What I loved most was Elizabeth’s principles, she never wavered, even when life kept derailing her at every turn. At times, Elizabeth Zott felt a little bit too contemporary for her 1960s setting, but this is a very minor detail that didn’t affect how much I loved this novel. Sharply intelligent, Lessons in Chemistry is feminist and funny without being overtly preaching. Even a basic understanding of chemistry reveals the danger of such a lopsided approach.” “I mean by artificial cultural and religious policies that put men in the highly unnatural role of single-sex leadership. When women understand these basic concepts, they can begin to see the false limits that have been created for them.” “The real rules the govern the physical world. “I’m referring to atoms and molecules, Roth,” she explained. I am thrilled to discover that it has been adapted into a TV series that should be releasing later this year.

There are very few books that I feel like I want to keep reading once they’re done, but the ending for Lessons in Chemistry, while perfect, left me also wanting more. The characters (6.30!), the story, the way it slipped with ease between perspectives, even the short chapters which gave the story a feeling of momentum and also made you want to just keep reading and reading right until the end. If ever there was a book worthy of its many ‘book of the year’ accolades, this is it. Marriage counsellors would go out of business. “I fell in love with Calvin,” she was saying, “because he was intelligent and kind, but also because he was the very first man to take me seriously. Published by Penguin Random House Australia She’s daring them to change the status quo. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) proves revolutionary. 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.

Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.īut it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality.

Your ability to change everything – including yourself – starts here…Ĭhemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman.

Lessons on chemistry