I’ll be gobsmacked if Lessons in Chemistry isn’t my book of the year. It’s an astonishing book, totally original, thought provoking, chock full of brilliant characters ( and a dog!) who just leap off the page. I am so sad to have finished it.
Elizabeth Zott is a rarity in 1950s America, she is a female scientist who is brave, brilliant and takes no nonsense from anyone. He stance has already led to a disastrous end to her graduate program and she has washed up at the Hastings Institute, trying to push forward her research.
A tumultuous love affair with Calvin Evans, their star scientist, ends in tragedy, leaving her unmarried, pregnant and jobless. Her only companion is Six-Thirty, an exceptionally clever dog who is racked with guilt over his part in his master’s death.
A strange turn of events leads Elizabeth to be given a cookery show which, much to the horror of the TV stations owners, she turns into a series of life lessons for the housewives of America, while teaching them the rudiments of chemistry. It’s a huge hit and brings the sexism and barriers than women face into sharp relief. However, Elizabeth has made some enemies a long the way, will she really be able to succeed this time?
Bonnie Garmus’ writing reminded me of early John Irving, unexpected situations and characters that bring a powerful message while being utterly entertaining and joyful to read. This is the most incredible debut novel, it is going to be huge!
Thank you to #netgalley and #doubledayuk for allowing me to review this ARC

I’ve heard so much about this book so was really excited to get ARC from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a historical fiction book and the story is an interesting one given the period of time it is set in(1960’,s women in a STEM job , single mother) I did enjoy the concept, the feminism ( loved the parts from her daughters, Mad, point of view the lessons she taught her daughter were ahead of the time)and I did I have a few laugh out loud moments but there was something that was missing for me.

It is without doubt going be a novel that will be spoken about in book groups all over and it will be loved, but I found myself getting annoyed at the main character Elizabeth at times, I skimmed though parts as they were slowing the pace down , were a bit boring and the ending was very disappointing even know I know I saw it coming.

I felt while Elizabeth’s views and actions were amazing there were a bit fantastical almost like she was plucked from today and sent back to the 60’s to sort out the world out, this didn’t work for me I felt she could have had the same strong message if not stronger by being a bit more realistic.

I liked the dog , thirty six,parts as it was a usual way it giving another voice they were also funny. The cooking show was fun and it was something I’d probably watch in real life.

Overall I did like this book it just didn’t live up to my exceptions. It is a good debut novel that is fun, has a interlaying positive message, there are some really well developed characters it is a solid three stars for me, I think it would make a good audiobook or even a tv adaption, total Queens Gambit vibes I think . This a quirky somewhat unique novel.

Fans of Mrs Bird, The Help , Queens Gambit and Hidden Figures will like this.

Elizabeth Zott is a breath-takingingly awesome character and Lessons in Chemistry is an outstanding read.

Set in 1960's America, Elizabeth is a research scientist having to deal with discrimination on a daily basis, whether it be in the form of jibes about her appearance, or being patronised and dismissed as not smart enough. Or worse. In the form of violence.

When she meets Calvin Evans, she is stealing lab equipment from him. Their second meeting involves him vomiting on her. But they are destined to share a life. He is the first man to ever treat her as an equal and to respect her work. They break rules together. Living together without marrying for one.

Tragedy lurks however, and Elizabeth is forced to leave her job, and reluctantly somehow becomes the star of an afternoon cooking show. But in true Elizabeth Zott style, she throws out all the producers ideas and does things her way, inspiring housewives all over America to be more, to learn more and to challenge more.

Alongside Elizabeth's story further threads are weaved that answer questions left unresolved for Calvin.

Full of wisdom, and fierce determination to challenge all forms of hypocrisy and discrimination, Elizabeth Zott is brave, bold and brilliant. The other characters form a formidable emsemble and there is plenty of heart and humour. And a particularly satisfying conclusion.

I absolutely loved Lessons in Chemistry. The mid century vibe, strong female character, adorable dog made this such a page turner I literally couldn't put it down.

What. A. Book. Outstanding, genuinely outstanding in every way. This book is hopeful, heartbreaking, maddening, inspiring. I adore Elizabeth Zott. I hate the things she deals with, I hate that things haven’t changed enough. I love her tenacity and her commitment to not give up. This book is incredible, so neatly and beautifully written which wonderful, 3 dimensional characters. I adored it.

Goodness, this book is nothing short of gorgeous! Elizabeth Zott is just amazing. In 1950s America having experienced tragedy after tragedy, she fights for women's rights in the most unlikely of ways. Between her and Six-Thirty the dog, not to mention her AMAZING daughter Mad, we're taken on a brilliant journey. This book is breathtaking. The writing is exquisite. It all comes together in the most beautiful of ways at the end and had me sobbing. You must read this book. It's unlikely you've ever or ever will read anything quite like it.

Book Hangover Alert!

I loved this book and its characters so much that it's going to take a wee while to get over it.

Synopsis (heads up, don't read too much about this book before going in otherwise it will spoil it):
Elizabeth Zott is a scientist in the 1950-60s, she is a staunch feminist, atheist, who's determined to be taken seriously in a patriarchal world that believes a woman's place is in the home and to be quiet. As she strives to make a career for herself in chemistry, she meets a fellow scientist Calvin, who loves her drive, passion and determination... and through a whole series of events over the next 10 years (which I cannot reveal) you find her presenting a TV cooking show where despite what the producers want she brings her science to life. My summary does NOT do this story justice!

WHAT I LOVED:
- The humour
- The wonderful, inspiring, quirky protagonist that is Elizabeth
- The phenomenal supporting characters Calvin, Thirty Six*, Harriet and Mad - I loved them all.
- The eloquent but honest portrayal of sexism, professional sabotage sexual assault and more
- The feminist thread throughout
- The multi-layered plot combined with the characters makes this unputdownable

*special shout out to Thirty Six, the dog in the story, who know 600+ words and often narrates.

This is a fabulous debut from Bonnie Garmus and is now officially one of my top reads of 2022.

And I have only two words left to say: READ IT!

Highly recommend! It didn't not disappoint..I cannot wait to get a final version of it! A true feminist novel with inspiring heroine.

Absolutely fabulous. Loved this debut novel. I laughed and I cried. Elizabeth is my favourite book character of 2022. Will there be a sequel? a film? a TV series?

A very interesting look at how women have been treated just because they are women rather than men. I shall be shouting about this book.

Lessons in Chemistry is about Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist in the 1960s, who has to continually prove herself against sexist and misogynistic behaviour. I really liked the character Elizabeth who came across as formidable, intelligent and strong and I also really liked her relationship with Calvin, which seemed realistic. I enjoyed this book even though it enraged me at times, and it made me think that some of the behaviours of society that we see today still haven't changed since then in how we treat women.

Fabulous, original, full of life and very unexpected! Elizabeth is a force to be reckoned with in a world where everyone is labelled and conformity is the rule. She is a chemist surrounded by men who won't acknowledge her because she is a woman. Until she meets the one man who sees her for who she really is, and not what society dictates. Until a cruel twist of fate takes him away from her and she is left trying to make her own way with a baby. An opportunity arises to host a cooking show, where the fact she dares to be different actually makes it a success. Twists and turns in the past add even more flavour to this wonderful story that I was so sad to finish

Wow!!
This is so unlike anything I’ve ever read before!
Elizabeth is an extraordinary character, an absolute powerhouse of a woman who is interesting and inspirational to both those around her in the book and all of us readers in the modern day! She embodies the spirit of believing in yourself and fighting for that despite obstacles and idiots who might not support you.
This book is funny, enlightening, refreshing and a fascinating insight in to what women faced, and continue to face, to succeed in a man’s world. This absolute must have an adaptation but it needs to be a series to really explore it all in detail.
Imagine the sets! The costumes!
I can picture it all so clearly and that’s the mark of a truly fantastic book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bonnie Garmus and her publisher for an advance reading copy of this delightful book.
"Lessons in Chemistry" is well in the running to becoming one of my top favourite reads of 2022. Elizabeth Zott is a scientist! a chemist! a woman! The book, set in 50's/60's America, tells of her struggle to break free from the confines of being a women (and an extremely intelligent woman at that) in a man's world. Bonnie Garmus has given us a raft of beautiful, memorable characters that all add so much to the story. From the very beginning I absolutely loved Elizabeth and her quirkiness, I laughed with her, raged with her and cried for her. I believe the author has hit just the right note in telling us Elizabeth's story and know that its one that will stay with you well after the last page. Highly recommended and definitely worth every one of my five stars.

This is one of my top 5 books in 2022, a book that made me laugh/shout with rage/move to tears and a page turner I couldn't put it down.
It's the story of a woman who fight, who that her merits are acknowledge, and live out of the grid but according to what she wants.
I work in high tech and I'm old enough to know that the "you're the secretary" phrase is something I heard well into this century, even when I was the project manager. It's not a secret that life for women in STEM is not easy and this book is the perfect description of what was but can also be now.
I loved the wry humour, Elizabeth, and the excellent storytelling. I can't find no fault in this book and I hope a lot of people will read it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Elizabeth zott is a scientist in the 50s/60s and trying to fight back against the sexism she is facing every day.
I absolutely loved this book ! I thought Zott was so well written, she stood up for herself when no one else would, she kept true to herself despite the many many barriers that she faced.
This book made me cry, made me happy, made me angry. Id recommend this book to anyone.
TW: there are themes of sexual assault in this book.

Lessons in Chemistry tells the story of a Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist in the '60s who finds herself single, pregnant, and fired from her lab job. She ends up hosting a cooking show while raising her young daughter in order to make ends meet. Throughout her life, she has remained headstrong against setbacks and sexism and, especially through her cooking show, encourages women to believe in themselves and challenge the status quo.

I absolutely loved this. So why only 3 stars?

Bonnie Garmus is an excellent writer whose creativity knows no bounds with the rich and eccentric world she's built, but I do think the book could've done with a tighter, more concise edit. The reason my rating is 3 stars is because there's so much excessive detail that it slowly the pace of the entire book down massively. It's a hard criticism, because everything she included was well-written and only added to the depth of the characters, but it felt difficult to read at times, particularly during the first 30% where I almost DNF'd a few times because of the detailed, seemingly endless pages about rowing. Rowing is a unique activity to include, not something you usually see in media, and it did connect through the story, but my god, it was so dull.

Specifically, there are two issues that stand out to me regarding pacing: The first is that we spend a considerable chunk of the book in the past and, while in the past, we can sometimes go back even further. This was exhausting at times because of how much this happened and how much I wanted to return to action that actually moves the narrative forward, but there wasn't too much of that, which leads to the second issue. the book is very character-heavy. We seem to get the inner thoughts and sometimes backstories of every character, including the dog's POV (very enjoyable actually), but again this caused the narrative to often move slowly. And that's not to say it wasn't always interesting, or that I didn't want to learn more about these characters, because I did, but... at what cost? The book lacked focus a lot, trying to do too much at once. It does have a multi-layered plot which comes together nicely at the end.

I wish we learned more about Elizabeth, but her true self is reserved only for herself. Her privacy is understandable as you learn more about her, but even us, as the audience, don't get to know too much about what's really going on inside that magnificent brain of hers. Elizabeth is smart, speaks her mind, stands up for herself, and sees the world differently. She questions everything and believes in equality at a time where those thoughts were few and far between. In fact, Elizabeth strikes me as potentially autistic considering all of this, and the way she communicates, reads social cues, and experiences emotions. It's good representation.

Lessons of Chemistry is one hell of a book. It's unusual in that I've never read a book with a protagonist like this, though some have come close, or a story like this. It's an exceptional piece of fiction that is well-written, laugh-out-loud funny, has a wide range of lovable and interesting characters, explores a number of widespread themes, and connects everything together with vigour.

It's not surprising that this has been picked up by Apple TV with Brie Larson starring as Elizabeth Zott. I love Brie and I am super excited to see how the adaptation turns out, because I truly think this was made for the screen and that it will adapt really well. I hope it brings the '60s aesthetics to life because the book only felt connected to that era through sexism alone.

*I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this.

Lessons in Chemistry is a tongue in cheek novel about Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist turned cookery show host living in 1960s California. Elizabeth faces a huge amount of discrimmination at work and after her partner dies, she is left to raise an illigitimate daughter on her own. She then ends up working as a TV show cost. On the surface it seems like she is teaching women how to cook but she's actually encouraging them to break free from the expectations of a patriarchal society and to put themselves first.

It's hard to describe this book properly and do it justice, as it's so witty and fun. I definitely agree with the comparisons to books like Where'd You Go Bernadette, it's written in a way that's slightly humour to the readers but serious to the characters.

This is probably one of the best books I've read this year and I think it will be a hit when it's released.

As I reread the blurb, I think: this is the first blurb I’ve read for years that is accurate, not overblown, and where I completely agree with its final tagline.

I read this book in two sittings. Not because I wanted to stop, but I wanted it to last longer. They were long sittings, but I really did want to turn the page to find out what awful/amazing/gut-wrenching thing was going to happen next.

I may have been a teen in the 1960s, but this really was what women had to put up with. The memories flood back of all the put-downs, the ‘you can’t do that, you’re a woman’ and the whole male-driven society that stole women’s brainwork and passed it off as their own. Professors still do that in some universities, but now they are merely the lead name on the papers of their students or tutees, or sub-professors.

And having just finished Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?, I realise that yes, I do know what discrimination is like, and I have been fighting it for years, so my worries about not being able to empathise with people of colour is totally unfounded. You should have tried to be a career woman before the Thatcher revolution of the Eighties.

You have probably realised by now that the writing is luminescent, the plot twisty and turny, and with several unexpected loops. The characters are brilliantly drawn, especially Six-Thirty (you’ll have to read it).

In fact, you HAVE to read it. Believe me, you don’t want to miss this one, even if you’re only 20 now.

And I learnt a lot about chemistry

Invigorating, intelligent and laugh-out-loud entertaining.

This was just wonderful. Elizabeth Zott really is a literary heroine, she may not see her own wits as sparkling as Elizabeth Bennett's, or her passions as zealously portrayed as Catherine Earnshaw's, but Zott has wit, passion, mental fortitude and pluck enough to match any of them.

If I said to you this was a book about a woman who present a cookery show, you'd be wrong to conjure up Delia or Nigella in your head. Elizabeth Zott would be affronted. No, hers is a CHEMISTRY programme.

We rewind through Elizabeth's history, her hard-won battles to progress at all in a chemistry lab in 1960s America, where women are seen to only be in the workplace to snag a husband anyway. Her meeting with like-minded chemist Calvin Evans. A series of events that lead her to the front of a televisual lens and an audience of housewives used to being told they should keep their husbands happy with a good dinner. Right then.

A mould-breaker of a character, Zott affects those around her as well, and I could feel my cheeks glowing as I could see how one person really can change the world. Even if it is through casseroles.

She's just so logical and impossible to argue against: "...she didn't like the notion that systems had to be outsmarted. Why couldn't they just be smart in the first place?" And she's just a great role model: "Elizabeth simply refused to accept limits, not just for herself, but for others." There were a few lump-in-throat moments, I'll admit.

It's hard not to feel maddened and outraged at the attitudes and systems on display here: were these really the 'norm'? Regarding women in the workplace, the worth of the 'housewife', even how women treated each other. I hope we can see these as alien, six decades later, I really do.

A wealth of wonderful characters populate the book, from the central two chemists to their families and friends, acquaintances and colleagues. And a particularly smart canine, who also takes his share of the narration, rather winningly.

This gives insight into what the 60s was quite possibly like for many women. It also doesn't talk down to the reader or indeed Zott's audience when it delves into the science of cooking, and even made me think less harshly of the art/sport of rowing.

There are a lot of quotes you can pull from the book, the ones that make you chuckle, gasp, shake your head. Even the profound: "Wasn't that the very definition of life? Constant adaptations brought about by a series of never-ending mistakes?" One feels one could use this book as a life guide.

Endlessly entertaining, I stayed up late and woke up early to finish it. I'd read it again, and I hope against hope someone puts it on the screen. We need a bit of Zott in our lives.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

Lessons in chemistry is an extremely intricate tale of feminism in a time where women's roles were fixed and any deviation was shot down immediately. I fell in love with this book in the first 12% and absolutely became immersed in Elizabeth Zott's story. The way the story is told is so beautifully done and I loved each character's pov- it was distinct and well done.
Elizabeth's story is the same of so many women and the way the author presented this was extremely well done. I absolutely adored the idea of a cooking show based purely on chemistry and the way in which an activity usually put on women to complete is then used as a tool to inspire women to reach beyond the cards they believe they have been dealt, and make the own history.
As Elizabeth says, Chemistry is change. Although she is fiction, she is an inspiration.
(Also as a HUGE sidenote I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH IM CURRENTLY SCREAMING AT ALL MY FRIENDS TO READ THIS AND I WOULD LIKE THE AUTHOR TO KNOW THAT I WILL BE REREADING THIS ONCE I ACQUIRE MY WATERSTONES EDITION.)
Thank you Bonnie Garmus!!!