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Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller

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Why can’t we have a woman who is a brilliant chemist but isn’t naive, socially awkward, and clueless? Did I need to read details of a man who masturbates and flings pubic hairs across the room, leaving behind his sticky porn magazines for his wife to clean up? The chemistry between her and the star scientist, Calvin Evans, another man who does not fit either, leads to love, the two of them living together, Zott does not believe in marriage, and their religion is science. Yet Elizabeth isn't wired that way, and the journey of this book shows her humor, warmth, and intelligence in a way that baffles the status quo.

It’s November 1961 and chemist Elizabeth Zott, who works at the Hastings Institute, has fallen into a TV role hosting ‘Supper at Six’ and has become an unlikely star in the ascendant. I also think it's lazy and assumes that the readers are ignorant, not to mention, that it doesn't take that long to google. This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club July 2022 selection and a Summer Reading Guide Minimalist Pick. One of her viewers, a housewife with five kids, goes and becomes a doctor solely because Elizabeth is like 'yeah, sure, you can do that.I’ll definitely be tuning in when it debuts, but personally I hope it softens the novel’s sharp edges a bit. The novel’s manuscript was snatched up in a bidding war for adaptation rights by Apple TV+ pre-publication, so actress Brie Larson is already cast to play Elizabeth Zott. Years later, as a single mother, Elizabeth finds herself the star of a live cooking show: Supper at Six. Because of the gender roles of that era, her passions and talents for chemistry are going to waste until she ends up with a nightly television show teaching other women how to cook.

This is an amazing debut novel with quirky characters, socially relevant topics, emotional swings, winks of humor and laugh-out-loud moments! One major scene and plot point deals with sexual assault, and I just wish it hadn’t gone allllllll the way there. I did have some issues with the story but overall it is humorous, clever, and allows Elizabeth to shine in all her intelligent glory. I don’t need a lecture and I don’t need to be repeatedly hit over the head on relevant social issues. However, Elizabeth is no ordinary woman, she refuses to pander to fragile male egos, it worries her not one whit that she doesn't fit in at the patriarchal Hastings Institute, she accepts no limitations for herself, nor for anyone else.Five year old Madeline has almost finished reading Dickens and is now reading The Sound and the Fury. But one day Elizabeth needs beakers and she knows Calvin has beakers so she barges into his lab and takes some. It's the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman determined to live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a side. She's fearless in the face of adversity, she stays true to herself, and she never lets others intimidate her into being less than all she can be.

The producers want her to smile and look pretty, but Elizabeth is much more interested in teaching housewives not just how to make dinner, but how to change their lives. So this book centres on Elizabeth Zott, an impossibly intelligent woman with perfect 21st-century politics (also she's beautiful but she doesn't, like, care about that) who's been inexplicably plopped into a 1950s setting. Not just any woman, but an atypical one who has no interest in marriage or the other traditional trappings of domestic life.I'm a staunch feminist and I agreed and/or recognised most issues, still, I just found this novel annoying, heavy-handed, and way too on the nose. 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 . With her… unique… approach to cooking and can-do-attitude… Elizabeth finds herself teaching women more than to cook.

Although Lessons in Chemistry involves extremely important societal issues, the storytelling is phenomenal. one - gender pay gaps, stay-at-home mothers not being appreciated, women in STEM, working women, sexual harassment and the whole gamut of issues. I gave all of my votes to this book, both for the best debut and historical fiction categories, at the Goodreads Choice Awards.Where the woman's place is in the home, remaining silent, and following along with what the men say. As a debut it was certainly original, as a means of delivering messages it was convincing, as a woman I was less convinced about Elizabeth hence the 4 stars.

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