Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller

Product Information

Anachronisms. Subsidized child care in Sweden wasn’t enacted until 1975, although the MC refers to it in 1960. And was defunding the police a thing in the early 1950s? I think not. Although Lessons in Chemistry involves extremely important societal issues, the storytelling is phenomenal. The book is absolutely riveting! The way the author pits science and religion against one another is exhausting. As if a person couldn’t possibly have a rational, scientific brain and also believe in something supernatural. 😑 She relies HEAVILY on negative stereotypes of the Catholic Church to prove her point that religion is ignorant, and I’m just tired of this argument. It’s boring, small-minded, and irritating to belittle someone or a group of people you personally disagree with REGARDLESS OF WHAT CAMP YOU’RE IN. Can we be adults and agree to disagree without being petty and taking a shot at someone’s intelligence?

Bonnie Garmus has done a wonderful job in presenting an unorthodox protagonist with her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. Meet Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s woman who loves being a chemist during a time when women were expected to be housewives. Her daughter, Madeline, was so over the top it was ridiculous. She “befriended” a priest and investigated her father’s family tree? At age 4? It’s weird. I loved the author's extra-intelligent, dark, original sense of humor, and I fell in love with her characters. The story of Elizabeth brought out so many complex feelings: I laughed, I got angry, I cried, I sighed, I laughed again, and as soon as I finished the last chapter, I gave my ovation! This is an underrated secret gem! Don't you dare skip this book or let it sit in your TBR pile. Just read it! Elizabeth as a main character just isn't that likeable. I get that she is supposed to be super intelligent and 'quirky' but she doesn't feel like a real person for much of the book, there is nothing to connect to. She also speaks like she is quoting from a textbook about sexism and feminism which does not feel genuine or organic. It felt more like the author was lecturing us. Also don't get me started about her daughter and how intelligent and advanced she was at a ridiculously young age. Of course she had a genius daughter. *eye roll* This book enraged me, frustrated me, made me laugh out loud in many places, especially when Harriet first enters the story, and it made me tear up in painful sorrow, in sympathy, and finally in happiness. And it accomplished all this without angst.The dog, Six-Thirty, is even more advanced (hence, I’ve shelved this as magical-realism). I know dogs are clever and empathetic, but paragraphs of his profound and knowledgeable philosophising on often abstract concepts were just silly. He even had opinions on Proust! Her enthusiasm had a contagious magnetism about her. I appreciated her passion for her excitement in writing this book —

for me, quite a good book, light read and really do root for the protagonist although she can feel like a mary sue and seem to just win way too often by the second half of the book which does take you out of jt a bit if you think about it too hard. I read it on my wife's behest and I'm glad that I did. It took me a little while to get involved with it but I'm glad I pushed through the first couple of chapters and started to get the momentum. In front of a live audience, Elizabeth uses her platform to not only teach women about the chemistry of cooking, but about life being more important than cooking! It's about following your dream of having a family and a career just like men do!I loved the characters in this book. They were well developed and full of unique personalities. This group of misfits captured my heart - an obsessed and brilliant scientist, an unwed mother, an unhappy housewife, a precocious child, a minister with an open mind, a struggling single dad, and an amazing dog. Lessons in Chemistry was the GoodReads 2022 Debut Novel of the Year, and Garmus is one to watch if this novel is her debut. Well written with a driving storyline, some parts may be triggering to those who have experienced abusive relationships however. Elizabeth and Calvin even get a dog and name him Six-thirty. Then fate intervenes and Elizabeth and Six-thirty are on their own until baby Mad is born. Elizabeth never wanted children and she certainly never wanted to be a single mother. Elizabeth never wanted to be famous for a cooking show that she gets wrangled into hosting, either, but when money is tight, something has to give and now Elizabeth is fighting with her cooking show bosses rather than her Hastings Research Institute bosses. Elizabeth is famous for all the wrong reasons (according to her bosses) while the women who are glued to her show five days a week are seeing all the opportunities they never knew they had, to be more than housewives and mothers. My enjoyment value was simply ‘so-so’. I didn’t come away with the enthusiasm for this book like many other readers did.

There is a wonderful sense of nostalgia created by the author and a lot of members of the club became very remeniscent of the past and their memories and shared experiences that were shown in the book (both positive and negative). When Elizabeth Zott is growing up… the only thing she knows for certain is that she likes science. During the 1960s, while she was working at the Hastings Institute on groundbreaking research in abiogenesis – gender equality was nonexistent (even among scientists who should know better.) Life takes her through unexpected turns into falling in love with her co-worker Calvin Evans. Years later, as a single mother, Elizabeth finds herself the star of a live cooking show: Supper at Six. With her… unique… approach to cooking and can-do-attitude… Elizabeth finds herself teaching women more than to cook. She’s teaching them to value themselves and change the world. Great book for sparking discussion about the treatment of women and whether things have changed all that much today? Her blunt and honest comments about marriage, religion, and society's norms will be considered rebellious and unconventional.Also, we are given information at the end that suggests there was a valid reason Elizabeth wasn’t accepted in the doctoral program, that had nothing to do with her gender or an incident that happened early in the book. This confused me?! What was the message? 🤷🏻‍♀️ And it deserves a further eye roll for the fact that because she is all into science and logic and whatever, this means Elizabeth is also cold, robotic and devoid of emotion. Cos we all know you can't be a scientist AND have feelings. Maybe the author worried if she showed emotion we'd find her too womanly. If you don’t take the book too seriously and literally then you might love, it. If you try to analyse all the messages and connect it to your personal situation, then you might tear it apart.

Elizabeth is ANNOYING. Like…SO annoying. Both my parents have PhDs in research chemistry and I can attest to the fact that they call salt SALT and vinegar VINEGAR. And they know how to have social interactions with other humans.🙄 Because they aren’t PRETENTIOUS!! Also, it’s unrealistic that just because she knows one area of chemistry she automatically knows how to cook and knows all the biological reactions that occur in the body. There are a million different avenues of chemistry, and food science is COMPLETELY different than “abiogenesis” which was supposedly her main area of study. So you’re telling me she’s just an expert at literally all chemistry? 🤔 I call BS. Elizabeth Zott is the EPITOME of a “I’m not like other girls” girl. No please.✋🏼 Women can be smart AND socially adept.The emphasis of her being ahead of her day; a strong woman; or a groundbreaking woman felt false-hearted. Through some crazy, at times hilarious encounter, she meets Calvin Evans. He is a gangly sort of guy but also a brilliant scientist and well-known at the Hastings Institute. Calvin had an intense love for rowing, that’s why he accepted the job at this lowly Institute when he could have been doing research at any number of universities. He came to California for the nice weather and the ability to row all year long. Elizabeth Zott has a brilliant mind, so she believes but not a view shared by many men, except Calvin Evans. A man who has created his own rule book and because of his prized work is revered. Yet a man who shares Elizabeth’s passion for chemistry, igniting a romance and a discovery of soul mates that was not destined to last, when Calvin’s life was cut short prematurely. I am not usually a fan of anthropomorphism but I loved the dog, Six-Thirty. By far he was my favorite character. And yay, he survives! 😍 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.