Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a delightfully charming story about Elizabeth Zott, feminist, chemist and all-around fresh character. Taking place in the 1960s, at a time when women were nowhere near at equal pay or equal status as men, we meet Elizabeth, who will have none of that. She’s quirky, unintentionally witty and a character you won’t soon forget.

After suffering some very serious misogynistic and abusive behavior while getting her PHD, it was assumed by her colleagues that she just “couldn’t cut it” as a PHD student. They were wrong. Her brain was her superpower, yet the men wouldn’t give her a fair shake at things until she meets Calvin Evans. Their story is woven together nicely and oddly realistically.

When Elizabeth becomes a single mother to Mad, with not one nurturing bone in her body, we see a new side to her. Help from her neighbor Harriet who’s in a loveless marriage becomes her lifeline and together the three of them become a force to be reckoned with. Elizabeth also finds herself on a row team and becomes a major TV superstar with her cooking show Supper at Six.

She brings the chemistry behind food to the mix and women start realizing their potential through her actions. She’s bold, says exactly what she feels with no filter or says nothing at all, which speak volumes.



I’d be remiss not to mention her beloved dog, six-thirty, who does some narration of his own. It was so well done! This is a fiercely amusing, powerful and all-around fun read.

Lessons in Chemistry made me angry and made me hopeful. It brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh out loud. The cast of characters is delightful, except for those who aren't. It's only February, but this may end up being one of my favorite books of the year.

4 Stars

Lessons in Chemistry, the debut novel by Bonnie Garmus, is a meet-cute with an agenda!
Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant scientist, has the misfortune to be born in a time when women aren't allowed to sign their own checks, be scientists (that are taken seriously), live with a man that they love (unless they are married), have a child (out of wedlock), or expect to have anything they say be taken seriously (including any kind of sexual aggression against them). Elizabeth has to fight her whole life to work in a lab and practice the type of science that she loves to study. She loves chemistry, she loves her partner (Calvin Evans, also a stand-out chemist) and she loves her daughter (Madeline).

I enjoyed this story of Elizabeth, Calvin, their exceptional dog (named Six-Thirty) and young Madeline as well as the cast of characters in the story. A large portion of this story is based around the fact that Elizabeth reluctantly becomes an afternoon-television star teaching housewives the chemistry of cooking delicious food. She eschews the tight costumes and kitschy set kitchen created for her, and does things her own way, instilling the idea that housewives should be taken seriously as women who are very important people who have dreams and rights! Surprisingly to the executives who want her to dress sexy and serve cocktail recipes (which she will not do), Elizabeth's show is WILDLY popular and starts a movement of women finally believing that they can be smart, go to school, should be respected, are important.

Overall, very well done. I'm wondering though, if younger people my daughter's age (20's) will actually believe that there was a time that women were treated this way. Or if they will think the author is taking a poetic license with the way things were. In many ways, the world has progressed so much that the thought of a girl not being able to be a chemist or open her own bank account, in the United States, is a foreign concept.

Recommended reading for those who enjoy a pro-feminine meet-cute!!

Many thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus in exchange for an honest review. #LessonsinChemistry #NetGalley

LOVED IT! I had read so many good reviews of this book that I couldn't wait to get my hands on it - those reviews were spot on! I laughed so much reading it my husband wanted to know what in the world I was reading. I do love a book with humor. This book reminded me of the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

The story is set in the 1950s and early 1960s. Elizabeth Zott is working at Hastings Research Institute at a job for which she is over-qualified. She is not liked by the all male chemists because she is brilliant and many times makes them look bad, and is not liked by the women because she is attractive. They refer to her among themselves using a couple of derogatory nicknames. Elizabeth refuses to bow to anyone's preconceived expectations of what a woman should be and stands her ground when she feels she is wronged, regardless of social norms.

Elizabeth meets the famous chemist, Calvin Evans, when she is swiping his beakers (because they wouldn't buy her needed equipment). Calvin came to the Hastings Institute not because it was the best place to work or because they paid him a lot, but because the weather in the town, he was told, was good for rowing. Calvin liked very much to row, but he hated rain. Anyway, through a few interesting meetings, Calvin and Elizabeth get together.

I was rooting for Elizabeth throughout the book. Really loved the cooking show! Elizabeth's adventures kept me laughing and I loved her determination. I couldn't put this book down. I was lost in it until the end.

Thanks to Doubleday Books, Doubleday through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on April 5, 2022. Don't miss this one!!

I think this book will be a hit when it is released! Very cute, humorous, with some really sweet characters, including some narration by the pet dog! It did remind me of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Clever story as well with a powerful message. It took me a while to get into it, but once I was, it was hard to put down. Enjoyed the cover as well!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Doubleday books for the advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist that just wants to be a chemist but is finding it a struggle in the male dominated world of 1960s chemistry. She is surprised to find Caleb Evans who falls in love with her mind. When life tries to derail her she becomes even more determined to be a chemist. Unexpectedly she becomes the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. To the dismay of the men in charge she won't fit into the expected mold and cooks through chemistry and inspires women to think about the world in a new way.

What an incredible debut novel! Lessons in Chemistry is a sometimes comical, sometimes tragic story about a female chemist in the 60’s who finds herself pregnant just after the love of her life has died and as such quickly fired from her lab job. In a desperate effort to support her young daughter, she accepts a job hosting a home cooking show. Through her show, she doggedly challenges the status quo by using chemistry to teach her viewers not only how to prepare a meal but how to see themselves as more than just cooks. 

This book is filled to the brim with quirky, loveable characters and villainous characters you will love to hate.

Elizabeth is resourceful, determined, resilient, and full of purpose. She is also resolute in her determination to teach others that women have the capability to become all they desire to be.

Elizabeth’s daughter Mad is brilliant, precocious, and utterly loveable. Harriet is the benevolent and big-hearted neighbor who steps in to help and quickly becomes part of the family.

And it goes without saying that you are going to FALL IN LOVE with Six-Thirty, the dog. You just wait. Remember I told you so. He even has his own Instagram @sixthirtythedog.

I did have a couple of issues, but they are subjective, so I will not delve into them. I only mention them because they were the only reason this wasn’t a five-star read for me.

I’d like to add that I closed this book and said to myself, “This will make an incredible series.” Soon after, I learned that it’s being adapted into an Apple TV+ series to be produced by and starring Brie Larson. I absolutely can not wait, and I hope the series does Elizabeth, Mad and Six-Thirty justice.

Also, dare I hope for a sequel? That would just be incredible!

I definitely recommend this delightful and quirky book, and I think it will be one everyone is talking about soon enough.

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book before its April 5 publication date.

Do you ever finish reading a book and think: Wow. Now that was a good book. This was a good book. Everyonce in a while I need to take a break from my thrillers, and this was perfect. This is the tale of Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist, who refuses to live like others expect her to. While Elizabeth is the main character, her daughter, thier dog, the next door neighbor, and a minister all have thier own stories to add to the mix. If you liked Where'd You go Bernadette, this is up your alley. Highly recommended.

Being a chemist is not an easy thing for a woman to be in the '50s and '60s, and is maybe not all that easy now, although I imagine it would be easier if there really had been a woman like Elizabeth Zott to look the world straight in the eye, ask "Why not?" and refuse to take no for an answer. Elizabeth is a chemist, and refuses to be treated like anything other than the serious scientist she is.

However, until Elizabeth can remake the world in her vision of gender equality, she must go on doing her television cooking show so that she can support herself and her daughter. On Supper at Six, though, the cooking is a mere byproduct of the chemistry she's really teaching, and both cooking and chemistry are ancillary to the confidence she gives to the women across the country who tune in faithfully every weekday.

If this book has a flaw, it's that Elizabeth has one too many diatribes about the unfairness, nay, illogic, of keeping women out of the sciences. Fortunately, Garmus has given Elizabeth such an authentic voice, and made her such a sympathetic character, that this reader, at least, was more than willing to make allowances. And it's not just Elizabeth; Elizabeth has a support network par excellence, and each one contributes their unique voice to make this book a pleasure to read.

Garmus's debut effort is truly a wonderful book, and one that I'll be recommending for a long time. I'm excited to see what she writes next.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

This book was advertised as being about Elizabeth Zott: "a one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show."

I went into this book expecting to read a funny and quirky story about a main character (compared in reviews to Bernadette from Where'd you Go, Bernadette?) and for me it sadly did not deliver. This book started out promising and in the first few chapters I liked the main characters, but that's where the "fun" ended for me.

This book threw SO many heavy and tragic things into the main characters' backstories and just casually mentioned them all (religious abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, loss of parents, car accidents etc. etc.) almost in a list form for dramatic affect and it really set a weird tone for the rest of the book. It was hard to tell if this book was trying to be a romance or a mystery or a coming-of-age novel...I really just don't know what the goal was here.

The main character quickly became insufferable for me and I couldn't even stand the dog (part of the story was randomly from his perspective).

I truly wish I had better things to say and while it did not work for me, I'm sure there are a lot of people that would still enjoy this unique book.

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Doubleday books for an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will be published on April 5th.

I found this book so fascinating. The journey of Elizabeth and Calvin was so fraught with heartbreak and turmoil, I couldn’t put the book down I had to know what would happen next. That was the magical thing about this book; it was filled with so many tough scenes and topics, but it also gave you little glimmers of hope that everything would turn out ok, that you had to keep going. Elizabeth and Calvin were so odd and yet endearing, I loved their relationship. Elizabeth’s tenacity was also a wonder; I couldn’t imagine navigating a world that was so against women- she was a force to be reckoned with. This is a story unlike any other and I highly recommend!

This book is f*****g fantastic. If you read no other reviews or the rest of mine, that is all you need to know. You need this book in your life. This was special. This was different. This was F*****G fantastic!

I truly don't know how to review this. This was unlike anything I've ever read, this was science heavy in a science-for-dummies kind of way. I was nervous I would get lost with the science, but it was engaging, enlightening, inspiring and interesting. Elizabeth Zott is someone that will stay with me for years to come. She was every woman at some point in our lives. She was told no or you can't simply because she was a woman. She lived a brutal life in many ways and yet did not let it define her. She used it as her own person fuel to overcome and prove her naysayers wrong.

I feel like this review will be utter word vomit compared to the beautiful imagery and thoughts I have in my head of how special this book was. This was zany, at times weird, the pacing wasn't 100% spot on and around 51% I considered DNFing it, but at exactly 65% it clicked and I became utterly obsessed with finishing this. Thank you Jojo for listening to my rapid-fire texts of my thoughts on this one. Go check out her review - I think we felt so similar, but she was 100% in from page one and I definitely had to warm up to the story. And that is what I love about reading. We both LOVED this book hard and had totally different experiences with it.

The writing style! I can't even describe it. We have many points of views that are never expressly explained who it is at that given moment, but never once did I feel lost. I mean we had a dog, Six-Thirty, who spoke to us and it wasn't weird in the slightest. Zany? Yep. Wonderful? YEP YEP!

I took notes as I was reading and at some point I wrote "there is not enough paper to write down even some of the quotes I loved"...so I'll leave you with this one:

"Take the helm. Steer. When in doubt, pretend."

This is out April 5 - just preorder now and begin devouring this on April 5 at midnight. I am eternally grateful to NetGalley, Double Day Books and Bonnie Garmus for this eARC. This was something so truly special and I am so STOKED to see it has been picked up by AppleTV for a series. Now...I pity the book I choose to read next, because it has enormous shoes to fill.

Really loved this book. Feminism with intelligence charm and wit with just a touch of fantasy in the person of an extraordinary dog.

Sets a High Bar!
It saddens me to think that I just read what will probably be my favorite book of the year and it's only February.

Lessons in Chemistry is a great read for fans of The Rosie Project or Where'd You Go Bernadette. It packs a lot of emotions into one novel that keeps the story rolling and interesting. While I really liked the book, the part I couldn't get past was author, Gamus, had every character a complete unbeliever of God, even the priest. That was just a bit much for me. The story itself was a lot of fun and the characters (other than that part) were super likable. However, I just couldn't get past that point to give it more than 3 stars. That's such a shame, too, because it has great potential.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

This story was funny and heartbreaking. Life isn't fair and it was interesting to read about Elizabeth's life. I will definitely recommend this one to others!

Elizabeth Zott is very much like T.V. Food guru, Alton Browne. She dishes up delectable food along with introductory chemistry on her T.V. Show. But at heart she is a scientific researcher who has been passed over by the scientific patriarchal society. She has been sexually assaulted, had her research stolen and plagiarized, humiliated, and found her true soul mate in Calvin Evans. This book is about a brave woman who would not give in or give up. It is a feminist tour de force. I loved every page! The side characters are so well drawn you will think you have met them already. There is daughter Mad, neighbor Harriet, bad boss Donnetti, good boss Walter and a dog named six-thirty who is super intelligent but suffers from PTSD.
I laughed and had a few tears. Elizabeth and Calvin are not ordinary people they are each extraordinary in their own way. This is a best book of 2022.

How to convey my thoughts on this one? The cover does not even scratch the surface as the book is fun but so much more! Is there tons of humor? Yes. Relationships? Yep. Chemistry? Sure. Religion? It is discussed. Women being undervalued or under appreciated? Oh so much. But here is the thing…this book is clever and deep but also feels juicy and fun. This book is fantastic and you will see it everywhere. It was absolute joy to read!! I hope Bonnie is typing away somewhere as I cannot wait for her next book!

*side note…teachers everywhere…DO NOT make kids do a family tree for goodness sake 🤦🏻‍♀️

Posted Instagram @carolinehoppereads and goodreads

"Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus is a delightful debut novel!

Elizabeth Zott, a research chemist at Hastings Research Institute, believes in equality, not a popular opinion in 1952. The all male research team she works with talks down to her rather than appreciating her as the driving force behind their projects. She's weary of males talking over her when she presents her findings and taking credit for her work.

The one exception to this is Calvin Evans, a gifted research scientist at HRI, and a two time Nobel-prize nominee, who has fallen in love with Elizabeth and her brilliant mind. The attraction is real!

Elizabeth views herself as a scientist but knows, by experience, female scientists are virtually non-existent. Ten days before graduating with her master's degree from UCLA, the admissions committee rescinded her application to the doctoral program.

An 'unfortunate event' happened and Elizabeth actions were determined to be the cause. She knows that getting her PhD is no longer possible but she'll never give up her dream. Her only regret is not having more No. 2 pencils to use when the 'unfortunate event' took place!

Ten years later, Elizabeth is a single mother living with her adorable daughter, Madeline, their dog, Six-thirty, and hosting the daily TV cooking show, Supper at Six. The show is an instant hit and Elizabeth is the beautiful, but reluctant, star!

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!

What a delightful story with a mid 20th Century timeline. If I could spend time with a character, it would absolutely be Elizabeth. I applaud her resilience, resourcefulness, and unwavering belief that women are as worthy as men. If I was in her shoes, I would wear a No. 2 pencil behind my ear or in my hair, too!

A bit of a rebel, smart as a whip, she speaks her mind without holding back, and believes in what's right. She loves her daughter and Six-thirty, the dog, who knows 600+ words and has a significant role in this story. He's quite the canine character and loves Madeline and Elizabeth as much as they love him. It's pretty special!

This is an amazing debut novel with quirky characters, socially relevant topics, emotional swings, winks of humor and laugh-out-loud moments! I loved this story and I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Books, and Bonnie Garmus for a free ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review. The expected publication date is 4/5/22.

Today's books are all about false appearances. In this book Elizabeth is as far as she can be from your typical 60s woman. She's bright, fighting to succeed in a mans world, and yes, a bit odd. Think Sheldon Cooper in a dress, and you wouldn't be far off. When she and Calvin collide, the world shifts and she hopes his rising star will shine on her work as well. She doesn't know the truth. And when it comes, she can't handle any of it.

Landing on TV would be anyone's dream, but Elizabeth has to do things her way, and if that ends up changing how women perceive themselves, well she can't help that right? And if everyone thinks she is raising her daughter oddly, well, yes and no would be the answer. As she struggles to find her way and overcome the obstacles in her way, Elizabeth realize that she has to use what she has at hand to achieve the true success she wants- to be recognized as a true scientific mind like her male counterparts. But it takes a village, and Elizabeth's village is full of characters that will stay with you long after you finish the book.

This one is a must read! And when you finish it and realize this is the author's first book? You'll be stunned, and hoping she can recreate the magic of this book in her second book!