Lessons in Chemistry

Author: Bonnie Garmus
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 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 as an average woman. But it's early in the 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes 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.

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.

Review: This was a hot book in 2022, hitting the best sellers list, popping up in multiple reading/book club facebook pages, and Barnes and Noble named it their Best Book of the Year. I wholeheartedly agree. From page one I was hooked. My only negative critique is that I wish it had a better ending. It was flimsy given the way the rest of the book was so cleverly written. I still give it 5 stars.

I'm looking forward to the on-screen adaptation. This will be great as a mini-series.