But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. Maisel, this blockbuster debut set in 1960s California features the singular voice of Elizabeth Zott, a scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show.Ĭhemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. I’ll definitely be tuning in when it debuts, but personally I hope it softens the novel’s sharp edges a bit.Ī delight for readers of Where'd You Go, Bernadette and The Marvelous Mrs. If the series is faithful to the novel, it’ll end up feeling like a #metoo-era feminist woman took a time machine back to the 1960s. 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. I think when picking up a book like this I’m looking to escape darker reads that include violence against women. One major scene and plot point deals with sexual assault, and I just wish it hadn’t gone allllllll the way there. My slight hesitation in fully recommending Lessons in Chemistry is that it deals with some very serious themes. I enjoyed my time with Elizabeth Zott and look forward to whatever Bonnie Garmus writes next. (That’s vinegar for all you non-sciency types like me.) It also puts items like “acetic acid” on their shopping lists. “Suppers at Six” finally gives home-bound, invisible moms a platform to ask questions, dream big, and prioritize themselves. 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. Still, one thing leads to another, and she finds herself with a daughter living in the suburbs. Not just any woman, but an atypical one who has no interest in marriage or the other traditional trappings of domestic life. Only problem is that the mind is in the body of the woman.

Lessons in Chemistry tells the story of a brilliant scientific mind in the 1960s. Or as the book’s heroine Elizabeth Zott would say, a grain of sodium chloride. 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.

Lessons in chemistry a novel