Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

while we may be born into families, it doesn’t necessarily mean we belong to them.”

The truth was, she was afraid to get close to the coffin because she knew she would try to pry it open and climb in and bury herself with him, and that meant dealing with all the people who would try to stop her, and she did not want to be stopped.

“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun,” a quote from Marcus Aurelius,

she only ever seemed to bring out the worst in men. They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do.

Evans had slipped between the cracks of the unknown and explored the universe in a way that theology completely avoided.

“But you realize,” she said carefully, as if not to embarrass him further, “that faith isn’t based on religion. Right?”

“I’m not sure how else to explain it,” she said, her voice beginning to break, “except to say we had chemistry. Actual chemistry. And it was no accident.”