Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller

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Although I was overall underwhelmed, I did enjoy the authors notes - (my absolute favorite part) - she almost sold me on how groundbreaking her book was. An insightful, part tear-jerker, truly hilarious at times work with more than enough charisma to make you want to be the best version of yourself? That is Bonnie Garmus’s masterpiece: Lessons In Chemistry. Ten years later, Elizabeth is a single mother living with her adorable daughter, Madeline, their dog, Six-thirty, and hosting the daily TV cooking show, Supper at Six. The show is an instant hit and Elizabeth is the beautiful, but reluctant, star!

Anything less than a 5-star review for Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel is a minority opinion, so take my 4-star thoughts with a grain of salt. Or as the book’s heroine Elizabeth Zott would say, a grain of sodium chloride. Four stars for an unapologetic feministic story that gets it right most of the time. Reflective a lot of the time. Funny sometimes. Cringe worthy – yes sometimes that as well. But there's also one thing that ratchets up the ridiculous factor: the use of chemistry. God, the use of chemistry. I want to give this to a chemist so they choke to death on their own spit. To be clear, I'm not a pedant, or not too much of one - I don't care if literary fiction for nonspecialists is perfect on every point of chemistry. I care that its idea of a hyperintelligent chemist is one that says 'pass the sodium chloride' instead of 'pass the salt,' or sometimes calls water 'H2O', or calls vinegar 'acetic acid' (which is like calling orange juice 'citric acid', they're not the same thing), or says that they 'almost lost an atom in the isomerization process' while baking (what???). Madeline makes 'mud pies' by drawing 3.1415 in the mud. It's a very teenage nerd kind of approach, with an accompanying shot of the aforementioned edgelord atheism, and an instance of Elizabeth Publicly Owning a vegetarian by saying plants are also alive. In a couple of episodes of the programme, I glimpsed what a good implementation of the chemistry conceit might look like (the one with potato skin and glycoalkaloids was good), but too often it's cringe - particularly the extended metaphor around 'bonds' or the book's steadfast conviction that saying 'we had chemistry' is a deep and powerful statement. In 1960, after her traumatic experience at UCLA, she starts working at the Hastings Research Institute, which is administered with a male workforce that ignores her enthusiasm and hard work. Only one person sees her and shows respect for her accomplishments: an aspiring, Nobel Prize-nominated, grudge-holder named Calvin Evans.My enjoyment value was simply ‘so-so’. I didn’t come away with the enthusiasm for this book like many other readers did. Another point I'd like to bring up as a chemist, Elizabeth Zott apparently has several PhDs worth of knowledge, on degrees that she didn't even do. Her passion apparently is abiogenesis, to which actual scientists dedicate their entire academic careers solely, yet she also knows food science (an entirely different course of study) and can also teach herself how to row solely by reading physics textbooks (another entirely different course of study). It must be where her ridiculous daughter got her ridiculous genes from - she enthusiastically reads Norman Mailer and Vladimir Nabokov at age 4. I mean, didn't we all? She also debates religion with a reverend, who converts to atheism. Again, relatable pre-school experiences we all experienced. 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! And, she won’t even recite the dinner ingredients in layman’s terms. YET, after the very FIRST episode airs, the station’s phones are ringing off the hook- When Elizabeth Zott is growing up… the only thing she knows for certain is that she likes science. During the 1960s, while she was working at the Hastings Institute on groundbreaking research in abiogenesis – gender equality was nonexistent (even among scientists who should know better.) Life takes her through unexpected turns into falling in love with her co-worker Calvin Evans. Years later, as a single mother, Elizabeth finds herself the star of a live cooking show: Supper at Six. With her… unique… approach to cooking and can-do-attitude… Elizabeth finds herself teaching women more than to cook. She’s teaching them to value themselves and change the world.

And it deserves a further eye roll for the fact that because she is all into science and logic and whatever, this means Elizabeth is also cold, robotic and devoid of emotion. Cos we all know you can't be a scientist AND have feelings. Maybe the author worried if she showed emotion we'd find her too womanly. With a book titled ‘lessons’, it is only right to share a few of life’s lessons that Elizabeth is guided by 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!A few weeks later, I discovered it's being made into a TV series, starring Brie Larson. See imdb here. Anachronisms. Subsidized child care in Sweden wasn’t enacted until 1975, although the MC refers to it in 1960. And was defunding the police a thing in the early 1950s? I think not. 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.

During this 'hilarious' story, there is a brutal rape in chapter 3, death of a spouse, implied paedaphilia, abuse, abandonment, bullying, a second sexual assault and sexism. Again, I don't have a problem with the subject matter, I do have a problem with the execution of the subjects and the marketing of the book.Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist. The plot had promise, too. Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in academia, but is forced out before her doctorate because of the misogyny of the times. When she finds success as a reluctant star of daytime TV, she subverts the genre by making her cooking show about chemistry, not domesticity. Within 2 years, her show is a staple in every household, with those in the studio audience and at home taking notes -jotting down ingredients, recipes and chemical equations!

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. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)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. Elizabeth Zott is not your average person. She’s a brilliant, highly trained scientist who hasn’t gotten farther along in the world of chemistry simply because she’s a woman. She is working at the Hastings Institute performing a job that she is completely over qualified for! for me, quite a good book, light read and really do root for the protagonist although she can feel like a mary sue and seem to just win way too often by the second half of the book which does take you out of jt a bit if you think about it too hard.