“Sometimes I think,” she said slowly, “that if a man were to spend a day being a woman in America, he wouldn’t make it past noon.”
When Barnes and Noble announced its Book of the Year in 2022, I immediately wanted to buy it. I’m not a chemistry person, and I wasn’t ready to dip my toe into the chemistry world with an adult historical fiction novel. But, when my former English teacher loaned it to me before school started, I knew that it was time to take the leap. (Also, with the new AppleTV series out, I knew I needed to share my opinions on the original novel.)
Elizabeth Zott is a character that I didn’t expect to have so many mixed emotions about. She is someone who doesn’t know all the right words to say or the best way to keep her relationship afloat, but she certainly knows how to outsmart someone.
The way that Elizabeth fights for her spot in chemistry, only to find cooking as the one thing that sticks, showed that now matter how hard you work, there’s always going to be obstacles in your way.
Calvin Evans, man oh man, did I not want to like him. By the end, I wanted Elizabeth to have every story she needed from him. I wanted to know how he would have treated Mad and whether they would have gotten another dog.
I loved Six-Thirty so very much. He is the sweetest and most loyal doggo and I wish that I could have a few chapters of just Six-Thirty’s perspective. I was rooting for him and hoping that he would continue to serve his little family.
Once I got started, I couldn’t look away. I needed to know what Elizabeth would do next for the history of women. What new word would Six-Thirty add? Who would Mad outsmart?
No matter how many times Elizabeth entered a male dominated field, she became the strongest point and the one who continued to shine, even behind the scenes. I could see the women in the audience as they learned how to identify their ingredients by the chemical compounds and took over the narrative. I was in love with the way Bonnie Garmus explained each part of the story, even as it was written in third person.
The best ingredient of this story was by far the feelings of female strength. Elizabeth didn’t back down from adversity. She became a role model for all women to take over the narrative and to speak their minds.
While Elizabeth Zott is a fictional character, I know that there are many women who similarly changed the game for women in STEM.
Just a few of these women include:
- Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, the chemist who determined the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12
- Gertrude Elion, the chemist who developed drugs for malaria, leukemia, and AIDS
- Rita Levi-Montalcini, the biologist who won the Nobel Prize and discovered the nerve growth factor
- Dorothy M. Horstmann, the epidemiologist and virologist whose research on the spread of polio helped set the stage for the development of the polio vaccine
Before I read “Lessons in Chemistry”, I had no idea just how many women made major strides in science. I would absolutely recommend reading this book, even if it’s just to meet the dog Six-Thirty!
“Take a moment for yourself,” Harriet said, “Every day.”
“A Moment.”
“A moment where YOU are your own priority. Just you. Not your baby, not your work, not your dead Mr. Evans, not your filthy house, not anything. Just you. Elizabeth Zott. Whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you seek, reconnect with it in that moment.” She gave a sharp tug to her fake pearls. “Then recommit.”