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. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results.
Like science, life is unpredictable. 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. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
TWG’s Thoughts.
‘Lessons In Chemistry’ ironically, was my treat to myself after donating blood one Sunday afternoon. I had seen the periodical beauty in the hands of multiple bloggers, authors, and other readers on social media, and, to be perfectly honest, I felt a bit left out. That’s a good enough reason to buy yourself a copy of a recent release, in hardback, alongside your weekly purchase of red grapes and gala apples, right?
Well, that’s my reasoning and I am sticking to it! Can I just say how BEAUTIFUL the cover of the book is? If you have the hardback, do yourself a favour and carefully look beneath the dust cover if you haven’t already. Isn’t it a thing of beauty? I’m no A+ student when it comes to science by any means (I mean, I’m 32 years old, a bit beyond that but STILL), but I can still appreciate a bit of O2 and h2o!
‘Lessons In Chemistry’ IS about science….without stating the obvious. If you’re thinking that you need to have a degree in chemistry to read the book, take a deep breath and calm yourself because that isn’t the case. In my opinion, all you really need to have is an open mind and the ability to see the good in those who are flawed. Elizabeth Zott is one of the most wholesome, well rounded characters I think I have ever come across in my history of reading. Yes, she is stubborn. Yes, she knows her own mind. Yes, she can seem a bit argumentative. Yes, she has the ability to overcomplicate matters instead of simplifying things. But since when has all of that been seen as a bad thing? If a male was like that, would he be treated the same as his female counterpart? No. And that is EXACTLY what Bonnie Garmus delves into within ‘Lessons In Chemistry’.
Set in a time where every.little.thing was governed by males, Bonnie Garmus has written a story in a bid to give women a voice. I’m sure most of you have heard of the Suffragettes – Elizabeth Zott would have been the ideal candidate to join in with them! People didn’t like Zott because she was different. She made cooking out to be a scientific experiment which, if you were to sit and think about it, baking a cake is scientific. However, people didn’t like that she didn’t fit the norm. She didn’t fit into the box that society was trying to tell her to sit in. Instead, she took that box and shoved it right up their backsides. By golly I hope that those people received a ton load of paper cuts at the same time!
I devoured ‘Lessons In Chemistry’ and I was absolutely gutted when it came to an end because it was just absolutely SPOT ON! I mean, who wouldn’t want to read a book that teaches you to be yourself, that shows you your flaws and opinions are part of you and people should accept you exactly who you are. People should be accepted for who they are, whether they are male or female. Gender doesn’t make you more important. Who you are, your morals, your experiences, to name but a few, is what makes you stand taller than the rest.
I would read ‘Lessons In Chemistry’ again in a heartbeat, and I urge you all to buy yourself a copy, put the phones on silent, bribe the children with everything they’re not supposed to have, and lose yourself in the charm that is Elizabeth Zott and ‘Lessons in Chemistry’. This is, without a doubt, one of my most favourite books I have ever read, and it taught me so much in what felt like a short space of time. Timeless, inspirational, touching, relatable, and absolutely perfect, this is, ‘Lessons In Chemistry’.
Buy now from Amazon.
The Writing Garnet 