4.5 stars!!!! This book was wonderful - I’m always a fan of books with women in STEM. I’m an even bigger fan of books written to be like the MCs rambling mind (bc that’s also how mine works). A beautiful take on chemistry and life.

It was so uniquely written with multiple povs… we even get a dogs POV (which I loved)

The writing a little but remind me of seven husbands.. anyways I would recommend this book to any woman it will make you feel POWERFUL

5 stars to this beautifully written novel.A book women will devour will pass from friend to friend.Elizabeth Zott a chemist a strong independent woman whose life is not easy.This is a story that will have you laugh out loud ,feel an emotional connection and cheer her on.Each character is unique comes alive.A book I will be recommending perfect for book club discussions a book that will stay with me.#netgalley #doubledaybooks

This was the most entertaining book I have read in a long time! I loved the humor, the science, the love story. This book has it all, and I hope Bonnie Garmus keeps writing more books!

With Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus has written a witty, intelligent, and beautiful book that unflinchingly examines the experiences of a female scientist and chemist in the 1960s. I was riveted. Elizabeth Zott is one of the most courageous and unforgettable characters I've come across. No spoilers, but this brilliant, non-conformist, and self-assured woman endures so much and is a trail-blazer. This book had me laughing, heartbroken, angry, proud, etc. The clever plot wove in chemistry in such a way that even though I'm not well versed in it, I felt connected to what Elizabeth's viewers must've felt from watching her show. The writing is crisp, the dialogue sharp, with fascinating characters, a multi-layered plot, and strong statements on society. Even the dog, Six Thirty, is remarkable! Just like its heroine, this book is truly extraordinary. Hands down, one of the best books I've read this year.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Awesomely intelligent, witty, and sarcastic (in a most entertaining way), Lessons in Chemistry is a book I'll remember for a long while. Elizabeth Zott is refreshing and slightly frustrating at the same time. You'll wish she'd compromise just once, but also cheer on her independence and determination in the not-so-woman-friendly late 50s and early 60s. Daughter Mad Zott is a precocious delight, neighbor Harriet never fails to tell it like it is, and canine family member, Six-Thirty, wise and protective, is one of the best dogs EVER in fiction. Each character deals (or doesn't) with tragedy and trauma, including Elizabeth's scientific soulmate, Calvin Evans, and latest boss, Walter Pine.
Never a dull moment, be prepared to fall thoroughly into this book.

This book is one of my favorites of the year. I loved the whip smart scientist women in this story. Yay for women in STEAM!

ARC was sent to me - sounded like a breath of fresh air, so started reading

Dare to be different - to stand out - not to be average

Watch show - "Supper at Six"
because there is nothing average about a homemaker (work and sacrifice of being a wife, mother, a woman)
Why do she say, "run to the store" - why not 'walk' or 'ride'

This book was different than I thought, the characters were unique and the dog was superb!
It has potential to really get you thinking!

Elizabeth Zott experiences chauvinists everywhere until she meets her soulmate Calvin Evans, a brilliant chemist. Calvin dies young leaving Elizabeth unmarried, pregnant, and fired from her job. Undeterred, she is offered a job as hostess for an afternoon cooking show. The book is powerful and educational with many laugh out loud moments. A must read for all women, especially those raising children at home.

Lessons in Chemistry by debut author Bonnie Garmus will go on my list of “best of the year” reads for its stunningly original plot, extraordinary characters, wry dialogue, and compelling writing style.

The centerpiece, Elizabeth Zott, describes herself as someone who has “never fit in.” A brilliant chemist, she is treated poorly at Hastings Research Institute because she is a woman. But she is one of the few who isn’t intimidated by wunderkind Calvin Evans who, in his twenties, has his own lab, has already graced scientific magazine covers, and has been nominated for a Nobel Prize. They meet when she boldly steals beakers from his lab, and Calvin—who has never had much luck with dating—falls hard.

Both Elizabeth and Calvin have had challenging childhoods, with dysfunctional families affected by premature deaths and incarceration. They understand and support each other, accompanied by an adopted stray dog they name Six-Thirty. The dog is remarkable, dedicated to protecting Elizabeth and the pair’s uber-precocious daughter, Madeline (Mad), and learning to understand hundreds of words they have taught him. Just one of the book’s “elements of impossibility.”

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the book tackles what Elizabeth calls “a patriarchal society founded in the idea that women were less.” When they wanted more than their traditional role, they were often rebuffed, ridiculed and disrespected. But the book uses droll humor to address sexual inequality and discrimination. When Elizabeth leaves the lab, she suddenly finds herself the host of “Supper at Six,” an afternoon TV show. To the dismay of management, she presents cooking as chemistry, never talking down to her homemaker audience and encouraging them to go for their dreams.

Elizabeth, Calvin, Mad, and Six-Thirty are characters you will root for and remember. The plot moves in unexpected directions and will keep you enthralled. I hope Bonnie Garmus is working on her next novel!

My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read and review this book.

This was a great read. I laughed out loud so many times. The writing style was unique and refreshing, and the characters were instantly recognizable in people I know.

I loved the dog and his thoughts, and the matter-of-fact way the MC got through life.

Set in the Middle Ages for women, otherwise known as the '60s, there's lots to cheer for - women's intelligence and value recognized, men getting their comeuppance, compassion for how horrendous it can be to raise a child and keep house alone, let alone married. Christians might be put off by the numerous vouches for atheism, but how can one possibly gain perspective and understanding in how others think and make decisions if you can't live in their lives for a few minutes, albeit in fiction?

I do wonder how you can follow a book like this when it's sure to be a massive hit, but whatever Garmus writes next, it will be witty, guaranteed.

I completely devoured this book! Lessons in Chemistry is such a unique and original novel that had meat “hello”! This great read centers around a quirky, brilliant, take no bull female character who holds her own in a male denominated profession and I AM HERE FOR IT! I think the most surprising aspect about Lessons in Chemistry is how much I literally laughed out loud—love that! I have texted my family/friends and told them to pre-order this gem and to keep it in mind when picking their spring 2022 book club selections! Lessons in Chemistry is a complete 5 star book that I found so inspirational! Looking forward to reading more from Bonnie Garmus in the future!

If you liked the TV show Bones, you'll enjoy Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Elizabeth was a scientist, but socially inept. It was the 1950s. Women weren't supposed to study chemistry in graduate school and be brilliant research chemists. Most of the men felt threatened. Calvin was a brilliant chemist too. He was also socially awkward. He had grown up in an orphanage. When these two meet at work, sparks fly. They fall madly in love and move in together along with their dog, Six-thirty. Neither believed in marriage because of their family backgrounds. When Calvin dies in an accident and Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant, she is fired.

A neighbor comes to her rescue and helps with baby Madeline. Through a series of unrelated events, Elizabeth becomes a TV star on a cooking show that features the chemistry of foods and cooking. While Elizabeth is an avowed atheist, While this is a story of unconventional people, it has it's sweet and funny moments. Elizabeth and Mad' form a group of friends who become "family".

Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 5/5

I love this book — it combines the humor and non-conformity of Eleanor Oliphant with the twisted and cleverly converging plots of John Irving.

Elizabeth Zott — master chemist -- trying to do science in a late 50s / early 60s world that treats women as incapable, inferior, and irrelevant. Her experiences are kind of over the top IMHO — she gets hit with every possible thing that could happen to a woman trying to succeed in a man’s world — but the real story is what she does about it, so I accepted the two dimensional portrayals of the really bad guys and their machinations (and to be fair she gives a lot more page attention to truly good men as well).

The characters are wonderful — both quirky and deep thinking — and include Elizabeth, her out-of-wedlock genius child, Mad, (so named as a result of a miscommunication with a cranky nurse), and a dog named six-thirty whose vocabulary is expanding at a carefully tracked rate. The story is told from each of their perspectives — yes, the dog, too.

The plot and dialog kept me constantly hooked and included plenty of twists and turns as well as interesting philosophy discussions, opportunities for characters to rethink their assumptions, and very positive messages about what is important, practical, inspiring, and possible.

Also — and this is important to me — Zott really does love chemistry and there is plenty of real science included. This isn’t one of those (very irritating) books where the main female character “loves” some kind of science / tech field but spends all her time worrying about her love interest and giggling with her friends while shopping for the perfect dress. At one point Zott is running a cooking show based equal parts on the chemistry of cooking and female empowerment and those scenes alone are worth reading the whole book.

A lot of the plot relied on the bad people doing bad manipulative things which is not a favorite plot device for me, but again I forgive it because of how much I liked the characters and what they did. Funnily, I realized that this book gave me the same feeling of pleasure that I get from old Clint Eastwood movies — when the bad guys are so very obviously bad it feels great when they are brought down (albeit in this case without violence).

Lessons in Chemistry is absolutely brilliant! Absolutely could not put it down.. I found myself actually laughing out loud so much I just had to read parts of it to my husband. It's clever, witty and tragic. What more could a reader want.? So well written I could see this as a mini series. I haven't fawned over a book in forever! Kudos to Bonnie Garmus on her fabulous novel. I wouldn't change a thing. Special thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an unconventional book about an unconventional woman. It is paradoxically inspiring and disheartening…and I loved every minute of reading it. I truly regretted coming to the end.

The story takes place in the southern California town of Commons in the early 1960s. The prevailing view of woman is best characterized by the popular sitcoms of the day – think Donna Reed, Harriet Nelson and the Beaver’s mom, June Cleaver.. (If you are too young to relate to these references, these woman wore make-up, jewelry, shirtwaist dresses and lived to feed their families and keep an impeccable home.)

Elizabeth Zott, however, is a woman born ahead of her time. Her dream of becoming a research scientist abruptly ends when her mentor in her master’s program sexually assaults her and denies her entry into the PhD program. Subsequently, her work environment at the Hastings Research Institute isn’t much better; she is demoted from her position as a chemist to a lab tech by a narrow-minded, jealous boss and eventually fired. As her life unfolds she loses the love of her life, becomes the mother of an “illegitimate” child and, of all things, hosts an afternoon television show featuring cooking based on chemistry. The show not only instructs women to cook from a very different perspective, but also inspires the audience to consider bold, new possibilities for their lives.

The qualities I admire most about this woman – what makes her a true heroine – is her honesty, her integrity and her perseverance. While her capacity to stand up for her truth in the face of overwhelming social and cultural prejudice toward women in general and in science specifically, her uncompromising posture ensures she will never “fit in” – a rather lonely and frustrating existence.

I love books with quirky characters and this book delivers them in abundance. Elizabeth, herself, exemplifies this; she lives predominately through her brilliant, rational mind and is so serious that it becomes the basis for some of the humor woven into the storyline. Her precocious daughter, Mad, is a wonder. Perhaps my favorite is Six-thirty, the dog who flunked out of the military training for bomb detection and emerges as a personality in his own right.

This book is a breath of fresh air. When so many authors rely on formulistic plot lines, Ms. Garmus has created an original and highly entertaining novel that finds a delicate balance between the humor and the pain of human existence.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

Dimensionality is a weird thing. It might not even be a word. The dimensions of the characters in this book are so flat you could put them in a frame. Hang them on a wall.

This book is gonna make a lot of money.

I want to thank Doubleday Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Lessons in Chemistry, the debut novel by Bonnie Garmus.
“I’m Elizabeth Zott,” she said calmly, withdrawing a freshly sharpened fourteen-inch chef’s knife. But she wasn’t sure he heard. He’d fainted dead away.”
Don’t ignore this book because of the title. Chemistry is just the vehicle. Stealing beakers is how Elizabeth and Calvin meet.
Sex discrimination changes Elizabeth’s life.
Ms Gamus’s characters are so well defined. One of the most interesting is the stray dog, Six-Thirty who just happens to arrive at six-thirty. Mad, her daughter, gets her name when the maternity nurse asks what the baby’s name will be. All she hears is mad, mad reflecting how Elizabeth feels!
How does Elizabeth become part of an eight man crew? Why does her kitchen turn into a laboratory?
You’ll laugh, maybe even cry a little bit. Lessons in Chemistry will hold your interest.
This book publishes 04/05/2022.

I absolutely loved Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus. Not only is this novel engaging, with terrific characters, but the story itself is just wonderful. I have already recommended Lessons in Chemistry to my book club group and to everyone who will stop to listen for 5 minutes. This is a novel with love, grief, subtle humor, and on some occasions, laugh-out-loud hilarity. The dog is perfection, and while the author does not note the breed, I have decided that the dog is a terrier, specifically an Airedale. I could not put this novel down. It was that wonderful, and what an engaging surprise from a first-time novelist. I will be anxiously awaiting a next novel.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and to Netgalley for providing this ARC. 5 VERY Large Stars!