Meet Elizabeth Zott – a character in this fabulous debut novel that you will not forget in a hurry. Think “Julia Child meets Marie Curie”!! Elizabeth is the reluctant star of a TV cooking show but she is really a scientist (if her mostly male colleagues will ever accept her as one). This is the story of a feisty, unconventional woman who is as talented as any of her male colleagues but is relegated to a “lab assistant” working on someone else s research just because she is a mere woman in a 1960’s mans world. She does find the love of her life and then ends up as a solo mother (just to make her circumstances even more challenging). When she becomes a TV cooking star (by accident) she turns that genre upside down too, by making the show about not just food, but about the science that feeds our bodies and minds, turning her huge female audience from “Stepford wives” into questioning, intelligent beings that want more than to be taken for granted in the home.The sexism displayed by this books male characters, is so breathtaking that I wondered if it was overly exaggerated, but talking to women who were working outside the home in the 1960’s, it seems not – phew it made me angry! And also left me wondering – have women really made so many gains in equality or has the sexism just become more disguised? Have we just pushed those obvious male chauvinists of previous decades underground? If not, why are we still talking about a 9.5 gender pay gap in 2022?? Have those “glass ceilings” really been smashed or is it just a few woman that have broken through by playing a man’s game?? Ladies, we all need to have a little more “Elizabeth Zott” in us – maybe it is time to burn those bra’s – again! Prue 'Mad Men' didn't turn scientists into unlikely TV stars. But if they did ... The blockbuster of 2022, set in 1960s California, introducing the unique and unforgettable Elizabeth Zott. 'A book that sparks joy with every page. LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY is both funny and rousing- it had me laughing one minute and air-punching the next. Bonnie Garmus has created an unforgettable heroine' ELIZABETH DAY 'It's the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman determined to live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a side. Lessons in Chemistry is a page-turning and highly satisfying tale- zippy, zesty, and Zotty' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE 'I loved LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY and am devastated to have finished it' NIGELLA LAWSON 'Your ability to change everything - including yourself - starts here' ELIZABETH ZOTT Chemist