Blurb:

Your ability to change everything – including yourself – starts here

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’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation.

Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time.

Review:

I’ve heard so much about Lessons In Chemistry that I finally had to dive in and see what everyone is talking about. I’m so glad that I did. I loved the author’s easy writing style that was often injected with humour and I remained engaged throughout the whole story. 

The protagonist is Elizabeth Zott and she’s exactly the kind of character I was able to root for. She’s intelligent, determined, well-spoken and assertive and I admired her ability to stand up for herself and her beliefs in a world that was much less tolerant than it is today. I really wanted her to achieve her dreams. Elizabeth is not the only female character with a story to tell: Harriet, Madeline and Miss Frask all have stories to tell and I loved the way that the author allowed us to see them grow. At this point, I must also shout out to Six-Thirty, one of literature’s most loyal and intelligent dogs.

Behind the easy writing style and the humour, Bonnie Garmus has a strong message for us which she conveys really well. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was less socially acceptable for women, especially women with young children, to pursue a career, Bonnie Garmus paints a clear and damming picture of society. Her research has obviously been thorough and this helps the reader to get behind Elizabeth’s cause. There are some uncomfortable scenes in the novel which make the message even more powerful.

Lessons In Chemistry is available from Amazon.