are superior.
I wish there was a PG-13 version of this book! There was a lot to like in here. Unfortunately, the profanity (everywhere) and sexual content (mainly in chapters 19-22) definitely make this a novel for a mature audience.
How spicy are those few chapters? If I were to put it on Buffalo Wild Wings spectrum of spicy, it would probably roll in around the Mango Habenero heat. I actually have a whole section of my review dedicated to this if you need more information.
This was my first Ali Hazelwood book. Her book, The Love Hypothesis (2021), became uber popular and I believe it’s also being made into a movie. She is known for writing romcom novels about women in STEM. Which I think is amazing!
I enjoy reading about a main character who is not just intelligent, but intelligent in the sciences, who is secure in her knowledge and ability to do her career and get the job she wants. And not only is she legitimately smart, she has a great sense of humor. Especially if you can understand all her science jokes.
I also really liked that Elsie has a really good friendship with her roommate. They’re both weird in their own ways, but very supportive as they live their own lives.
In case you were wondering, I am not in academia. I’m like the opposite of Elsie. Elsie is a physicist who got her PhD in theoretical physics. I’m an art major. I guess we overlap in terms of abstract concepts and a lot of matter that doesn’t make sense to most people.
But the point is… I cannot say one way or the other whether her science should be fact-checked. I have no idea if she is accurately portraying the field or the academic politics in the world of professors and research scientists. Honestly, I don’t even know if liquid crystals is a real thing. But if she’s fabricating, she’s a real good pretender.
It was a whole new world of characters that aren’t typically written about and I enjoyed being there.
A Brief Summary
This is your classic enemies to lovers romcom story-line.
Elsie has her PhD in theoretical physics and works as an adjunct professor teaching classes at three different universities. She has diabetes and no health insurance and is barely making ends meet to get herself the insulin she needs.
To counter this financial deficit, she started ‘fake-dating’ people. An app people can use to hire others to pretend to be their dates for things.
Her latest client is Greg. He’s hired her for multiple family occasions because he is gay and has not come out to his family yet. To get them off his back about getting married, he’s using Elsie as a shield.
Enter Jack. Greg’s brother.
Wearing his “Haute couture by Chuck Norris.”
He is skeptical of her relationship with his brother. And also he has the hots for her.
“He just studies me— attentive, calm, like he knows something secret about me. That I floss once a week, tops. That I can’t figure out what the Dow Jones is, even after reading the Wikipedia entry. Other, scarier, darker things.”
The main animosity here is that both Jack and Elsie are physicists. But Jack is an EXPERIMENTAL physicist while Elsie is a THEORETICAL physicist. [Thank goodness for spellcheck… I’ve misspelled physicist every time I’ve typed it]
To make matters worse, Elsie is interviewing for a major job change that would give her health insurance and allow her to do the research she wants to do without the teaching she hates (including all the annoying— yet hilarious— emails she receives from her students asking if they can pay their tuition in dogecoin).
“Teaching load: 100 percent. Despair load: incalculable.”
“All I want is to spend my days solving hydrodynamic equations to calculate the large-scale spatiotemporal chaos exhibited by dry active nematics. And maybe, if possible, buy life-compatible levels of pancreatic hormones at reasonable prices.”
Jack is on the search committee conducting the interviews, has major influence, and is known for hating theorists. In fact, years ago he ruined the entire field by submitting a prank paper on theoretical physics to an esteemed journal where it somehow got through and became the laughing stock of the science world.
So Elsie wants to hate Jack:
“I always had a bad feeling about him, and last night— that’s why he’s so good at Go. He was a physicist all along, that— that piece of Uranus—”
"Science insult. Nice.”
"I bet he thinks in Fahrenheit—”
"Ooh, sick burn."
But he’s “the electron to my nucleus… constantly spinning around me” and they can’t help but be attracted to each other. Because that’s how science neutrons work.
And really, her hatred isn’t very believable in the book. She’s just trying to convince herself to hate him because she’s afraid of her real feelings.
Thus, this book is correctly titled- Love, Theoretically— because it’s not love actually. Yet.
It’s a theory.
Jack has Elsie figured out, but it’s not until Elsie discovers there is more to Jack when the sparks really start to fly. Because chemical reactions. Science. (Have I convinced you of my science knowledge yet?)
The Spice Factor
As mentioned before, there is some graphic sexual content in this book. You can probably come away unscathed by it if you just skip chapters 19-22.
I am not an avid romance reader. My concept of what ‘graphic sexual content’ is may be skewed. I have no clue. There’s an entire genre called Erotica so I’m sure this isn’t the worst you could read. I don’t want to be able to explain to you from personal experience where this is on the spectrum. Use your best judgement.
But based on my personal preferences on what I want to read, this had stuff that went too far and too detailed.
So imagine my shock when I read this:
“Jack and I did a bunch of things that high schoolers today would barely consider a quarter of first base...”
What?!
I must be very naive to what is happening in high schools right now. It is ridiculous if what they did was not even first base. Clearly they don’t understand how baseball works.
Plus some of it isn’t realistic. Like the fact that he didn’t have “rotten-eggy morning breath.” Everyone has bad breath in the morning. It’s an unfortunate staple of life.
Anyway, I know a lot of readers won’t hold the same views of sex that I do, so I’ll try not to belabor the point.
But if Ali Hazelwood should read my review: Can you PLEASE make PG-13 versions of your books for people like me?
A couple other comments related to sex that I just decided I wanted to point out:
“Not that there would be anything wrong: sex work is legitimate work, and people who engage in it are just as deserving of respect as ballerinas, or firefighters, or hedge fund managers.”
I don’t know if Hazelwood actually believes this idea, though I would venture to guess that she does, but this is a harmful view to hold and completely ignores the fact that most ‘sex work’ is not legitimate. It increases the demand and creation of porn which is also harmful to people. It increases the demand for women which inevitably leads to sex and child trafficking. It is not an ‘innocent line of work’ as some are trying to suggest.
The sexual ‘freedom’ the general population is dying for isn’t quite the utopia they think they’ll get.
If you don’t believe me, do your own research. It’s not hard to find the wreckage in the wake of sex work and porn. Yes, I have strong feelings about this.
I can agree that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their ‘occupation.’ I am not condemning the people, but the industry.
[Some other related book suggestions: The Porn Problem, Taking Down Backpage]
If that paragraph made me some enemies, how about this one:
“Planned Parenthood is good people.”
I wasn’t planning to write all of this in this review but here I am. I guess there’s worse things I could be doing with my time.
There is a center in my town called Agape. They help women who are pregnant or who recently had babies. They help them with medical and emotional care. But they do not provide abortions. These are the kinds of centers we need more of.
It’s an oxymoron to have Planned Parenthood and good people in the same sentence. Abortion is the killing of babies and that is not good.
I’m sure many of you have lots of arguments you’d like to share with me about Planned Parenthood. I would direct you HERE.
Okay, I’ll get off my soap box.
The bottom line is: There is some graphic sexual content in a few of the chapters that I wish wasn’t there.
Elsie’s People-Pleasing
A core part of this book is Elsie’s desire to please people. She learned early in life that if she could change into what people wanted, they liked her. She became good at recognizing what people wanted to hear, see, etc and adapted to fit their desire or expectation of who she should be.
“I don’t really have time for that. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or makes you resent your pathological inability to set boundaries, one of the two.”
“I find that people like me better if they don’t have to expend emotional energy on me.”
This paired well with her fake-dating gig. She could be anyone!
This does not pair well with actual dating. Her roommate tells her:
“You’d rather walk into the sea with stones in your pockets than date— though that’s because of your basic misconception that human romantic relationships can only succeed if you hide and shape yourself into what you think others want you to be.”
Jack is different, though. He can see through her various personas. He recognizes when her personality changes. He calls her on it. And psycho-analyzes:
“That way if something goes wrong, if someone rejects you, then it’s not about you, is it? When you’re yourself, that’s when you’re exposed. Vulnerable. But if you hold back… Losing a game’s always painful, but knowing that you haven’t played your best hand makes it bearable.”
This is a somewhat common trope for romance novels/movies. A person who is afraid to be themselves because they don’t want to be rejected.
It wasn’t groundbreaking concepts, but I liked how Jack challenged her to speak her mind, to be honest, and say ‘no.’
She was not afraid to be confrontational with Jack when she was still in the hate-phase. I liked that side of her. I like when someone stands up for themselves. I get annoyed when people don’t say what they’re thinking especially in important situations. Go ahead. Give me an Enneagram number.
Obviously don’t be annoying and argumentative, but just strong-willed, secure, and confident to hold your own.
Randoms
Here are some things I thought were funny and I didn’t know where else to put them so this is the place.
“I sink into the heated seat he turned on for me and remember the time I swerved to avoid a squirrel, almost causing a multivehicle crash. The squirrel turned out to be a Wendy’s paper bag, but it’s fine. I’m good at other things. Probably.”
A character was wearing a “Breathe If You Hate Tom Brady shirt.” Haha. Classic. I’m totally going to use this concept on a shirt for my website’s store. So many possibilities.
A student comes up to her to “tell me about this super-cool movie he just watched and ask me if one could theoretically invert time (dang you, Christopher Nolan)” This is the movie Tenet. Which I have watched. And I would definitely be the student that would want to discuss the physics of it. Because it’s insane.
Recommendation
Okay, so after all that, what’s the deal?
If you have the self-control to skip over a few chapters, and don’t mind some swearing and sexual innuendo, I think you’ll enjoy this unique and humorous take on a rom-com.
If any of that doesn’t sit well with you, probably try something else. Possibly The Rom-Com Agenda.
And if Hazelwood comes out with some PG-13 material, SOMEONE PLEASE COME TELL ME!
Learning Corner
This book is about scientists, so of course they’re going to say words like ‘gravitational singularity,’ ‘sectoral heterochromic,’ ‘boson,’ and ‘biaxial nematics.’
We have permission to gloss over those. But there were also some other big words if you want to expand your vocabulary and sound like you have a PhD in something.
ignominy: public shame or disgrace (It would be an ignominy if you didn’t follow my reviews on Facebook.)
apotheosis: the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax (The apotheosis of your day was to stumble across my book reviews.)
inchoately: confused or incoherently (When you don’t know what book to read next, you may walk around inchoately.)
convivial:friendly, lively, enjoyable (Browsing my book reviews is a convivial way to spend an afternoon!)
And I finally researched how to actually pronounce these two reads: “canapes” and “annals". So that was cool.
[Content Advisory: 88 f-words (that tend to show up in groupings of 3), 96 s-words, sexual inneundos throughout; a couple graphic sex scenes (as talked about above)]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
“My prayer is that this book offers gospel hope and comfort to all moms, but especially to those who feel hurt and bewildered by the unexpected sorrows of motherhood.”
I’ve read a lot of books about grief and how we reconcile our pain and losses with a good and loving God. Why are there so many of these books?
Because one of the Enemy’s best tools to hurt us is to cause us to question God’s goodness. To encourage us to turn away from the very source of hope, healing, and life.
And with every pain, with every unexpected hardship and unmet expectation, we find ourselves asking the same questions and having the same doubts. There are so many books like this, because there is a market for it.
There is a great many people who need to hear these truths, again and again and again. From however many people it takes to write them on our hearts and hands and minds and start living by them.
God is Still Good by Katie Faris is not a book with new philosophies and ideas. What does make it a little different than some books on this topic is that she focuses on the challenges of motherhood.
She does a good job of encompassing all the different journeys that motherhood takes whether it’s waiting, birthing, or adopting. Special needs. Physical, emotional and spiritual challenges, stress and busyness.
By sharing her own sorrows in motherhood and pointing to biblical examples of women grieving and suffering, she validates our pain, encourages us to lament, and points us to the Who that trumps all the why’s that bubble up inside us.
“Isn’t this what our hearts so often desire when life is hard— the comfort of knowing that someone is in charge, that we can trust that someone, and that he cares about us?”
When I went through my miscarriage that led to many questions and bouts of anger, bitterness, and despair, what finally brought me out of that darkness was remembering who God is. That I can trust the Person when everything else seems to be failing me. I had to stop asking why, and start looking at Who. The Bible tells us who He is. He is loving, good, constant— with us. No matter what our circumstances seem to tell us. He sees us.
“Does the sun stop shining when it’s hidden behind the clouds? No, it keeps on shining as brightly as ever. We just can’t see it. Similarly, if we accept God to be who he says he is— gloriously God— then we have every reason to believe that his ways are also glorious and good, even when what he’s doing is hidden from our view.”
While the entire book is good, encouraging, and helpful, I think I liked the second half of the book the best.
She talks about things that come from our trials, how God is doing something. He will not waste our pain. Our pain is not meaningless.
She exposes some of the lies that we may start to believe during these times of darkness. And she combats each lie with the truth based on what the Bible tells us. We need to start talking back to the lies and recognizing what’s behind our questions and our doubts. We need to listen to our Shepherd’s voice.
She also talks about biblical contentment and how when we start comparing our lives to others, our children to others, our motherhood journeys to others, we lose our joy. We lose sight of what God has given us.
“When that happens, there’s one danger that poses particular risk to suffering moms, one that threatens our full experience of the sufficiency of Christ and the discovery and enjoyment of the contentment he offers. This is the danger of sinful comparison.”
“To sum up, don’t look at the ground (at all of your obstacles), but also don’t look around (getting caught in the comparison trap). Instead, keep your gaze fixed on Jesus. Let him write your story, and don’t get consumed comparing yours to someone else’s. Trust him to be enough…”
Formatting Notes: Each chapter ends with a short prayer, a list of relevant Bible verses, and a few reflection questions. I’m not sure if the questions are really made for discussion if you were to do this with a group of people. You may need some supplemental discussion material.
The back of the book includes an appendix of ‘Go-To Bible Verses’ that Faris had accumulated during her struggles that she found helpful to keep her focus on Christ. I think it’s a super helpful list that I know I’ll come back to.
There is also a lie and truth chart.
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book. She understands the challenges and pains of motherhood and this book will help you feel seen and will offer hope without minimizing the struggles you face.
I would also recommend some of these other books on the same topic:
- Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop [This expands on the idea of lamenting that Faris touches on and teaches through the Psalms how we can lament biblically. That coming to God with our questions and our pain is actually biblical]
- Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund [This reminds us that the heart of Jesus is for us. That he wants to carry our burden for us. It fleshes out who Christ is and how we can trust him because he truly loves us and desires to comfort us when we are frustrated, weary, and disenchanted.]
- Suffering Wisely and Well by Eric Ortlund [By looking in-depth at Job, he focuses on the type of suffering that is inexplicable and how we can help others who are going through suffering that is just can’t be explained.]
- How Long, Oh Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil by D.A. Carson [Probably best to be read when you aren’t in the middle of suffering, but in preparation for it. Helps put our suffering in the right perspective and has a really good chapter on Job]
Another thing that helped me besides trying to speak truth to myself when I was feeling bitter, was to listen to music that captured the hurt in my heart while also speaking truths that I needed to believe again. HERE is a playlist of those songs that really resonated with me if you are interested.
More Quotes
“God doesn’t give you or me grace to live another woman’s life, and he doesn’t give us grace for the lives we expected to live. But as we fix our eyes on Jesus and find our contentment in him, we can experience greater freedom and increased joy to live the lives we’ve actually been given and to mother the children God’s placed in our homes. We can move forward with songs on our lips and prayers in our hearts as we look to Jesus.”
“The Bible assures believing mothers that our pain isn’t in vain and we won’t always suffer. No matter how confusing the middle parts of our stories seem, no matter how bitter they taste, we look forward to a very good ending. No matter how tangled and rocky, tear-filled and, yes, even bloody, these at his may be, they lead to a glorious place.”
“The afflictions we face as moms— either in our own bodies or as we carry the burden of love and care for our children— include all kinds of losses. Lost sleep, lost time, and lost relationships. Suffering also costs us mental and emotional energy, wearing on our bodies and souls, and it often brings financial burdens. These losses and costs might not all be equal, but we’re right to grieve whenever our bodies and our children’s bodies don’t work the way God originally intended.”
“Even if your suffering hurts more tomorrow than it does today, there’s more to your story… There is purpose to our pain.”
“Do our questions rise from a rebellious heart or a submissive one? Having already judged God, do we now toss our scornful accusations at him in the form of questions? Or do our questions overflow from broken, contrite spirits?”
**Received a copy from Crossway in exchange for an honest review**
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I’ve read a lot of books about grief and how we reconcile our pain and losses with a good and loving God. Why are there so many of these books?
Because one of the Enemy’s best tools to hurt us is to cause us to question God’s goodness. To encourage us to turn away from the very source of hope, healing, and life.
And with every pain, with every unexpected hardship and unmet expectation, we find ourselves asking the same questions and having the same doubts. There are so many books like this, because there is a market for it.
There is a great many people who need to hear these truths, again and again and again. From however many people it takes to write them on our hearts and hands and minds and start living by them.
God is Still Good by Katie Faris is not a book with new philosophies and ideas. What does make it a little different than some books on this topic is that she focuses on the challenges of motherhood.
She does a good job of encompassing all the different journeys that motherhood takes whether it’s waiting, birthing, or adopting. Special needs. Physical, emotional and spiritual challenges, stress and busyness.
By sharing her own sorrows in motherhood and pointing to biblical examples of women grieving and suffering, she validates our pain, encourages us to lament, and points us to the Who that trumps all the why’s that bubble up inside us.
“Isn’t this what our hearts so often desire when life is hard— the comfort of knowing that someone is in charge, that we can trust that someone, and that he cares about us?”
When I went through my miscarriage that led to many questions and bouts of anger, bitterness, and despair, what finally brought me out of that darkness was remembering who God is. That I can trust the Person when everything else seems to be failing me. I had to stop asking why, and start looking at Who. The Bible tells us who He is. He is loving, good, constant— with us. No matter what our circumstances seem to tell us. He sees us.
“Does the sun stop shining when it’s hidden behind the clouds? No, it keeps on shining as brightly as ever. We just can’t see it. Similarly, if we accept God to be who he says he is— gloriously God— then we have every reason to believe that his ways are also glorious and good, even when what he’s doing is hidden from our view.”
While the entire book is good, encouraging, and helpful, I think I liked the second half of the book the best.
She talks about things that come from our trials, how God is doing something. He will not waste our pain. Our pain is not meaningless.
She exposes some of the lies that we may start to believe during these times of darkness. And she combats each lie with the truth based on what the Bible tells us. We need to start talking back to the lies and recognizing what’s behind our questions and our doubts. We need to listen to our Shepherd’s voice.
She also talks about biblical contentment and how when we start comparing our lives to others, our children to others, our motherhood journeys to others, we lose our joy. We lose sight of what God has given us.
“When that happens, there’s one danger that poses particular risk to suffering moms, one that threatens our full experience of the sufficiency of Christ and the discovery and enjoyment of the contentment he offers. This is the danger of sinful comparison.”
“To sum up, don’t look at the ground (at all of your obstacles), but also don’t look around (getting caught in the comparison trap). Instead, keep your gaze fixed on Jesus. Let him write your story, and don’t get consumed comparing yours to someone else’s. Trust him to be enough…”
Formatting Notes: Each chapter ends with a short prayer, a list of relevant Bible verses, and a few reflection questions. I’m not sure if the questions are really made for discussion if you were to do this with a group of people. You may need some supplemental discussion material.
The back of the book includes an appendix of ‘Go-To Bible Verses’ that Faris had accumulated during her struggles that she found helpful to keep her focus on Christ. I think it’s a super helpful list that I know I’ll come back to.
There is also a lie and truth chart.
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book. She understands the challenges and pains of motherhood and this book will help you feel seen and will offer hope without minimizing the struggles you face.
I would also recommend some of these other books on the same topic:
- Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop [This expands on the idea of lamenting that Faris touches on and teaches through the Psalms how we can lament biblically. That coming to God with our questions and our pain is actually biblical]
- Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund [This reminds us that the heart of Jesus is for us. That he wants to carry our burden for us. It fleshes out who Christ is and how we can trust him because he truly loves us and desires to comfort us when we are frustrated, weary, and disenchanted.]
- Suffering Wisely and Well by Eric Ortlund [By looking in-depth at Job, he focuses on the type of suffering that is inexplicable and how we can help others who are going through suffering that is just can’t be explained.]
- How Long, Oh Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil by D.A. Carson [Probably best to be read when you aren’t in the middle of suffering, but in preparation for it. Helps put our suffering in the right perspective and has a really good chapter on Job]
Another thing that helped me besides trying to speak truth to myself when I was feeling bitter, was to listen to music that captured the hurt in my heart while also speaking truths that I needed to believe again. HERE is a playlist of those songs that really resonated with me if you are interested.
More Quotes
“God doesn’t give you or me grace to live another woman’s life, and he doesn’t give us grace for the lives we expected to live. But as we fix our eyes on Jesus and find our contentment in him, we can experience greater freedom and increased joy to live the lives we’ve actually been given and to mother the children God’s placed in our homes. We can move forward with songs on our lips and prayers in our hearts as we look to Jesus.”
“The Bible assures believing mothers that our pain isn’t in vain and we won’t always suffer. No matter how confusing the middle parts of our stories seem, no matter how bitter they taste, we look forward to a very good ending. No matter how tangled and rocky, tear-filled and, yes, even bloody, these at his may be, they lead to a glorious place.”
“The afflictions we face as moms— either in our own bodies or as we carry the burden of love and care for our children— include all kinds of losses. Lost sleep, lost time, and lost relationships. Suffering also costs us mental and emotional energy, wearing on our bodies and souls, and it often brings financial burdens. These losses and costs might not all be equal, but we’re right to grieve whenever our bodies and our children’s bodies don’t work the way God originally intended.”
“Even if your suffering hurts more tomorrow than it does today, there’s more to your story… There is purpose to our pain.”
“Do our questions rise from a rebellious heart or a submissive one? Having already judged God, do we now toss our scornful accusations at him in the form of questions? Or do our questions overflow from broken, contrite spirits?”
**Received a copy from Crossway in exchange for an honest review**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
“Chemistry is change. Courage is the root of change— and change is what we’re chemically designed to do.”
Apparently I’m on a ‘women in STEM’ kick. I just finished Love, Theoretically before this which is about a female theoretical physicist. And the book I started after this (An Affair of Spies) has a female chemist main character as well.
Lessons in Chemistry takes place in the 50s and 60s— a time when women in the workplace did not have equality. It’s definitely a different feel of a book than Love, Theoretically.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, basically denied a doctorate after abuse, fired from her job for getting pregnant, and ends up depressed, putting on a cooking show for all those housewives who just want to get dinner on the table for their husbands. But her personality is no-nonsense and confrontational and the reaction to her show is unexpected and unconventional.
“[Elizabeth Zott’s grudges] were mainly reserved for a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A society that believed men went to work and did important things— discovered planets, developed products, created laws— and women stayed at home and raised children.
I found it to be an interesting satirical exploration of the inequalities and stereotypes of women during this time in history. There was humor throughout, but some of it does seem a bit exaggerated or written to make a point.
It was a bit irreverent in its humor. Some of the serious things like rape, death, unwed pregnancy, sexism, and discrimination, seemed to happen abruptly or succinctly so it was a strange tone of writing. It’s hard to describe. The humor expresses the ridiculousness of people’s views but especially in the rape scene, which happened almost immediately in the book, it was a little like whiplash, not knowing how I’m supposed to feel from moment to moment— smiling or frowning or both?
Even though I didn’t agree with some of the views held within the book (see sections below), I still really enjoyed reading it and would definitely recommend it. Elizabeth’s character is very likable (reminded me some of Eleanor Oliphant). I also wish I could have actually watched her cooking show. If there is anything that does NOT happen in my kitchen, it’s intentional chemistry.
Elizabeth is brilliant, quirky, resilient, and courageous. And I loved how she wasn’t going to cower from people in power who tried to intimidate her into maintaining the status quo but was determined to help women in all walks to feel seen, told they were capable, and that what they did was important.
Part of what shaped her personality was her upbringing and the way her family treated her. I do feel like a lot of issues in our society or even discrimination or inequality boils down to matters of identity. And when we feel stripped of our identity or unseen in who we are, we can’t help but try to shape an identity and hold onto it with all our might.
“Elizabeth has felt this way her entire life. She’d been defined not by what she did, but what others had done. In the past she was either the offspring of an arsonist, the daughter of a serial wife, the sister of a hanged homosexual, or the graduate student of a renowned lecher. Now she was the girlfriend of a famous chemist. But she was never just Elizabeth Zott."
I won’t go down this rabbit trail (for too long) since I’ve got a couple others lined up for you below, but our identity really matters, and if we find it in what we do, what we have, our family, our talents, we will always come away let down and disappointed. If we try to create our own identities, it will never be good enough. But if our identity is found in Christ and his unconditional love and grace for us, all the disappointments in the world can’t shake it.
The Tones of Feminism
As other reviewers have pointed out, there are very few positive and women-respecting men in this book. Of course not all men were like that, but to portray what she was trying to portray I can see why she included and focused on the characters she did. [But I wish there was a ‘punch Donatti in the face’ button throughout this book]
To her credit, she could have created our main female character to be completely anti-men, refusing to marry, etc. But Elizabeth did fall in love (even if they didn’t marry yet and she wouldn’t have taken his name). And she also defended women who chose to be homemakers, saying their hard work and intelligence was ignored and belittled. I’ve read other feminist-type novels, and it could have been more ‘man-hating’ than this one.
“Women are at home, making babies and cleaning rugs. It’s legalized slavery. Even the women who wish to be homemakers find their work completely misunderstood. Men seem to think the average mother of five’s biggest decision of the day is what color to paint her nails.”
‘Legalized slavery’ is a term that is a bit… bold… but fits with the satirical feel. I’m a stay-at-home mom and I choose to be. But I have a college degree and I’d like to think I’m a pretty capable and intelligent critical thinker. However, even today there is this idea (from both men and women) that women who stay home are ‘settling’ or not smart enough to have a career. That somehow being a mom and housewife is ‘less than’ other choices. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’ve read a couple books about womanhood that explore the three waves of feminism and affirms women in a lot of ways. In Eve in Exile, Rebekah Merkle talks about the second-wave feminism movement and describes how Betty Friedan wrote the book The Feminine Mystique. I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned in this book. But Merkle says this:
“In 1963, a woman named Betty Friedan published a book called The Feminine Mystique, in which she took a hatchet to the notion that American women were living in a time of wholesome bliss… The book was basically an articulation of the listlessness and unfulfilled dreariness felt by the women of my grandmother’s generation who were married with children, and were nonetheless still unhappy.”
Though it wasn’t directly talked about, this was the feeling that was portrayed in this book. Housewives just want to talk about appearances and serving food to their people. But here comes Elizabeth Zott, refusing to be ‘eye candy’ or mix cocktails on the show, but instead teaching the actual chemistry of cooking and baking.
Throughout the show she would encourage women at home to change the status quo, telling them that they are more than capable and they should go after their dreams. (And telling their kids to set the table because their mom needs a minute. YES.) I’m very pro-showing-women-how-capable-they-are. But it’s simplistic to think that women in the 50s and 60s would have been overall happier if they could just escape their dreary homes and families and pursue a career.
Merkle also points out that during this time there was a big change in the home. Technological advances made housework and cooking easier. A lot of new gadgets made some of their work less challenging. So it’s interesting to think about how women needed to find things to challenge them in different ways— whether that’s work, school, or learning something new.
[Also worth reading is Radical Womanhood.]
I didn’t agree with all her comments. For example:
“I’ve never understood why when women marry, they’re expected to trade in their old names like used cars, losing their last and somethings even their first as if their previous identities had just been twenty-odd-year placeholders before they become actual people.”
I never had a problem changing my name. Of course there was some sadness with feeling like I was separating from my family in name. But of course we were still family. By taking my husband’s name I viewed it as a cleaving together. We are one and by taking his name it’s like saying- I’m with you now. We are our own unit— together. It wasn’t a demand of me, but a natural progression of creating a family and showing outward unity.
So yes, this book has feminist tones, but in that time period, most of what was exposed was done rightfully so.
Faith and Science
Something that came up in a lot of dialogue during this book was the relationship between faith/religion and science. That is still an area of tension today. And since she writes about it frequently in this book, I’ve decided to address it here.
I’m not entirely sure why people seem convinced that these two things are mutually exclusive. Especially considering that some of the most influential scientists were Christians— Boyle, Faraday, Mendel, Newton, Dalton, Pascal, Collins, etc.
There is obviously some nuance within Christian scientists as to what they believe (i.e. the origin of the Earth) but science helps us discover and learn more about God’s earth and the laws He’s placed to govern it and give Him glory for the amazing things he has created!
God is not afraid of science and Christians shouldn’t be either.
However, if the characters in this book reflect Garmus’s personal beliefs, she does not agree with this idea. There are some strong statements about faith, several instances of abuse in the church (which does, tragically happen), and the minister character she writes confesses he doesn’t actually believe in God and spends much of his life lying to his parishioners. She seems to present a very specific view of religion (and Christianity specifically).
“‘I wanted to ask: Don’t you think it’s possible to believe in both God AND science?’’Sure. It’s called intellectual dishonesty.’”
Strong words. Especially because no can truly PROVE that God does or does not exist. Scientists think they are taking the rational approach to deny the existence of God, but it takes just as much (or more) faith to believe what they believe about the origin of everything than it does to believe in a Creator. And believing in God and Jesus and the Bible is not irrational nor biased. Jesus was a real person. And I could go into more about that, or you could read: Confronting Jesus or Confronting Christianity or Surviving Religion 101 or Why Believe? to get a lot more reasons why belief in God is actually the opposite of irrational.
Also try: Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t or A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution.
[Links to these books can be found in my original post]
“Yet this so-called benevolent being smites innocent people left and right, indicating an anger management problem— maybe even manic depression.”
I guess my first question would be- what does it mean to be innocent? Second— is he really smiting people left and right? If we’re honest with ourselves— is there any evidence of God’s love and grace and faithfulness in the world? This statement feels pretty arrogant. And if you read the Bible you will know God’s character and you will know the character of humanity. I mean you don’t even have to read the Bible to see the character of humanity. The fact that there is anything good in this world is evidence of a benevolent Creator.
“I think religion lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; that ultimately, we’re not to blame for the way things are; that to improve things, we should pray. But the truth is, we are very much responsible for the badness in the world. And we have the power to fix it.”
I think there are some people who teach the Bible in this way. And they would be missing some crucial teachings of Scripture. The Bible definitely teaches that we are responsible for our actions, for our sins. We are accountable for the choices we make, the thoughts we have, and the words we speak. Yet it also teaches that God is sovereign. Sovereignty requires an absolute. He can’t just be partly sovereign or He would not be sovereign. So there is some mystery here as to how exactly this works but both teachings are biblical.
In some ways this is right— we have the power to make our own choices and to do good in our world and we are to blame for the badness. Do we have the power to fix the world? No. And we will be ever in despair if we strive to.
Jesus died on the cross for our sin. The consequences for the badness we unleash into the world is death. But Jesus paid that price and by grace we are saved from what we deserve. Is that letting us off the hook? Perhaps in one sense. But there is still justice. And I don’t know about you, but this gives me gratitude and awe, not resentment. Because if we were totally on the hook for what we do, there would be no hope.
“‘But you believe those stories. You preach them.’’I believe in a few things,’ the minister corrected. ‘Mostly the things about not giving up hope, not giving in to darkness. As for the word, ‘preach,’ I prefer ‘relate.’”
This view of the Bible is nonsense. You can’t just pick and choose what you want to believe. That becomes a self-created religion that is irrational. If you don’t believe the entire Bible how can you actually have any hope? How can you actually believe there is light? What would the light be? There is no conviction in just ‘relating.’ Why can we believe the Bible? Well the books I linked above can tell you, and also this one can: Taking God at His Word.
Perhaps the author wrote these things into the book because she’s trying to convince herself that they are true. Maybe she’s still wrestling with how to view science in light of a Creator God. Or maybe she just feels so strongly about it that she wants to teach her readers to agree with her by using an admirable character like Elizabeth. I don’t know. But if she’s going to bring up this topic in a meaningful way, as a reader, I hope you ponder these questions as well— from more than one point of view.
Things I Loved
I already mentioned that I loved Elizabeth’s character. I also loved her relationship to Calvin— a fellow chemist— and how they cared for each other. I think one of the sweetest things I’ve read in a book was when I saw the engraving she had put on his grave stone: a series of H’s, C’s, O’s and lines depicting a chemical response that resulted in happiness. If that doesn’t show the depth of their love for each other, what could?!
The dog’s name- which was Six-thirty. Fun fact- the author’s dog’s name is 99.
The fact that Calvin grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. (Minus the fact that the boys’ home he was in was abusive.) Sioux City, Iowa was the closest shopping mall and chain restaurants to my home growing up and was a required driving location for driver’s ed. Pretty much any time an author mentions Iowa I raise the roof because mostly Iowa is non-existent to the majority of people.
The title. Lessons in Chemistry. Very fitting. Elizabeth’s knowledge of and journey through chemistry teaches us a lot of tangible and existential lessons. Plus the double meaning with chemistry and love. It’s just the perfect title!
The book cover. It actually kind of threw me off for some reason and didn’t jive with what I thought the book was going to be about. But after finishing the book, I really like the art choice. It’s a woman’s face, reflective sunglasses showing science-y stuff and the oh-so-important No. 2 pencil sticking out of her bun. I’m just going to have to ruin this part of the story for you— while doing her doctorate program, her superior raped her; in her efforts to fight back she found a sharpened no. 2 pencil and shoved the entire pencil into the guy’s stomach. And I applaud that. From then on she always had a sharpened pencil in her hair. This is a defining characteristic for her and it makes for a great cover.
Her pregnancy and early motherhood were very relatable. She finds herself unexpectedly pregnant right after Calvin has passed which throws her into a bit of chaos as she is not prepared to be a mother and had specifically wanted to avoid it. Her doctor tells her:
“We tend to treat pregnancy as the most common condition in the world— as ordinary as stubbing a toe— when the truth is, it’s like getting hit by a truck. Although obviously a truck causes less damage.”
I’ve had 3 deliveries, all different, and this statement resonates with me!
“From across the room baby Madeline announced it was feeding time. ‘But you just ate,’ Elizabeth reminded her. ‘WELL I DON’T REMEMBER,’ Madeline screamed back, formally initiating the least fun game in the world: Guess What I Want Now."
This is basically 90% of motherhood for the first 3 years.
Plus all the comments people said to her while she was pregnant… her irritation is definitely relatable.
And then these two quotes. The first because it’s funny, although we could have an entire conversation about beauty if we had the time. The second because it’s profound (there was a lot of talk about rowing in this book in case you were wondering).
“Stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.”
“When you think about it, rowing is almost exactly like raising kids. Both require patience, endurance, strength, and commitment. And neither allow us to see where we’re going— only where we’ve been.”
Things I Didn’t Love
The dog had a cool name. But Garmus made him into a character. We could hear his thoughts, his motives. He apparently learned 900+ English words. I’m not a super dog-lover so I may be the minority on this thought, but this characterization didn’t do much for me. I guess it fits into the quirkiness of the book, but I could have done without it.
Did I say how much I hate Donatti?
Recommendation
Definitely recommend.
It’s a book that covers a lot of things. It had more layers than I was expecting and as I was writing this review I realized all the things I didn’t have space to include.
It’s entertaining. It’s insightful. It’s thought-provoking. It’s sweet. It’s clean. It’s educational. (I learned what denaturing protein is. Just kidding. I didn’t learn that.)
Lessons in Chemistry very much earned its spot as Best Debut and its nomination for Best Historical Fiction.
Even with some potentially controversial views, I think you’ll really enjoy reading this book.
[Content Advisory: not much swearing, the rape scene is short and not graphic, no other sexual content]
www.shelfreflection.com
Apparently I’m on a ‘women in STEM’ kick. I just finished Love, Theoretically before this which is about a female theoretical physicist. And the book I started after this (An Affair of Spies) has a female chemist main character as well.
Lessons in Chemistry takes place in the 50s and 60s— a time when women in the workplace did not have equality. It’s definitely a different feel of a book than Love, Theoretically.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, basically denied a doctorate after abuse, fired from her job for getting pregnant, and ends up depressed, putting on a cooking show for all those housewives who just want to get dinner on the table for their husbands. But her personality is no-nonsense and confrontational and the reaction to her show is unexpected and unconventional.
“[Elizabeth Zott’s grudges] were mainly reserved for a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A society that believed men went to work and did important things— discovered planets, developed products, created laws— and women stayed at home and raised children.
I found it to be an interesting satirical exploration of the inequalities and stereotypes of women during this time in history. There was humor throughout, but some of it does seem a bit exaggerated or written to make a point.
It was a bit irreverent in its humor. Some of the serious things like rape, death, unwed pregnancy, sexism, and discrimination, seemed to happen abruptly or succinctly so it was a strange tone of writing. It’s hard to describe. The humor expresses the ridiculousness of people’s views but especially in the rape scene, which happened almost immediately in the book, it was a little like whiplash, not knowing how I’m supposed to feel from moment to moment— smiling or frowning or both?
Even though I didn’t agree with some of the views held within the book (see sections below), I still really enjoyed reading it and would definitely recommend it. Elizabeth’s character is very likable (reminded me some of Eleanor Oliphant). I also wish I could have actually watched her cooking show. If there is anything that does NOT happen in my kitchen, it’s intentional chemistry.
Elizabeth is brilliant, quirky, resilient, and courageous. And I loved how she wasn’t going to cower from people in power who tried to intimidate her into maintaining the status quo but was determined to help women in all walks to feel seen, told they were capable, and that what they did was important.
Part of what shaped her personality was her upbringing and the way her family treated her. I do feel like a lot of issues in our society or even discrimination or inequality boils down to matters of identity. And when we feel stripped of our identity or unseen in who we are, we can’t help but try to shape an identity and hold onto it with all our might.
“Elizabeth has felt this way her entire life. She’d been defined not by what she did, but what others had done. In the past she was either the offspring of an arsonist, the daughter of a serial wife, the sister of a hanged homosexual, or the graduate student of a renowned lecher. Now she was the girlfriend of a famous chemist. But she was never just Elizabeth Zott."
I won’t go down this rabbit trail (for too long) since I’ve got a couple others lined up for you below, but our identity really matters, and if we find it in what we do, what we have, our family, our talents, we will always come away let down and disappointed. If we try to create our own identities, it will never be good enough. But if our identity is found in Christ and his unconditional love and grace for us, all the disappointments in the world can’t shake it.
The Tones of Feminism
As other reviewers have pointed out, there are very few positive and women-respecting men in this book. Of course not all men were like that, but to portray what she was trying to portray I can see why she included and focused on the characters she did. [But I wish there was a ‘punch Donatti in the face’ button throughout this book]
To her credit, she could have created our main female character to be completely anti-men, refusing to marry, etc. But Elizabeth did fall in love (even if they didn’t marry yet and she wouldn’t have taken his name). And she also defended women who chose to be homemakers, saying their hard work and intelligence was ignored and belittled. I’ve read other feminist-type novels, and it could have been more ‘man-hating’ than this one.
“Women are at home, making babies and cleaning rugs. It’s legalized slavery. Even the women who wish to be homemakers find their work completely misunderstood. Men seem to think the average mother of five’s biggest decision of the day is what color to paint her nails.”
‘Legalized slavery’ is a term that is a bit… bold… but fits with the satirical feel. I’m a stay-at-home mom and I choose to be. But I have a college degree and I’d like to think I’m a pretty capable and intelligent critical thinker. However, even today there is this idea (from both men and women) that women who stay home are ‘settling’ or not smart enough to have a career. That somehow being a mom and housewife is ‘less than’ other choices. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’ve read a couple books about womanhood that explore the three waves of feminism and affirms women in a lot of ways. In Eve in Exile, Rebekah Merkle talks about the second-wave feminism movement and describes how Betty Friedan wrote the book The Feminine Mystique. I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned in this book. But Merkle says this:
“In 1963, a woman named Betty Friedan published a book called The Feminine Mystique, in which she took a hatchet to the notion that American women were living in a time of wholesome bliss… The book was basically an articulation of the listlessness and unfulfilled dreariness felt by the women of my grandmother’s generation who were married with children, and were nonetheless still unhappy.”
Though it wasn’t directly talked about, this was the feeling that was portrayed in this book. Housewives just want to talk about appearances and serving food to their people. But here comes Elizabeth Zott, refusing to be ‘eye candy’ or mix cocktails on the show, but instead teaching the actual chemistry of cooking and baking.
Throughout the show she would encourage women at home to change the status quo, telling them that they are more than capable and they should go after their dreams. (And telling their kids to set the table because their mom needs a minute. YES.) I’m very pro-showing-women-how-capable-they-are. But it’s simplistic to think that women in the 50s and 60s would have been overall happier if they could just escape their dreary homes and families and pursue a career.
Merkle also points out that during this time there was a big change in the home. Technological advances made housework and cooking easier. A lot of new gadgets made some of their work less challenging. So it’s interesting to think about how women needed to find things to challenge them in different ways— whether that’s work, school, or learning something new.
[Also worth reading is Radical Womanhood.]
I didn’t agree with all her comments. For example:
“I’ve never understood why when women marry, they’re expected to trade in their old names like used cars, losing their last and somethings even their first as if their previous identities had just been twenty-odd-year placeholders before they become actual people.”
I never had a problem changing my name. Of course there was some sadness with feeling like I was separating from my family in name. But of course we were still family. By taking my husband’s name I viewed it as a cleaving together. We are one and by taking his name it’s like saying- I’m with you now. We are our own unit— together. It wasn’t a demand of me, but a natural progression of creating a family and showing outward unity.
So yes, this book has feminist tones, but in that time period, most of what was exposed was done rightfully so.
Faith and Science
Something that came up in a lot of dialogue during this book was the relationship between faith/religion and science. That is still an area of tension today. And since she writes about it frequently in this book, I’ve decided to address it here.
I’m not entirely sure why people seem convinced that these two things are mutually exclusive. Especially considering that some of the most influential scientists were Christians— Boyle, Faraday, Mendel, Newton, Dalton, Pascal, Collins, etc.
There is obviously some nuance within Christian scientists as to what they believe (i.e. the origin of the Earth) but science helps us discover and learn more about God’s earth and the laws He’s placed to govern it and give Him glory for the amazing things he has created!
God is not afraid of science and Christians shouldn’t be either.
However, if the characters in this book reflect Garmus’s personal beliefs, she does not agree with this idea. There are some strong statements about faith, several instances of abuse in the church (which does, tragically happen), and the minister character she writes confesses he doesn’t actually believe in God and spends much of his life lying to his parishioners. She seems to present a very specific view of religion (and Christianity specifically).
“‘I wanted to ask: Don’t you think it’s possible to believe in both God AND science?’’Sure. It’s called intellectual dishonesty.’”
Strong words. Especially because no can truly PROVE that God does or does not exist. Scientists think they are taking the rational approach to deny the existence of God, but it takes just as much (or more) faith to believe what they believe about the origin of everything than it does to believe in a Creator. And believing in God and Jesus and the Bible is not irrational nor biased. Jesus was a real person. And I could go into more about that, or you could read: Confronting Jesus or Confronting Christianity or Surviving Religion 101 or Why Believe? to get a lot more reasons why belief in God is actually the opposite of irrational.
Also try: Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t or A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution.
[Links to these books can be found in my original post]
“Yet this so-called benevolent being smites innocent people left and right, indicating an anger management problem— maybe even manic depression.”
I guess my first question would be- what does it mean to be innocent? Second— is he really smiting people left and right? If we’re honest with ourselves— is there any evidence of God’s love and grace and faithfulness in the world? This statement feels pretty arrogant. And if you read the Bible you will know God’s character and you will know the character of humanity. I mean you don’t even have to read the Bible to see the character of humanity. The fact that there is anything good in this world is evidence of a benevolent Creator.
“I think religion lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; that ultimately, we’re not to blame for the way things are; that to improve things, we should pray. But the truth is, we are very much responsible for the badness in the world. And we have the power to fix it.”
I think there are some people who teach the Bible in this way. And they would be missing some crucial teachings of Scripture. The Bible definitely teaches that we are responsible for our actions, for our sins. We are accountable for the choices we make, the thoughts we have, and the words we speak. Yet it also teaches that God is sovereign. Sovereignty requires an absolute. He can’t just be partly sovereign or He would not be sovereign. So there is some mystery here as to how exactly this works but both teachings are biblical.
In some ways this is right— we have the power to make our own choices and to do good in our world and we are to blame for the badness. Do we have the power to fix the world? No. And we will be ever in despair if we strive to.
Jesus died on the cross for our sin. The consequences for the badness we unleash into the world is death. But Jesus paid that price and by grace we are saved from what we deserve. Is that letting us off the hook? Perhaps in one sense. But there is still justice. And I don’t know about you, but this gives me gratitude and awe, not resentment. Because if we were totally on the hook for what we do, there would be no hope.
“‘But you believe those stories. You preach them.’’I believe in a few things,’ the minister corrected. ‘Mostly the things about not giving up hope, not giving in to darkness. As for the word, ‘preach,’ I prefer ‘relate.’”
This view of the Bible is nonsense. You can’t just pick and choose what you want to believe. That becomes a self-created religion that is irrational. If you don’t believe the entire Bible how can you actually have any hope? How can you actually believe there is light? What would the light be? There is no conviction in just ‘relating.’ Why can we believe the Bible? Well the books I linked above can tell you, and also this one can: Taking God at His Word.
Perhaps the author wrote these things into the book because she’s trying to convince herself that they are true. Maybe she’s still wrestling with how to view science in light of a Creator God. Or maybe she just feels so strongly about it that she wants to teach her readers to agree with her by using an admirable character like Elizabeth. I don’t know. But if she’s going to bring up this topic in a meaningful way, as a reader, I hope you ponder these questions as well— from more than one point of view.
Things I Loved
I already mentioned that I loved Elizabeth’s character. I also loved her relationship to Calvin— a fellow chemist— and how they cared for each other. I think one of the sweetest things I’ve read in a book was when I saw the engraving she had put on his grave stone: a series of H’s, C’s, O’s and lines depicting a chemical response that resulted in happiness. If that doesn’t show the depth of their love for each other, what could?!
The dog’s name- which was Six-thirty. Fun fact- the author’s dog’s name is 99.
The fact that Calvin grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. (Minus the fact that the boys’ home he was in was abusive.) Sioux City, Iowa was the closest shopping mall and chain restaurants to my home growing up and was a required driving location for driver’s ed. Pretty much any time an author mentions Iowa I raise the roof because mostly Iowa is non-existent to the majority of people.
The title. Lessons in Chemistry. Very fitting. Elizabeth’s knowledge of and journey through chemistry teaches us a lot of tangible and existential lessons. Plus the double meaning with chemistry and love. It’s just the perfect title!
The book cover. It actually kind of threw me off for some reason and didn’t jive with what I thought the book was going to be about. But after finishing the book, I really like the art choice. It’s a woman’s face, reflective sunglasses showing science-y stuff and the oh-so-important No. 2 pencil sticking out of her bun. I’m just going to have to ruin this part of the story for you— while doing her doctorate program, her superior raped her; in her efforts to fight back she found a sharpened no. 2 pencil and shoved the entire pencil into the guy’s stomach. And I applaud that. From then on she always had a sharpened pencil in her hair. This is a defining characteristic for her and it makes for a great cover.
Her pregnancy and early motherhood were very relatable. She finds herself unexpectedly pregnant right after Calvin has passed which throws her into a bit of chaos as she is not prepared to be a mother and had specifically wanted to avoid it. Her doctor tells her:
“We tend to treat pregnancy as the most common condition in the world— as ordinary as stubbing a toe— when the truth is, it’s like getting hit by a truck. Although obviously a truck causes less damage.”
I’ve had 3 deliveries, all different, and this statement resonates with me!
“From across the room baby Madeline announced it was feeding time. ‘But you just ate,’ Elizabeth reminded her. ‘WELL I DON’T REMEMBER,’ Madeline screamed back, formally initiating the least fun game in the world: Guess What I Want Now."
This is basically 90% of motherhood for the first 3 years.
Plus all the comments people said to her while she was pregnant… her irritation is definitely relatable.
And then these two quotes. The first because it’s funny, although we could have an entire conversation about beauty if we had the time. The second because it’s profound (there was a lot of talk about rowing in this book in case you were wondering).
“Stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.”
“When you think about it, rowing is almost exactly like raising kids. Both require patience, endurance, strength, and commitment. And neither allow us to see where we’re going— only where we’ve been.”
Things I Didn’t Love
The dog had a cool name. But Garmus made him into a character. We could hear his thoughts, his motives. He apparently learned 900+ English words. I’m not a super dog-lover so I may be the minority on this thought, but this characterization didn’t do much for me. I guess it fits into the quirkiness of the book, but I could have done without it.
Did I say how much I hate Donatti?
Recommendation
Definitely recommend.
It’s a book that covers a lot of things. It had more layers than I was expecting and as I was writing this review I realized all the things I didn’t have space to include.
It’s entertaining. It’s insightful. It’s thought-provoking. It’s sweet. It’s clean. It’s educational. (I learned what denaturing protein is. Just kidding. I didn’t learn that.)
Lessons in Chemistry very much earned its spot as Best Debut and its nomination for Best Historical Fiction.
Even with some potentially controversial views, I think you’ll really enjoy reading this book.
[Content Advisory: not much swearing, the rape scene is short and not graphic, no other sexual content]
www.shelfreflection.com
Ronald H. Balson, author of Once We Were Brothers, has written another WWII novel. Once We Were Brothers focused on familial relations between a Jew and a Nazi during WWII intertwined with a mystery of identity in the present day.
However, An Affair of Spies has a different WWII focus. As the title suggests, it is a book of espionage. But not just any espionage— these agents are sent to evaluate the Nazis’ nuclear bomb program.
Though most of the main characters are fiction, many of the events surrounding the story are based on truth and I enjoyed all the Google trails it sent me on. (My search history is a bit bizarre right now and I may have used the term nuclear too many times…)
I think that’s what I liked most about this book—Balson’s attention to and inclusion of historical elements. Especially having recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Bomber Mafia, which doesn’t talk about nuclear bombs but the creation of bomb sightings, precision bombing, and napalm, it was interesting to learn about this side of the bomb.
Somehow WWII books still teach me new things.
This was an action driven book that was less intense than it would seem, but still interesting and suspenseful.
Brief Summary
Nathan Silverman is a Jew who managed to leave his home of Berlin, Germany, before things got too bad. But his parents and sister had to remain. He signed up for the US army as soon as he was able and was placed at the secret Ritchie Camp with other displaced Germans to prepare to help the US forces with interrogation and navigating the foreign areas.
But instead he is recruited to exfiltrate a German physicist who wishes to defect and provide the US with valuable knowledge of the German nuclear program.
Nathan will go on his mission with Dr. Fischer, a physicist who will be able to determine if the information the defector has is trustworthy and legit. To his surprise Dr. Fischer is a female— Allison— which of course puts the romantic spin on an otherwise prototypical WWII mission.
Can Nathan and Allison get in and out of Berlin without getting caught AND succeed in getting top secret information AND a defector out with them? AND can Nathan find his family alive and help them escape too? The stakes are high and more than once they must improvise their plans!
The History
I love learning things about history. So I’m dedicating a section of my review to talk about some of the things discussed/included in the book. If you don’t care about history, you can skip this part.
With all the WWII books I’ve read, I had not heard of the Ritchie Boys! It was a large group of German-speaking immigrants or Jewish refugees.
Wikipedia says, “They were used primarily for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe because of their knowledge of the German language and culture. They were also involved in the Nuremberg trials as prosecutors and translators…. A classified postwar report by the U.S. Army found that nearly 60 percent of the credible intelligence gathered in Europe came from the Ritchie Boys.”
Many historical figures surrounding these events and known for significant scientific discoveries and achievements were used in the story:
Dr. Leo Szilard
Lise Meitner
Otto Hahn
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer
Enrico Ferm
Albert Speer
The ALSOS mission and the Manhattan Project were real. The ALSOS mission successfully put German research personnel, including Hahn and Heisenberg which were mentioned in the book, into custody.
The Manhattan Project was the team tasked with creating an atomic bomb.
To determine how far along other countries were in this race, they needed to know what their access to uranium ore was, how and where they transported it; what their method of separating the uranium isotopes was; if they had a working reactor; if they had seen a chain reaction; their access to heavy water or graphite blocks, etc. (Do I sound like an intelligent scientist?)
Hitler obtained access to a lot of uranium ore through Czechoslovakia.
The ALSOs mission did recover a reactor in Haigerloch. But, as the book portrayed, the actual threat of the Nazi nuclear program was as Balson wrote it.
It sounds like the Nazi’s reactor that exploded in 1942 is only theorized to have been sabotaged so that part was a bit fictionalized by Balson.
Amos Alonzo Stagg Field, an used football stadium at the University of Chicago really did house the first nuclear reactor—called the Pile— underneath it. It was the site of the first artificial nuclear chain reaction and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Balson briefly mentions the MS St. Louis ship that attempted to bring over 900 (mostly Jewish) passengers and refugees seeking asylum to Cuba. I wanted to know what came of it so here’s what I found: All but 22 were denied entry to Cuba. The US also did not allow them to disembark. Canada, likewise, denied them entry. The ship returned to Britain and between England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands they were given a place to go. Historians estimate that about 200 of those people ended up being murdered during the Holocaust. Finally in 2012 and 2018, the US and Canada respectively issued formal apologies for their failure to help all of those people.
The Twentieth Century Limited train from Chicago to New York was a real train that took 20 hours to travel between the two cities. Sounds like a fun trip.
Allison’s fictional character was from Iowa. Her father had 250 acres east of Ames to farm corn. (This is close to where I live!) She went to Iowa State University. Historically speaking, it was fun to find out that an ISU physical chemistry professor named Frank Spedding was recruited to oversee some of the nation’s top atomic chemists as part of the Manhattan project.
ISU had some of the equipment and space that they needed to study the structure of metals. They came up with an efficient way to purify uranium and brought an 11 pound brick of it to Chicago, eventually supplying the Chicago Lab with tons of uranium for their testing. Obviously there is also a building named after this guy.
One of the bombing raids Nathan and Allison endure while in Berlin was a real mission meant to take out a ball bearing plant. In the book Allison questions- “Six hundred men and sixty planes lost for a ball bearing plant?” If you want to understand the significance of the ball bearing plant, read The Bomber Mafia!
During one of the bombing raids the book talks of the Berlin Zoo being hit and animals escaping. I wanted to know if this was true. The Berlin Zoo did get bombed multiple times and most of the animals were killed by the blasts, but there was not some big escaping. The few animals that managed to get out were chased down and shot.
I learned that X-rays are also called Roentgen rays because Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen who “produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays.” (Wikipedia) Then he got element 111 named after him— roentgenium— which is a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes. I’m sure it’s not because Roentgen himself was unstable amiright?
The Science
If you don’t care about how a nuclear bomb works, you can skip this section.
I thought Balson did a pretty good job of talking about the science of the nuclear bomb in a way readers can understand. Here are some snippets to help you visualize how these bombs get made. Thankfully, it sounds harder than I originally realized.
“Today we know that certain heavy elements with an odd atomic mass, like uranium-235 or plutonium-239, when bombarded with a neutron, will absorb that neutron and split.”
“uranium-235 will absorb the neutron, change the element into barium, and release 2.4 other neutrons, creating heat and energy in the process.”
“There are only a few places on Earth where uraninite is found in abundant enough quantities to be mined: Canada, Russia, and the Congo are major sources… Uranium in its oxidized state is ninety-nine percent of the isotope uranium-238… Separating out the U-235 is called enriching the uranium.” (So only 1% of uranium ore that is mined is the needed uranium-235 isotope.)
“Simply put, physicists theorize that if you bombard an atom of uranium-235 with a neutron, you can cause a nuclear fission; that is, the atom will break apart, split. That splitting will release other neutrons which will bombard other uranium atoms causing other fissions, releasing quite a bit of heat and energy. We call that a chain reaction. If the amount of uranium is large enough, what we call a critical mass, and if the chain reaction is allowed to continue, it can cause quite an explosion.”
If you’re REALLY interested in how these bombs work, you can look at THIS How Stuff Works article.
Comments
I’m now going to have to visit Tiergarten and the Palace of Versailles at some point. I looked up pictures! Also regarding Versailles: the book mentioned how the Germans were stealing art from the museums. If you want a story surrounding that, read Mastering the Art of French Murder.
There were a few things I didn’t like.
At one point in the story, Nathan gets help from ‘a friend’ when he’s in a tight bind. But we never really find out why. I wish we would have gotten a more satisfying connection point there and reason for why the ‘helper’ was there doing what he did. Feels like a loose end that wasn’t tied up well.
Nathan mentions several times that he doesn’t trust Gunther (the defector) because of memories he has from growing up. This seemed like it was going to foreshadow something, but it ended up being anti-climactic. I wish there would have been a twist added in between Gunther and Nathan’s father that would have spoken to Nathan’s distrust. After all, Gunther passed off Nathan’s father’s work as his own, was a class-A liar, and took advantage of Nathan’s father’s willingness to bail him out multiple times. Just wish there could have been a little more karma there.
It also seemed like the prep for this mission was a bit insufficient. There were several times where Nathan asked his superior questions and essentially the answer was- ‘I don’t know. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.’ It seems like especially for such a top secret and important mission they would be a little more thorough in providing contingency plans and cover stories for their new identities as they enter NAZI GERMANY. But maybe that’s just me.
Oh, that reminds me. Nathan’s stream of consciousness is mostly just questions. It was his most feminine quality I think haha.
Recommendation
I really enjoyed this book. I appreciated that it didn’t have much profanity and had no sexual content. I loved the attention to history and learning about the ‘nuclear’ aspect of the war.
I would recommend this book if you enjoy reading WWII novels or learning history. However, this was not a book that really Wow’d me. It’s possible it’s because I was interrupted a lot while reading and didn’t get to read many long chunks at a time. It’s always harder to get as invested in books that way.
I can’t really think of a specific reason NOT to read this book but it’s not going to be the best WWII novel out there. I feel like it won’t top your list but you also won’t be disappointed in it.
Now I feel like my recommendation is a bit lame. Really I think most people will enjoy this book, don’t let my qualifiers scare you off!
[Content Advisory: no f-words, 10 s-words; no sexual content]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Review Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
However, An Affair of Spies has a different WWII focus. As the title suggests, it is a book of espionage. But not just any espionage— these agents are sent to evaluate the Nazis’ nuclear bomb program.
Though most of the main characters are fiction, many of the events surrounding the story are based on truth and I enjoyed all the Google trails it sent me on. (My search history is a bit bizarre right now and I may have used the term nuclear too many times…)
I think that’s what I liked most about this book—Balson’s attention to and inclusion of historical elements. Especially having recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Bomber Mafia, which doesn’t talk about nuclear bombs but the creation of bomb sightings, precision bombing, and napalm, it was interesting to learn about this side of the bomb.
Somehow WWII books still teach me new things.
This was an action driven book that was less intense than it would seem, but still interesting and suspenseful.
Brief Summary
Nathan Silverman is a Jew who managed to leave his home of Berlin, Germany, before things got too bad. But his parents and sister had to remain. He signed up for the US army as soon as he was able and was placed at the secret Ritchie Camp with other displaced Germans to prepare to help the US forces with interrogation and navigating the foreign areas.
But instead he is recruited to exfiltrate a German physicist who wishes to defect and provide the US with valuable knowledge of the German nuclear program.
Nathan will go on his mission with Dr. Fischer, a physicist who will be able to determine if the information the defector has is trustworthy and legit. To his surprise Dr. Fischer is a female— Allison— which of course puts the romantic spin on an otherwise prototypical WWII mission.
Can Nathan and Allison get in and out of Berlin without getting caught AND succeed in getting top secret information AND a defector out with them? AND can Nathan find his family alive and help them escape too? The stakes are high and more than once they must improvise their plans!
The History
I love learning things about history. So I’m dedicating a section of my review to talk about some of the things discussed/included in the book. If you don’t care about history, you can skip this part.
With all the WWII books I’ve read, I had not heard of the Ritchie Boys! It was a large group of German-speaking immigrants or Jewish refugees.
Wikipedia says, “They were used primarily for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe because of their knowledge of the German language and culture. They were also involved in the Nuremberg trials as prosecutors and translators…. A classified postwar report by the U.S. Army found that nearly 60 percent of the credible intelligence gathered in Europe came from the Ritchie Boys.”
Many historical figures surrounding these events and known for significant scientific discoveries and achievements were used in the story:
Dr. Leo Szilard
Lise Meitner
Otto Hahn
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer
Enrico Ferm
Albert Speer
The ALSOS mission and the Manhattan Project were real. The ALSOS mission successfully put German research personnel, including Hahn and Heisenberg which were mentioned in the book, into custody.
The Manhattan Project was the team tasked with creating an atomic bomb.
To determine how far along other countries were in this race, they needed to know what their access to uranium ore was, how and where they transported it; what their method of separating the uranium isotopes was; if they had a working reactor; if they had seen a chain reaction; their access to heavy water or graphite blocks, etc. (Do I sound like an intelligent scientist?)
Hitler obtained access to a lot of uranium ore through Czechoslovakia.
The ALSOs mission did recover a reactor in Haigerloch. But, as the book portrayed, the actual threat of the Nazi nuclear program was as Balson wrote it.
It sounds like the Nazi’s reactor that exploded in 1942 is only theorized to have been sabotaged so that part was a bit fictionalized by Balson.
Amos Alonzo Stagg Field, an used football stadium at the University of Chicago really did house the first nuclear reactor—called the Pile— underneath it. It was the site of the first artificial nuclear chain reaction and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Balson briefly mentions the MS St. Louis ship that attempted to bring over 900 (mostly Jewish) passengers and refugees seeking asylum to Cuba. I wanted to know what came of it so here’s what I found: All but 22 were denied entry to Cuba. The US also did not allow them to disembark. Canada, likewise, denied them entry. The ship returned to Britain and between England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands they were given a place to go. Historians estimate that about 200 of those people ended up being murdered during the Holocaust. Finally in 2012 and 2018, the US and Canada respectively issued formal apologies for their failure to help all of those people.
The Twentieth Century Limited train from Chicago to New York was a real train that took 20 hours to travel between the two cities. Sounds like a fun trip.
Allison’s fictional character was from Iowa. Her father had 250 acres east of Ames to farm corn. (This is close to where I live!) She went to Iowa State University. Historically speaking, it was fun to find out that an ISU physical chemistry professor named Frank Spedding was recruited to oversee some of the nation’s top atomic chemists as part of the Manhattan project.
ISU had some of the equipment and space that they needed to study the structure of metals. They came up with an efficient way to purify uranium and brought an 11 pound brick of it to Chicago, eventually supplying the Chicago Lab with tons of uranium for their testing. Obviously there is also a building named after this guy.
One of the bombing raids Nathan and Allison endure while in Berlin was a real mission meant to take out a ball bearing plant. In the book Allison questions- “Six hundred men and sixty planes lost for a ball bearing plant?” If you want to understand the significance of the ball bearing plant, read The Bomber Mafia!
During one of the bombing raids the book talks of the Berlin Zoo being hit and animals escaping. I wanted to know if this was true. The Berlin Zoo did get bombed multiple times and most of the animals were killed by the blasts, but there was not some big escaping. The few animals that managed to get out were chased down and shot.
I learned that X-rays are also called Roentgen rays because Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen who “produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays.” (Wikipedia) Then he got element 111 named after him— roentgenium— which is a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes. I’m sure it’s not because Roentgen himself was unstable amiright?
The Science
If you don’t care about how a nuclear bomb works, you can skip this section.
I thought Balson did a pretty good job of talking about the science of the nuclear bomb in a way readers can understand. Here are some snippets to help you visualize how these bombs get made. Thankfully, it sounds harder than I originally realized.
“Today we know that certain heavy elements with an odd atomic mass, like uranium-235 or plutonium-239, when bombarded with a neutron, will absorb that neutron and split.”
“uranium-235 will absorb the neutron, change the element into barium, and release 2.4 other neutrons, creating heat and energy in the process.”
“There are only a few places on Earth where uraninite is found in abundant enough quantities to be mined: Canada, Russia, and the Congo are major sources… Uranium in its oxidized state is ninety-nine percent of the isotope uranium-238… Separating out the U-235 is called enriching the uranium.” (So only 1% of uranium ore that is mined is the needed uranium-235 isotope.)
“Simply put, physicists theorize that if you bombard an atom of uranium-235 with a neutron, you can cause a nuclear fission; that is, the atom will break apart, split. That splitting will release other neutrons which will bombard other uranium atoms causing other fissions, releasing quite a bit of heat and energy. We call that a chain reaction. If the amount of uranium is large enough, what we call a critical mass, and if the chain reaction is allowed to continue, it can cause quite an explosion.”
If you’re REALLY interested in how these bombs work, you can look at THIS How Stuff Works article.
Comments
I’m now going to have to visit Tiergarten and the Palace of Versailles at some point. I looked up pictures! Also regarding Versailles: the book mentioned how the Germans were stealing art from the museums. If you want a story surrounding that, read Mastering the Art of French Murder.
There were a few things I didn’t like.
At one point in the story, Nathan gets help from ‘a friend’ when he’s in a tight bind. But we never really find out why. I wish we would have gotten a more satisfying connection point there and reason for why the ‘helper’ was there doing what he did. Feels like a loose end that wasn’t tied up well.
Nathan mentions several times that he doesn’t trust Gunther (the defector) because of memories he has from growing up. This seemed like it was going to foreshadow something, but it ended up being anti-climactic. I wish there would have been a twist added in between Gunther and Nathan’s father that would have spoken to Nathan’s distrust. After all, Gunther passed off Nathan’s father’s work as his own, was a class-A liar, and took advantage of Nathan’s father’s willingness to bail him out multiple times. Just wish there could have been a little more karma there.
It also seemed like the prep for this mission was a bit insufficient. There were several times where Nathan asked his superior questions and essentially the answer was- ‘I don’t know. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.’ It seems like especially for such a top secret and important mission they would be a little more thorough in providing contingency plans and cover stories for their new identities as they enter NAZI GERMANY. But maybe that’s just me.
Oh, that reminds me. Nathan’s stream of consciousness is mostly just questions. It was his most feminine quality I think haha.
Recommendation
I really enjoyed this book. I appreciated that it didn’t have much profanity and had no sexual content. I loved the attention to history and learning about the ‘nuclear’ aspect of the war.
I would recommend this book if you enjoy reading WWII novels or learning history. However, this was not a book that really Wow’d me. It’s possible it’s because I was interrupted a lot while reading and didn’t get to read many long chunks at a time. It’s always harder to get as invested in books that way.
I can’t really think of a specific reason NOT to read this book but it’s not going to be the best WWII novel out there. I feel like it won’t top your list but you also won’t be disappointed in it.
Now I feel like my recommendation is a bit lame. Really I think most people will enjoy this book, don’t let my qualifiers scare you off!
[Content Advisory: no f-words, 10 s-words; no sexual content]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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“This book is several things— a scrapbook, a BFF journal, and a love letter to fans of our show.”
This was an enjoyable read!
I’d already read The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene and Jenna Fischer’s memoir called The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide so some of the information was overlap.
The former is full of interviews with a lot of people involved with the series. The latter focuses more on Jenna’s journey to fame and not necessarily just about The Office.
The Office BFFs tells stories of The Office from two best friends and how the show shaped their friendship.
If you are not familiar with The Office [in which case, I’m not sure this book is for you] Jenna Fischer plays Pam Halpert and Angela Kinsey plays Angela Martin.
I had no idea they were such good friends. I really liked getting to see the depths of their friendship. Especially since I’m more familiar with Jenna Fischer and less with Angela Kinsey therefore Angela is still Angela Martin in my mind. It was good for me to humanize her and let her go beyond her character in my mind. I think she may even smile more than Jenna!
I also loved all the pictures! The book has a ton of color pictures throughout the book. I read a hardcover from the library and when I picked it up, it was a lot heavier than I anticipated. I don’t know if it’s the glossy pages or what, but if you decide to purchase a copy, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth in terms of weight!
I think my favorite chapter of the book was when they talked about being moms. What it was like to be pregnant on the show (fake and real) and how it was hard to juggle the filming schedule and taking care of their kids. The nursing, the pumping, missing Halloween, post-partum depression, lack of any meaningful maternity leave, etc.
Many jobs make it difficult for moms to work and be moms, but I think the film industry may be one of the hardest. After all, you’re a character on the show— no one can step in while you’re gone and do your work. They need you specifically. And they need you to look a specific way. That creates a lot of pressure and a lot of limitations.
I applaud them for their efforts in trying to get all the time with their kids that they could. And that they were able to support each other through it all. Angela had a baby first and Jenna was still single so she didn’t know exactly how to be there for Angela, but once Jenna got pregnant she realized what was helpful.
They are still really close… well, obviously, they do a podcast together… but I love that their friendship weathered a decade of show drama and the after in-between years where they weren’t always even in the same city!
I also liked that they each wrote a chapter about their showmances- Jam and Dwangela.
Office Ladies Podcast
After the show was over and they did a few other projects they realized how much time they missed with their growing kids. That’s where the idea for their podcast: Office Ladies developed. They wanted jobs that had flexibility and allowed them more time with their families. And more time in sweatpants, which I am 100% for.
They share a little bit about how that started up. Of course their connections and name recognition definitely helped in terms of their immediate success.
During the years they were doing their own thing after the show they said they went from texting each other a lot to sending each other voice messages back and forth. They called them ‘ramblies.’ Those were the catalyst to their podcast idea, realizing they had a lot of things they could talk about.
They host a rewatch podcast. They are rewatching all The Office episodes and dissecting them or giving behind-the-scenes info on each one. Interspersed are interviews with other characters, crew members, or fans.
I had not listened to it before so I checked out an episode after finishing the book. The one I listened to had Billie Eilish as a guest! She’s apparently a major Office fan (and actually has a picture in The Office BFFs book).
Random Tidbits
Here are a few of the things I learned while reading:
Angela did a commercial for Wow! chips which she commented gave people diarrhea. I had to laugh because the only thing I remember from these chips when they came out when I was a kid was my friend telling me they tried them but it gave her mom the runs! Hahaha.
Jenna and Angela are both from the Midwest (St. Louis and Texas respectively). Actually a lot of the cast are from the Midwest.
It was entertaining to hear about all the things they did in the background when they had to pretend to be working.
Oscar is good at sketching cartoons.
Many times the cast got to be involved in adding things to their character’s storylines. Angela made up the backstory of her cat, Sprinkles, on a day she didn’t have many lines. When she was told to go pass papers around in the background she made a bunch of invitations to Sprinkles’s third birthday party out in the parking lot. Pam came up with the idea that the reason Roy and Pam hadn’t gotten married yet was because they didn’t have the money due to Roy blowing it on Jet skis with his brother.
Steve Carell really does love hockey and played on a team.
The Work Bus episode was more of a ‘Death Bus’ episode because they all got a little carbon monoxide poisoning so that was an intense story.
Angela recorded ‘Adventures with Angela’ throughout the show that got posted on nbc.com. Here’s one I found on YouTube. Not sure if this is the main hub for them at this point but there ya go. Gives you a little bit of a look at Angela Kinsey’s real personality!
Recommendation
If you like The Office or you like best friends, then yes, I would recommend this book.
However, if you’re reading it because it won Best Humor and you think it’s going to be hilarious, then maybe not. Sure it had some funny parts, but it didn’t feel like it was written to specifically be funny so if you’re going for the lols you may be disappointed. [Mindy Kaling’s books are usually pretty funny. I might check out Rainn Wilson’s book as well.]
It’s fun. It’s entertaining. It has color pictures. It has best friends. I mean, what else could you need?
Plus it got me intrigued on their podcast. So maybe if you’re not much of a reader you can skip the book and just listen to them be best friends and co-workers. Either way, buying the book or downloading their episodes helps them financially so they can be ‘boss moms’ and not have to hide their pregnant bellies behind plants while they work like normal human beings.
Sidenote: I really like the picture of Jenna and Angela on the interior title page of the book. Such a good picture! The dark frame glasses are a really good look for Jenna. And I just wanted to give a big thumbs up for that.
[Content Advisory: minimal swearing; a chapter that discusses wedgies and bodily fluids]
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This was an enjoyable read!
I’d already read The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene and Jenna Fischer’s memoir called The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide so some of the information was overlap.
The former is full of interviews with a lot of people involved with the series. The latter focuses more on Jenna’s journey to fame and not necessarily just about The Office.
The Office BFFs tells stories of The Office from two best friends and how the show shaped their friendship.
If you are not familiar with The Office [in which case, I’m not sure this book is for you] Jenna Fischer plays Pam Halpert and Angela Kinsey plays Angela Martin.
I had no idea they were such good friends. I really liked getting to see the depths of their friendship. Especially since I’m more familiar with Jenna Fischer and less with Angela Kinsey therefore Angela is still Angela Martin in my mind. It was good for me to humanize her and let her go beyond her character in my mind. I think she may even smile more than Jenna!
I also loved all the pictures! The book has a ton of color pictures throughout the book. I read a hardcover from the library and when I picked it up, it was a lot heavier than I anticipated. I don’t know if it’s the glossy pages or what, but if you decide to purchase a copy, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth in terms of weight!
I think my favorite chapter of the book was when they talked about being moms. What it was like to be pregnant on the show (fake and real) and how it was hard to juggle the filming schedule and taking care of their kids. The nursing, the pumping, missing Halloween, post-partum depression, lack of any meaningful maternity leave, etc.
Many jobs make it difficult for moms to work and be moms, but I think the film industry may be one of the hardest. After all, you’re a character on the show— no one can step in while you’re gone and do your work. They need you specifically. And they need you to look a specific way. That creates a lot of pressure and a lot of limitations.
I applaud them for their efforts in trying to get all the time with their kids that they could. And that they were able to support each other through it all. Angela had a baby first and Jenna was still single so she didn’t know exactly how to be there for Angela, but once Jenna got pregnant she realized what was helpful.
They are still really close… well, obviously, they do a podcast together… but I love that their friendship weathered a decade of show drama and the after in-between years where they weren’t always even in the same city!
I also liked that they each wrote a chapter about their showmances- Jam and Dwangela.
Office Ladies Podcast
After the show was over and they did a few other projects they realized how much time they missed with their growing kids. That’s where the idea for their podcast: Office Ladies developed. They wanted jobs that had flexibility and allowed them more time with their families. And more time in sweatpants, which I am 100% for.
They share a little bit about how that started up. Of course their connections and name recognition definitely helped in terms of their immediate success.
During the years they were doing their own thing after the show they said they went from texting each other a lot to sending each other voice messages back and forth. They called them ‘ramblies.’ Those were the catalyst to their podcast idea, realizing they had a lot of things they could talk about.
They host a rewatch podcast. They are rewatching all The Office episodes and dissecting them or giving behind-the-scenes info on each one. Interspersed are interviews with other characters, crew members, or fans.
I had not listened to it before so I checked out an episode after finishing the book. The one I listened to had Billie Eilish as a guest! She’s apparently a major Office fan (and actually has a picture in The Office BFFs book).
Random Tidbits
Here are a few of the things I learned while reading:
Angela did a commercial for Wow! chips which she commented gave people diarrhea. I had to laugh because the only thing I remember from these chips when they came out when I was a kid was my friend telling me they tried them but it gave her mom the runs! Hahaha.
Jenna and Angela are both from the Midwest (St. Louis and Texas respectively). Actually a lot of the cast are from the Midwest.
It was entertaining to hear about all the things they did in the background when they had to pretend to be working.
Oscar is good at sketching cartoons.
Many times the cast got to be involved in adding things to their character’s storylines. Angela made up the backstory of her cat, Sprinkles, on a day she didn’t have many lines. When she was told to go pass papers around in the background she made a bunch of invitations to Sprinkles’s third birthday party out in the parking lot. Pam came up with the idea that the reason Roy and Pam hadn’t gotten married yet was because they didn’t have the money due to Roy blowing it on Jet skis with his brother.
Steve Carell really does love hockey and played on a team.
The Work Bus episode was more of a ‘Death Bus’ episode because they all got a little carbon monoxide poisoning so that was an intense story.
Angela recorded ‘Adventures with Angela’ throughout the show that got posted on nbc.com. Here’s one I found on YouTube. Not sure if this is the main hub for them at this point but there ya go. Gives you a little bit of a look at Angela Kinsey’s real personality!
Recommendation
If you like The Office or you like best friends, then yes, I would recommend this book.
However, if you’re reading it because it won Best Humor and you think it’s going to be hilarious, then maybe not. Sure it had some funny parts, but it didn’t feel like it was written to specifically be funny so if you’re going for the lols you may be disappointed. [Mindy Kaling’s books are usually pretty funny. I might check out Rainn Wilson’s book as well.]
It’s fun. It’s entertaining. It has color pictures. It has best friends. I mean, what else could you need?
Plus it got me intrigued on their podcast. So maybe if you’re not much of a reader you can skip the book and just listen to them be best friends and co-workers. Either way, buying the book or downloading their episodes helps them financially so they can be ‘boss moms’ and not have to hide their pregnant bellies behind plants while they work like normal human beings.
Sidenote: I really like the picture of Jenna and Angela on the interior title page of the book. Such a good picture! The dark frame glasses are a really good look for Jenna. And I just wanted to give a big thumbs up for that.
[Content Advisory: minimal swearing; a chapter that discusses wedgies and bodily fluids]
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