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Lessons in Chemistry

Bonnie Garmus

Genre:

Historical, Romance, Feminism



About book: Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.But it is the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results.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 is not just teaching women to cook. She is daring them to change the status quo.


My thoughts: This book is about a woman in a man’s world during the 1960s and her struggles to make her world more equal. It was chosen as book of the month by our book club. This book for me was a game of two halves The first half being before Elizabeth got the job on the cooking show and the second half being after Elizabeth got the job on the cooking show.

The first half I did not find funny or fantastical. It did not even feel as if the main character was from the 50s/60s, it felt like it was more about someone travelling back in time thinking they know what went on. The message itself is worthwhile but I did not overly enjoy the way it was written. The main character Elizabeth did not make me warm to her and her plight in the way the book portrayed her to be. I came away from the first half of the book wondering what all the hype was. Then came the second half where I laughed aloud on numerous occasions at Elizabeth’s journey and the interactions and conversations she had with a variety of people when the writer took me through Elizabeth’s plight. Which felt more believable and truer to the time. I loved the characters that came into play especially Harriet, Walter and I loved six-thirty. The second half was a true page turner that I did not want to put down, and did not want to end.

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