Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

“It’s just that 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.”

“Wait, I think I remember your dog. Three O’clock, something like that? Ugly as sin?”

She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they’ve buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard.

Again, he felt the weight of the dog’s eyes on him. I have mapped and memorized the location of your carotid artery.