The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements Es absolutamente aburrido, le sobran 200 páginas rellenadas con banalidades sin sentido, una protagonista con delirios de persecución, un romance salido de la nada y un final ridículo. Carbon monoxide is a kind of chemical thug. It suffocates its victims by simply muscling oxygen out of the way.” The molecules that interest me most are the ones that misbehave, or rather, that have structures that chemists believe they shouldn’t. The molecules, of course, don’t know the rules the chemists think they should follow, so these structures offer clues to new paradigms. I love the moment when I can figure out what the molecule is doing, and suggest new ways for chemists to think about molecular structure. Right now my research group and I are exploring molecules that have weird topological properties, like Möbius strips, and as a result, have unexpected structures. From here, we hope to give chemists who synthesize molecules in the lab some ideas about new classes of structures with interesting properties. I very much enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down actually. I waited so long because I felt like I was going to be bored because these kinds of books a lot of times bore me to tears. And for some weird reason I thought we were going to be sitting in a lab, doing boring lab stuff and blah. It wasn't like that and it's all good so there.

Your third choice is The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. Please give us an idea of why you like this book…and explain the title! To wrap it up it was an interesting, slower-paced, somewhat exciting read with a satisfying ending. I was extremely excited to read THE CHEMIST by STEPHENIE MEYER as I absolutely loved THE HOST and was hoping that this one would be just as good. Unfortunately, it didn't quite meet up to my expectations. I read THE HOST in one day, and this one took me six days to finish! There were some exciting moments to this novel and then at other times it seemed to drag and it was a little bit boring for me. I could put it down and walk away and then at other times all I could think of was reading this book. It was a strange feeling for me as I am usually totally engaged and invested while reading a novel.Your final choice is Why Does Asparagus Make Your Wee Smell? by Andy Brunning. Why does it, and what else does Brunning tell us? But honestly the worst thing is the huge chunk of the book that is made up of Alex and Daniel hiding out at a ranch with a load of dogs. I'm not exaggerating when I say that so much of this book is made up of pointless chitchat about dogs, guns and cooking. They kiss and watch movies together and sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the kitchen. Maybe this is really funny to some people, but I do this all the time so whatever. Who wants to read a book that is almost entirely about a dull romance that has no drama, no questions, no will they/won't they? The main characters in this one include Alex, who I liked for most of the book, Daniel, who I also liked for most of the book, and Kevin, who I hated at first but loved by the end. Secondary characters include Val, who slightly annoyed me but who grew on me a little when she became useful, Ernesto, who was just kind of there, and, of course, Einstein, Khan, Lola, and the rest of the dogs, who were amazing. A special mention goes to her PPK and Sig Sauer that were brought up about 100 times over the course of the book.

The blurb for The Chemist gives a good summary of the nature of the story so I will not rehash that here, suffice to say it is about a former agent, of some secret government group, who is in fact a torturer, not of the plier, hammer and waterboard variety but one who employs chemical compounds designed to stimulate intense pain thereby encouraging her subjects to reveal whatever hidden truth is desired. Only now the chemist has gone rogue, running for her life from her one time employer who clearly wants her neutralized.

Seriously, given that the chemist is on the run for her life, from a well resourced government agency and that she is clearly handicapped by the company she keeps, it is not unreasonable to expect a hair raising chase or nail biting conflict, thoroughly soaked in adrenaline laced action and heart pumping tension. Sadly it is not to be found here. Sure the hunt is on, the stakes are high and oh my is that not a lovely moon we have tonight. In other words……...yawn. Obviously I had to read this book. I bought it in English but then I wait for the Spanish version to come out. Unfortunately, textbooks are often assigned to classes by department heads and not by the professors who actually teach the class. Just like the first title, this text contains all the relevant material with logical organization and clear explanations.