For reasons you will discover she begins a very unique cooking show!!!! I love to see her fiery spirit and determination to get what she wants, to dress how she wants. She is determined to raise her child how she wants. All the while she knows that she’s doing things outside of the normal or “average” mother, although Elizabeth would tell you that scientifically there is no “average person”!!!! You guys know how much I love strong female characters, and Elizabeth Zott is all that and more. She's fearless in the face of adversity, she stays true to herself, and she never lets others intimidate her into being less than all she can be. In other words, she is my hero. Bonnie Garmus has done a wonderful job in presenting an unorthodox protagonist with her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. Meet Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s woman who loves being a chemist during a time when women were expected to be housewives. Atheism vs Faith. The author mentions multiple times that this is a free country and we have a right to our beliefs. I 100% agree. But she apparently believes only atheists have a right to their beliefs. I’m no bible thumping extremist, but it’s offensive when religion and people of faith are portrayed only in derogatory terms, such as faith is “a simpleton’s recipe for prayers and beads” and a funeral service was “boring verse and preposterous prayers”. A minister muses that the problem with his job “was how many times he had to lie”. The ministers and priests were all child abusers, liars, and greedy crooks. Lay people of faith were all violent protestors and/or morons. The message repeatedly driven home throughout the book, ad nauseam? Atheism = good People of faith = bad. It's not just Elizabeth who warms my heart. This story has the most wonderful collection of supporting characters. They add so much color and spirit to the whole thing. I wanted to hug them all. And if you're an animal lover of any sort, just be ready to have your heart burst into a million ooey gooey pieces. In fact, Six-Thirty might just be my favorite literary dog of all time.

Through some crazy, at times hilarious encounter, she meets Calvin Evans. He is a gangly sort of guy but also a brilliant scientist and well-known at the Hastings Institute. Calvin had an intense love for rowing, that’s why he accepted the job at this lowly Institute when he could have been doing research at any number of universities. He came to California for the nice weather and the ability to row all year long. The synopsis describes this book as “laugh out loud funny”, recommended for fans of Where’d You Go Bernadette and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

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But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. On par with Beth Harmon of The Queen's Gambit, Elizabeth Zott swept me away with her intellect, honesty, and unapologetic selfhood. Lessons in Chemistry is a story for all the smart girls who refuse to dumb themselves down despite a culture that demands otherwise. Though a creation of the 50s & 60s, Zott is a feminist icon for our time." - Rachel Yoder This is an amazing debut novel with quirky characters, socially relevant topics, emotional swings, winks of humor and laugh-out-loud moments! I loved this story and I highly recommend this book!

In my experience— I never had a problem. I wasn’t sexually harassed — nobody put their hand up my skirt unless I wanted them to . I was never patted on the head or belittle for being less than. Fast forward and Elizabeth has a daughter named Madeline, Mad for short. Elizabeth was trying to work as a scientist at a lab in her home. She is a consultant for scientists who need and want her help, but it’s not enough to provide for herself and her daughter. Elizabeth as a main character just isn't that likeable. I get that she is supposed to be super intelligent and 'quirky' but she doesn't feel like a real person for much of the book, there is nothing to connect to. She also speaks like she is quoting from a textbook about sexism and feminism which does not feel genuine or organic. It felt more like the author was lecturing us. Also don't get me started about her daughter and how intelligent and advanced she was at a ridiculously young age. Of course she had a genius daughter. *eye roll* Elizabeth views herself as a scientist but knows, by experience, female scientists are virtually non-existent. Ten days before graduating with her master's degree from UCLA, the admissions committee rescinded her application to the doctoral program. An 'unfortunate event' happened and Elizabeth actions were determined to be the cause. She knows that getting her PhD is no longer possible but she'll never give up her dream. Her only regret is not having more No. 2 pencils to use when the 'unfortunate event' took place!So this book centres on Elizabeth Zott, an impossibly intelligent woman with perfect 21st-century politics (also she's beautiful but she doesn't, like, care about that) who's been inexplicably plopped into a 1950s setting. She's a self-taught chemist, working on abiogenesis, which the book appears to think can low-key disprove religion (this book has a very weird relationship to religion - edgelord atheist vibes), but because it's the 1950s, she's forced out of her doctoral programme and undervalued at work. She strikes up a relationship with a powerful chemist who adores her, but he dies in an accident, leaving her unwed, pregnant and fired, doing consultation work so the men at her old lab can actually understand their results. Undeterred, she builds a lab at home, and ends up getting hired to a local cooking programme, which she converts into a serious scientific cooking programme that the housewives of America love because She Treats Them Like Adults. The one exception to this is Calvin Evans, a gifted research scientist at HRI, and a two time Nobel-prize nominee, who has fallen in love with Elizabeth and her brilliant mind. The attraction is real! Elizabeth is a SCIENTIST, ergo she only thinks in LOGIC. She is actually a cyborg without feelings and without any idea of how human interactions work!! We know this based on how cringy every single interaction she has is!!! certainly women have been, and are, discriminated against. I’m not denying that bias occurs but the exaggeration and preposterous events in the story hinders the message. I have a science degree. I took many college courses in STEM. I worked in a male dominated work culture. In this book every single man in a power position was a misogynist. Not realistic. Please stop it..

Half way through the book I was already completely into the story and the amazing characters! What a unique and multi-layered plot. Okay, folks, I just finished the best book of 2022! Now I can relax knowing that I don't need to search for something better. No, wait, I lied. Not about finding the best book - this one is freaking amazing - but I will continue to search for exemplary fictions like this that can speak to my heart and soul at the same time! I give it five gazillion stars! I found this mostly boring, to be honest. The book zips from really dark subjects like rape and abuse to light somewhat farcical subjects like teaching a dog English or Elizabeth becoming an amazing rower by studying physics (women can smart their way into being better than six foot athletic men at everything because saying they can't is sexist, yo)... and I struggled to find any of it compelling. the MC’s daughter is a genius who knew the periodic table as a preschooler and reads the Sound and the Fury at age 8. Of course she is. Very relatable.I loved the author's extra-intelligent, dark, original sense of humor, and I fell in love with her characters. The story of Elizabeth brought out so many complex feelings: I laughed, I got angry, I cried, I sighed, I laughed again, and as soon as I finished the last chapter, I gave my ovation! This is an underrated secret gem! Don't you dare skip this book or let it sit in your TBR pile. Just read it! Overall, this is the best book I have read lately! I fell in love with everything about this story and highly, extremely, and absolutely recommend it. If you fail, don’t admit it. You have just found the million reasons why something wouldn’t work - I must try that!!!! Although Lessons in Chemistry involves extremely important societal issues, the storytelling is phenomenal. The book is absolutely riveting!