This book has been getting a lot of positive buzz and 5 stars reviews. It deserves them. Being a female scientist today can be challenging, in the 1960s it was really tough. Elizabeth Zott is brilliant. The men she works with hate this about her but it doesn't stop them from stealing credit for her work. When life throws her a serious curve she finds herself as a single mother trying to earn a living. Bingo, a desperate TV programmer hires her to do a cooking show. But she is teaching chemistry not cooking,
This book has memorable characters, especially the dog, six-thirty. Yes the dog's name is six-thirty which tells you a lot about the delightful quirky quality of this book.
This is a review of an advanced reader galley provided by NetGalley.

Being a woman scientist today is hard enough with the lack of work-life-balance, respect, and pay. Set in the 1950s, Lessons in Chemistry follows the science career and life struggles of fictional character Elizabeth Zott.

Right away, I loved Elizabeth. She was strong, determined, and did not take BS from anyone. She strived to be equal to men, in a time where this was unheard of.

I had such high hopes for this debut novel. I wanted her to have a happy ever after, I really did, but I also knew this was impossible given how realistic to the time the majority of the book was written. That is likely the reason why the ending feel flat for me.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @doubleday for the advanced digital copy.

10/10

Wow.

I’m honored to get to read books prior to release (thank you NetGalley). Every now and then, I stumble onto a book from a first time author that I know is destined for Best Seller status. It was obvious with “The Maid” by Nita Prose and it’s obvious with “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus.

Elizabeth Zott, the protagonist of this book, is a strong woman. She is one of the most powerful and memorable of recent fiction, in the same vein as (where’d you go) Bernadette Fox, and (the marvelous) Mrs Maisel.

Elizabeth is crazy smart. She is studying for her PhD in chemistry. There are only two problems: 1) she’s an attractive female and 2) it’s the 1950s and 60s. Society has deemed a woman’s place is in the home.

But Zott is not one to give in.

“Lessons in Chemistry” is many things. It’s a thrashing of cultural norms as it relates to gender, sex and diversity. It’s a call to follow your dreams and not let anybody drag you down. It’s a testament to true love. And it’s an amazing story. You will laugh, you will cry, you will shout things out loud.

Not surprisingly, there was a bidding war for rights to this book. Apple TV won and they are turning it into a limited series. I can’t wait to watch the show and be disappointed at how the book is so much better.

Elizabeth Zott is my new hero. I want to live my life like Zott.

Amazing job Bonnie! Consider me a new fan.

#netgalley #lessonsinchemistry

Elizabeth Zott is strong and quirky - loved walking through the 1950s with her. While I enjoyed this book, it was easy to walk away from for days and return to, not really a page-turner.

This book was such a fun read! I laughed and I cried. This book was written well and I absolutely loved the dog. I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a good story with great characters and a dog to fall in love with

Thank you @netgalley and @doubleday for my ebook ARC 🙏🏻
Pub date - April 5, 2022

What a cool, interesting piece of Historical Fiction, set in the 1960’s! This book addresses so many issues of the time, women’s expected roles and their struggles with stereotypes and gender differences. I thoroughly enjoyed the main character, Elizabeth Zott. She’s a refreshing character, and this book is so unique and incredibly well written.

Highly recommend!

I think this new author will go far. This is a well written, fast paced novel set in the 1960's with lots of twists and turns and feel good moments. Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, an unusual career for a woman at that time who is trying to survive in a world that doesn't recognize her talent and knowledge. Men want to take credit for her work and don't want her to exist on a level playing field. This is the story of her fight for recognition and compensation for her talents. It is interesting with great characters and lots of plot twists to get where she should have been all along.. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

A great debut novel that portrays women in a strong way when it was frowned upon in the 1960s. I loved the main character and her tenacity.

Definitely a recommended read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Bonnie Gamus and Doubleday Books Doubleday for an ARC in exchange for honest review.

Available: 4/5/22

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a delightfully charming story about Elizabeth Zott, feminist, chemist and all-around fresh character. Taking place in the 1960s, at a time when women were nowhere near at equal pay or equal status as men, we meet Elizabeth, who will have none of that. She’s quirky, unintentionally witty and a character you won’t soon forget.

After suffering some very serious misogynistic and abusive behavior while getting her PHD, it was assumed by her colleagues that she just “couldn’t cut it” as a PHD student. They were wrong. Her brain was her superpower, yet the men wouldn’t give her a fair shake at things until she meets Calvin Evans. Their story is woven together nicely and oddly realistically.

When Elizabeth becomes a single mother to Mad, with not one nurturing bone in her body, we see a new side to her. Help from her neighbor Harriet who’s in a loveless marriage becomes her lifeline and together the three of them become a force to be reckoned with. Elizabeth also finds herself on a row team and becomes a major TV superstar with her cooking show Supper at Six.

She brings the chemistry behind food to the mix and women start realizing their potential through her actions. She’s bold, says exactly what she feels with no filter or says nothing at all, which speak volumes.



I’d be remiss not to mention her beloved dog, six-thirty, who does some narration of his own. It was so well done! This is a fiercely amusing, powerful and all-around fun read.

Lessons in Chemistry made me angry and made me hopeful. It brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh out loud. The cast of characters is delightful, except for those who aren't. It's only February, but this may end up being one of my favorite books of the year.

4 Stars

Lessons in Chemistry, the debut novel by Bonnie Garmus, is a meet-cute with an agenda!
Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant scientist, has the misfortune to be born in a time when women aren't allowed to sign their own checks, be scientists (that are taken seriously), live with a man that they love (unless they are married), have a child (out of wedlock), or expect to have anything they say be taken seriously (including any kind of sexual aggression against them). Elizabeth has to fight her whole life to work in a lab and practice the type of science that she loves to study. She loves chemistry, she loves her partner (Calvin Evans, also a stand-out chemist) and she loves her daughter (Madeline).

I enjoyed this story of Elizabeth, Calvin, their exceptional dog (named Six-Thirty) and young Madeline as well as the cast of characters in the story. A large portion of this story is based around the fact that Elizabeth reluctantly becomes an afternoon-television star teaching housewives the chemistry of cooking delicious food. She eschews the tight costumes and kitschy set kitchen created for her, and does things her own way, instilling the idea that housewives should be taken seriously as women who are very important people who have dreams and rights! Surprisingly to the executives who want her to dress sexy and serve cocktail recipes (which she will not do), Elizabeth's show is WILDLY popular and starts a movement of women finally believing that they can be smart, go to school, should be respected, are important.

Overall, very well done. I'm wondering though, if younger people my daughter's age (20's) will actually believe that there was a time that women were treated this way. Or if they will think the author is taking a poetic license with the way things were. In many ways, the world has progressed so much that the thought of a girl not being able to be a chemist or open her own bank account, in the United States, is a foreign concept.

Recommended reading for those who enjoy a pro-feminine meet-cute!!

Many thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus in exchange for an honest review. #LessonsinChemistry #NetGalley

LOVED IT! I had read so many good reviews of this book that I couldn't wait to get my hands on it - those reviews were spot on! I laughed so much reading it my husband wanted to know what in the world I was reading. I do love a book with humor. This book reminded me of the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

The story is set in the 1950s and early 1960s. Elizabeth Zott is working at Hastings Research Institute at a job for which she is over-qualified. She is not liked by the all male chemists because she is brilliant and many times makes them look bad, and is not liked by the women because she is attractive. They refer to her among themselves using a couple of derogatory nicknames. Elizabeth refuses to bow to anyone's preconceived expectations of what a woman should be and stands her ground when she feels she is wronged, regardless of social norms.

Elizabeth meets the famous chemist, Calvin Evans, when she is swiping his beakers (because they wouldn't buy her needed equipment). Calvin came to the Hastings Institute not because it was the best place to work or because they paid him a lot, but because the weather in the town, he was told, was good for rowing. Calvin liked very much to row, but he hated rain. Anyway, through a few interesting meetings, Calvin and Elizabeth get together.

I was rooting for Elizabeth throughout the book. Really loved the cooking show! Elizabeth's adventures kept me laughing and I loved her determination. I couldn't put this book down. I was lost in it until the end.

Thanks to Doubleday Books, Doubleday through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on April 5, 2022. Don't miss this one!!

I think this book will be a hit when it is released! Very cute, humorous, with some really sweet characters, including some narration by the pet dog! It did remind me of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Clever story as well with a powerful message. It took me a while to get into it, but once I was, it was hard to put down. Enjoyed the cover as well!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Doubleday books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist that just wants to be a chemist but is finding it a struggle in the male dominated world of 1960s chemistry. She is surprised to find Caleb Evans who falls in love with her mind. When life tries to derail her she becomes even more determined to be a chemist. Unexpectedly she becomes the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. To the dismay of the men in charge she won't fit into the expected mold and cooks through chemistry and inspires women to think about the world in a new way.

What an incredible debut novel! Lessons in Chemistry is a sometimes comical, sometimes tragic story about a female chemist in the 60’s who finds herself pregnant just after the love of her life has died and as such quickly fired from her lab job. In a desperate effort to support her young daughter, she accepts a job hosting a home cooking show. Through her show, she doggedly challenges the status quo by using chemistry to teach her viewers not only how to prepare a meal but how to see themselves as more than just cooks. 

This book is filled to the brim with quirky, loveable characters and villainous characters you will love to hate.

Elizabeth is resourceful, determined, resilient, and full of purpose. She is also resolute in her determination to teach others that women have the capability to become all they desire to be.

Elizabeth’s daughter Mad is brilliant, precocious, and utterly loveable. Harriet is the benevolent and big-hearted neighbor who steps in to help and quickly becomes part of the family.

And it goes without saying that you are going to FALL IN LOVE with Six-Thirty, the dog. You just wait. Remember I told you so. He even has his own Instagram @sixthirtythedog.

I did have a couple of issues, but they are subjective, so I will not delve into them. I only mention them because they were the only reason this wasn’t a five-star read for me.

I’d like to add that I closed this book and said to myself, “This will make an incredible series.” Soon after, I learned that it’s being adapted into an Apple TV+ series to be produced by and starring Brie Larson. I absolutely can not wait, and I hope the series does Elizabeth, Mad and Six-Thirty justice.

Also, dare I hope for a sequel? That would just be incredible!

I definitely recommend this delightful and quirky book, and I think it will be one everyone is talking about soon enough.

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book before its April 5 publication date.

Do you ever finish reading a book and think: Wow. Now that was a good book. This was a good book. Everyonce in a while I need to take a break from my thrillers, and this was perfect. This is the tale of Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist, who refuses to live like others expect her to. While Elizabeth is the main character, her daughter, thier dog, the next door neighbor, and a minister all have thier own stories to add to the mix. If you liked Where'd You go Bernadette, this is up your alley. Highly recommended.

Being a chemist is not an easy thing for a woman to be in the '50s and '60s, and is maybe not all that easy now, although I imagine it would be easier if there really had been a woman like Elizabeth Zott to look the world straight in the eye, ask "Why not?" and refuse to take no for an answer. Elizabeth is a chemist, and refuses to be treated like anything other than the serious scientist she is.

However, until Elizabeth can remake the world in her vision of gender equality, she must go on doing her television cooking show so that she can support herself and her daughter. On Supper at Six, though, the cooking is a mere byproduct of the chemistry she's really teaching, and both cooking and chemistry are ancillary to the confidence she gives to the women across the country who tune in faithfully every weekday.

If this book has a flaw, it's that Elizabeth has one too many diatribes about the unfairness, nay, illogic, of keeping women out of the sciences. Fortunately, Garmus has given Elizabeth such an authentic voice, and made her such a sympathetic character, that this reader, at least, was more than willing to make allowances. And it's not just Elizabeth; Elizabeth has a support network par excellence, and each one contributes their unique voice to make this book a pleasure to read.

Garmus's debut effort is truly a wonderful book, and one that I'll be recommending for a long time. I'm excited to see what she writes next.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

This book was advertised as being about Elizabeth Zott: "a one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show."

I went into this book expecting to read a funny and quirky story about a main character (compared in reviews to Bernadette from Where'd you Go, Bernadette?) and for me it sadly did not deliver. This book started out promising and in the first few chapters I liked the main characters, but that's where the "fun" ended for me.

This book threw SO many heavy and tragic things into the main characters' backstories and just casually mentioned them all (religious abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, loss of parents, car accidents etc. etc.) almost in a list form for dramatic affect and it really set a weird tone for the rest of the book. It was hard to tell if this book was trying to be a romance or a mystery or a coming-of-age novel...I really just don't know what the goal was here.

The main character quickly became insufferable for me and I couldn't even stand the dog (part of the story was randomly from his perspective).

I truly wish I had better things to say and while it did not work for me, I'm sure there are a lot of people that would still enjoy this unique book.

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Doubleday books for an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will be published on April 5th.

I found this book so fascinating. The journey of Elizabeth and Calvin was so fraught with heartbreak and turmoil, I couldn’t put the book down I had to know what would happen next. That was the magical thing about this book; it was filled with so many tough scenes and topics, but it also gave you little glimmers of hope that everything would turn out ok, that you had to keep going. Elizabeth and Calvin were so odd and yet endearing, I loved their relationship. Elizabeth’s tenacity was also a wonder; I couldn’t imagine navigating a world that was so against women- she was a force to be reckoned with. This is a story unlike any other and I highly recommend!

This book is f*****g fantastic. If you read no other reviews or the rest of mine, that is all you need to know. You need this book in your life. This was special. This was different. This was F*****G fantastic!

I truly don't know how to review this. This was unlike anything I've ever read, this was science heavy in a science-for-dummies kind of way. I was nervous I would get lost with the science, but it was engaging, enlightening, inspiring and interesting. Elizabeth Zott is someone that will stay with me for years to come. She was every woman at some point in our lives. She was told no or you can't simply because she was a woman. She lived a brutal life in many ways and yet did not let it define her. She used it as her own person fuel to overcome and prove her naysayers wrong.

I feel like this review will be utter word vomit compared to the beautiful imagery and thoughts I have in my head of how special this book was. This was zany, at times weird, the pacing wasn't 100% spot on and around 51% I considered DNFing it, but at exactly 65% it clicked and I became utterly obsessed with finishing this. Thank you Jojo for listening to my rapid-fire texts of my thoughts on this one. Go check out her review - I think we felt so similar, but she was 100% in from page one and I definitely had to warm up to the story. And that is what I love about reading. We both LOVED this book hard and had totally different experiences with it.

The writing style! I can't even describe it. We have many points of views that are never expressly explained who it is at that given moment, but never once did I feel lost. I mean we had a dog, Six-Thirty, who spoke to us and it wasn't weird in the slightest. Zany? Yep. Wonderful? YEP YEP!

I took notes as I was reading and at some point I wrote "there is not enough paper to write down even some of the quotes I loved"...so I'll leave you with this one:

"Take the helm. Steer. When in doubt, pretend."

This is out April 5 - just preorder now and begin devouring this on April 5 at midnight. I am eternally grateful to NetGalley, Double Day Books and Bonnie Garmus for this eARC. This was something so truly special and I am so STOKED to see it has been picked up by AppleTV for a series. Now...I pity the book I choose to read next, because it has enormous shoes to fill.