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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 as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes 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. But 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 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.… (more)
Despite Elizabeth being a bit of an unlikable character (the pretentious use of chemical terminology in place of common vernacular/labels was ridiculous), the graphic on page rape and sexual assault scenes, the unbelievable bits (my 3.5 year old could read and write but ain’t nobody believes a 4 year old is reading and comprehending complex Russian literature), and the other problematic parts, I actually really enjoyed this.
I liked the writing style and a lot of the other characters. There was a lovely found family aspect and the romance was gut wrenching and beautiful - the grief hit me in the feels hard. I liked the feminist aspects and pacing also. ( )
This is somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me--and I went back and forth on how to rate it. At the beginning I was underwhelmed, but the story grew on me as I listened to it. It's set in the 1960s I believe--at a time when women scientists were few and women in most workplaces dealt with sexual harassment. What I liked: *Elizabeth Zott--a female in chemistry at a time when there were probably few women chemists in the United States *That Elizabeth didn't dumb down her cooking show for the female audience but believed that they could understand complex chemical concepts--and for encouraging women to follow their dreams even if their skill set fell outside what the norms for women at the time were. *SixThirty (the dog). I just fell in love with him from the time he was introduced. What I didn't like: *Much as I do feel Calvin and Elizabeth were soulmates--I didn't like that they never got married (Elizabeth seemed opposed to marriage)--and I didn't like that they were intimate outside of marriage. We don't really know if Elizabeth's pregnancy would have changed their relationship status. *Sexist attitudes: Elizabeth's professor, Elizabeth's boss at Hastings, Mrs. Mudford Etc. ( )
So many people claimed that Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus ranked as an exceptional novel. Yes, the book provides questions and answers concerning females in the workforce, but the abundance of chemistry terms in the book repelled me. The story centers on Elizabeth Zott and her quest to promote her skills in chemistry, but her male co-workers and boss all take credit for Elizabeth accomplishments. Then, a glimmer of hope at the end of the rainbow, as Elizabeth becomes a renown television cooking hostess utilizing her chemistry skills. Supporting characters, such as Harriet Sloane, Six-Thirty, Wakely, and Calvin Evans ease the story in support of quirky Elizabeth. And last, but not least, shines the highly intelligent Madeline, the daughter of Elizabeth. A story filled with hope, but, again, too much chemistry. ( )
Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving a second thought; back before anyone knew there’d even be a sixties movement, much less one that it’s participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling: back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.
Quotations
"Look," he said, "life has never been fair, and yet you continue to operate as if it is—as if once you get a few wrongs straightened out, everything else will fall into place. They won't. You want my advice?" And before she could say no, he added, "Don't work the system. Outsmart it."
If relationships are a puzzle, then theirs was solved from the get-go—as if someone shook out the box and watched from above as each separate piece landed exactly right, slipping one into the other, fully interlocked, into a picture that made perfect sense. They made other couples sick.
Thus the topic of family was like a cordoned-off room on a historic home tour.
"Call it a family tradition. Dying in accidents."
"No, I mean, was she also very religious?" Elizabeth hesitated. "Only if you count greed as a religion."
"People like my father preach love but are filled with hate."
"When I was a kid," Calvin said quietly, "I used to tell myself every day was new. That anything could happen."
Last week she'd peeked in on Mad during naptime and found the child sitting up in her crib explaining something in earnest to Six-Thirty. Elizabeth had hung back, watching in wonder as the baby, wobbling back and forth like a bowling pin threatening to topple, waved her hands as she chattered a steady stream of consonants and vowels strung together haphazardly, like laundry on a line, but delivered with the kind of passion that made it clear she was an expert in this area.
Having a baby, Elizabeth realized, was a little like living with a visitor from a distant planet. There was a certain amount of give and take as the visitor learned your ways and you learned theirs, but gradually their ways faded and your ways stuck. Which she found regrettable. Because unlike adults, her visitor never tired of even the smallest discovery; always saw the magic in the ordinary.
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask: Why do you think so many people believe in texts written thousands of years ago? And why does it seem the more supernatural, unprovable, improbable, and ancient the source of these texts, the more people believe them?"
The room filled with a thick silence, the weight of her ridiculous dream hanging like too-wet laundry on a windless day.
"He not only knew I belonged, he also knew I was onto something. The truth is, he stole my research. Published it and passed it off as his own." Roth's eyes widened. "I quit the same day." "Why didn't you tell the publication?" he said. "Why didn't you demand credit?" Elizabeth looked at Roth as if he lived on some other planet.
"Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize. Marriage counselors would go out of business."
"When women understand these basic concepts, they can begin to see the false limits that have been created for them." "You mean by men." "I mean by artificial cultural and religious policies that put men in the highly unnatural role of single-sex leadership."
"I agree that society leaves much to be desired, but when it comes to religion, I tend to think it humbles us—teaches us our place in the world." "Really?" she said, surprised. "I think it lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; that ultimately, we're not to blame for the way things are; that to improve things, we should pray. But the truth is, we are very much responsible for the badness in the world. And we have the power to fix it." "But surely you're not suggesting that humans can fix the universe." "I'm speaking of fixing us, Mr. Roth—our mistakes. Nature works on a higher intellectual plane. We can learn more, we can go further, but to accomplish this, we must throw open the doors. Too many brilliant minds are kept from scientific research thanks to ignorant biases like gender and race. It infuriates me and it should infuriate you. Science has big problems to solve: famine, disease, extinction. And those who purposefully close the door to others using self-serving, outdated cultural notions are not only dishonest, they're knowingly lazy."
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 as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes 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. But 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 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.
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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 as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes 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.
But 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.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
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(4.16)
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3
Despite Elizabeth being a bit of an unlikable character (the pretentious use of chemical terminology in place of common vernacular/labels was ridiculous), the graphic on page rape and sexual assault scenes, the unbelievable bits (my 3.5 year old could read and write but ain’t nobody believes a 4 year old is reading and comprehending complex Russian literature), and the other problematic parts, I actually really enjoyed this.
I liked the writing style and a lot of the other characters. There was a lovely found family aspect and the romance was gut wrenching and beautiful - the grief hit me in the feels hard. I liked the feminist aspects and pacing also.
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