This was a lot of fun to read and discuss in our family book club. I really enjoyed the chapters about yeast and fermentation, and I loved drawing the parallels between booze and bread. Certainly those two chapters were the most engaging for me because I had a schema for understanding them. Some of the final chapters, particularly about the body and the brain made scientific references and used vocabulary that was unfamiliar to me when talking about compounds and processing. That made it a bit harder for me to appreciate the content, despite the casual pop science tone of the narration. 

Rogers included excellent anecdotes throughout the book, and I laughed out loud at several points. I’m curious about Maria the Jewess, who may have invented the still, and I particularly appreciated the quoted stance on whiskey contributed by a Michigan state senator in 1958.