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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.… (meer)
I am slightly conflicted over Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. There were some aspects of the book that I loved, while there were others that I definitely didn’t. This debut novel tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, who becomes a celebrated cooking show host in 1960s Southern California. Although she considers herself to be a scientist who specializes in chemistry, the world at that time liked to place women in the role of housewives and mothers.
I had some difficulty warming to Elizabeth as I found her to be too obtuse and stubborn in how she presented herself and perhaps too exceptional to be relatable. In her constant bid to use the power of science to bring about changes she had the tendency to plow over everyone. The story became quite repetitive and I was constantly hoping to see the discrimination and sexual abuse addressed a little more seriously than it was.
On the other hand, Lessons in Chemistry is very witty and intelligent. It paints an interesting picture of the early days of affirmative action when societal norms desperately needed an overhaul. The author also wisely supplies some very endearing secondary characters like Calvin, Harriet, Madeline and especially the lovable dog, Six-Thirty. So mixed reaction but overall an absorbing and interesting read. ( )
Lessons in Chemistry is a timely lesson in dealing with the indignation of injustice. Through Elizabeth’s eccentric story—where half the time you’re incensed on her behalf as a female scientist in the 1950s and ‘60s and the other half you’re laughing at the dark, deadpan humor—we learn how to deal with broken systems without becoming broken victims. It’s really a beautiful, zany story about life: challenge and change and courage and chemistry.
This book is everything. Reading it felt like an amalgamation of watching a Wes Anderson film and reading Fredrik Backman’s “Anxious People,” while also being completely original and organic. I laughed; I cried; I felt a gamut of emotions: caustic ire, sorrow, protectiveness, joy, hope. It’s all here—all the properties needed for the best kind of chemical reaction: a perfect read.
Read on audio. A very popular book that was getting all the buzz in the last year, as well as a series on Apple. Set in the late 50's, Elizabeth Zott is a highly intelligent woman, who has to deal with the misogyny of the times. She's expelled from a doctoral program because she was a victim of assault by her advisor, she gets a lab tech job, but when her famous chemist boyfriend passes away, she's fired as being because she's going to be an unwed mother. Through circumstances she becomes a famous host of a cooking show, despite all the push backs of her male superiors. And in the end, because it makes perfect sense 😁, she leaves her cooking show to go back triumphantly to her life as a research chemist and all is figuratively right with the world. A very good read. ( )
This is an historical fiction set in the 1950s and 1960s by American author Bonnie Garmus. It is a quirky feminist story featuring scientist Elizabeth Zott who despite her brilliance struggles to make her way in a man’s world. I enjoyed the geeky romance with fellow scientist Calvin Evans and then the parts narrated by their adorable and worldly-wise dog Six-thirty. When her career in science is sabotaged by creepy misogynist bosses, Elizabeth is forced to accept a job as a television cooking show host. The only problem is she and the producers have vastly different ideas about what that entails. The show had envisioned a feminine cooking hour catering to their idea of stereotypical 1950s housewives. Elizabeth Zott sees it very differently. She is a scientist; to her cooking is merely chemistry and she sees no reason at all that housewives would not wish to further their knowledge of science. It turns out she is right and the show is a runaway success despite the power-plays and attempts at control by the patriarchy.
This was a light enjoyable read for me. There were moments of humour, there were also a few scenes dealing with sexual assault, in keeping with the theme of feminism and misogyny. Her daughter seemed unrealistically old for her age and things ended very neatly, but this was an entertaining story and the audio narration by Miranda Raison was well done. 4stars ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
For my mother, Mary Swallow Garmus
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
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.
Citaten
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
"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."
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
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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3
I had some difficulty warming to Elizabeth as I found her to be too obtuse and stubborn in how she presented herself and perhaps too exceptional to be relatable. In her constant bid to use the power of science to bring about changes she had the tendency to plow over everyone. The story became quite repetitive and I was constantly hoping to see the discrimination and sexual abuse addressed a little more seriously than it was.
On the other hand, Lessons in Chemistry is very witty and intelligent. It paints an interesting picture of the early days of affirmative action when societal norms desperately needed an overhaul. The author also wisely supplies some very endearing secondary characters like Calvin, Harriet, Madeline and especially the lovable dog, Six-Thirty. So mixed reaction but overall an absorbing and interesting read. (