Chemistry: A Novel

"I loved this book by first-time novelist Weike Wang, one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” Full of fun science facts, Chemistry is about a Chinese immigrant who was raised to be an overachiever. The unnamed storyteller, a scientist in a Boston chemistry lab, has just melted down in said lab, shattering beakers and freaking out her co-workers. This is a character I can relate to: ambivalent about commitments, crushed by parental expectations and hilarious in a nerdy scientist way."