Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday
We first meet her as a reluctant TV star, hosting hit cooking show Supper at Six in which she presents the nightly meal prep as a chemistry lesson. Water is H2O, salt – sodium chloride … for Elizabeth’s passion isn’t cooking, she’s a scientist. The story of how she landed in this seemingly unsuitable job unfolds at a dazzling pace and is served up with a delicious side-order of kick-arse feminism.
Without giving too much away, Elizabeth’s upbringing was tough and her potentially brilliant academic career scuppered by sexual abuse. Then she falls hard for super geek Calvin Evans. He’s a genius scientist and rowing fanatic who has escaped his own dark childhood. As their souls entwine Calvin and Elizabeth look destined to set the science world on fire with their dog “Six-Thirty” by their sides. (This cheeky hound talks to the reader – trust me, it works!)
But when Calvin dies in a freak accident, Elizabeth is left grief-stricken and pregnant in an era when children out of wedlock and single mums are frowned upon.
“I purposely set the book in the ’60s because that’s when my mother was Elizabeth Zott’s age,” says Bonnie Garmus. “I wanted to salute that generation of overlooked housewives. Women spent their days cleaning, cooking, ironing, mowing the lawn – doing everything for everyone, and yet this work was completely dismissed. Now I realise so many of them had huge talents and dreams of their own.”
This story is from the April 2022 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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