Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

Doubleday, 2022. 390 pages. Historical Fiction

It's the 1960s and despite the fact that she is a scientist, Elizabeth Zott's peers are very unscientific when it comes to equality. The only good thing to happen to her on the road to professional fulfillment is a run-in with her super-star colleague Calvin Evans (well, she stole his beakers.) The only man who ever treated her—and her ideas—as equal, Calvin is already a legend and Nobel nominee. He's also awkward, kind and tenacious. Theirs is true chemistry. But as events are never as predictable as chemical reactions, three years later Elizabeth Zott is an unwed, single mother (did we mention it's the early 60s??) and the star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's singular approach to cooking ("take one pint of H2O and add a pinch of sodium chloride") and independent example are proving revolutionary. Because Elizabeth isn't just teaching women how to cook, she's teaching them how to change the status quo.

Every time I set this book down, I sighed in contentment at what a great reading experience I was having. Elizabeth Zott is a combination of Marie Curie, Julia Child, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg—a combination I found highly intriguing. I loved this book's overarching feminist message, but I also loved that this book allows itself to laugh. While bad things definitely happen (trigger warning for attempted rape), Elizabeth ultimately surrounds herself with people who build her up, and she builds them up in return. Garmus is skillful at blending sad and tough topics with just the right amount of levity so things don't feel too grim, while also not taking away from their impact. And as someone who doesn't like my books to be too saccharine, I found Elizabeth's precocious daughter Madeline and wise dog Six-Thirty to be sources of amusement and whole-heartedness, which was also refreshing.

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry 

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If the best parts of Lessons in Chemistry for you are the parts with Madeline and Six-Thirty, this book is for you! Precocious Elsa, a sharp-witted seven-year-old, has only one friend, her protective, eccentric Granny, who tells her nightly bedtime fairy tales in their small apartment in the Land of Almost-Awake. But when cancer takes Granny away, Elsa is tasked with delivering her grandmother's final letters of apology to the other residents of the building. Elsa, along with her new compatriots (including a giant dog known as a wurse), soon realize their home is actually the Land of Almost-Awake's castle, and that it needs protection from a dragon who is poised to strike.

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