Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott, a chemist, is not your typical woman. In actuality, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to acknowledge the lack of a typical woman. Yet, her all-male Hastings Research Institute staff has a very unscientific perspective on equality because it is the early 1960s. But for Calvin Evans, the misanthropic, bright, and Nobel Prize nominee who falls in love with her mind of all things. Results of true chemistry.
Yet life is unpredictable, just like science. Because of this, Elizabeth Zott discovers herself to be a single mother and the unwilling star of Dinner at Six, one of America’s most popular cookery programs, a few years later. Elizabeth’s unconventional method of cooking turns out to be groundbreaking. Yet not everyone is pleased as her fan base expands. Elizabeth Zott isn’t simply teaching women how to cook, it turns out. She is daring them to alter the current situation.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
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- #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER GMA BOOK CLUB PICK Meet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show. APPLE TV+ SERIES COMING LATER THIS YEAR
Lessons in Chemistry is as unique and lively as its main character and is laugh-out-loud humorous, astutely observant, and filled with a sparkling ensemble of supporting characters.
Elizabeth Zott does not resemble the stereotypical housewife of the 1960s. She isn’t even a housewife, in actuality. The mother? Yes. Never a housewife. a researcher? Priority number one!
The main lady in this endearing book struggles to be taken seriously as a female scientist in the 1960s in a society and field that is predominately male. She experiences sexism, harassment, love, heartbreak, parenthood, success, and failure, but she never lets it shake her conviction that she is just as capable as the men who persistently oppress and undercut her.
Elizabeth uses reasoning, the most basic tool of all, to disprove the sexist ideas prevalent at the time. She consistently demonstrates that it is nonsensical to treat women as if they are incapable and inept, in addition to being morally wrong. She speaks to a generation of women, using food to educate science and equality, and she challenges the males in her life, much to their dismay. This was a simple, entertaining read filled with feeling, humour, and intelligence.
In the 1960s, Elizabeth Zott works as a chemist, but everyone else perceives her as anything but that! Her male coworkers won’t take her seriously and will consider her to be nothing more than a woman with opinions beyond her pay grade. Nonetheless, they are all willing to steal her work because they feel intimidated by her greatness. Everyone but Calvin Evans, a chemist who is renowned for his brilliance in the scientific community. Elizabeth and Calvin begin a relationship that would have admirably withstood the test of time and Calvin never treats Elizabeth with disdain.
Elizabeth finds herself alone and a single mother due to the unfortunate fact that life doesn’t always go as planned. She ends up hosting a television program called Dinner at Six, and she uses it as a platform to teach “Lessons in Chemistry” to American women who, in her opinion, should be doing more with their lives than just playing the roles of wife and mother.
