My next audiobook was Lessons in Chemistry, a debut novel by Bonnie Garmus. I had seen the book title on the NY Times list of fiction best sellers for a while. I heard about it from two other sources, one of my wife’s book clubs and the podcast Sisters-in-Law (which has been one of my favorite sources of political and legal news for the last three years). There have been rave reviews for Lessons in Chemistry everywhere. It’s not a murder mystery although there are important deaths throughout the novel which help carry the plot along. Not to be boring, but this is another positive rare about the book.
The story takes place in the late 50’s and early 1960’s and it’s about the brilliant research scientist Elizabeth Zott. That was a time when women were widely regarded as having no place in the world of science. They were mistreated, their ideas were disregarded or stolen, and their research papers were almost universally denied by publishers. That plot line rung bells for me because I saw this misogyny happen to the women in my medical school class. At the orientation our freshman year, the chair of the department of OBGYN actually announced that as long as he had been the chair of the department there had never been a woman resident in his program, and as long as he was the chair, there never would be. It was the women in my class who broke that gender barrier upon graduation four years later. There was intense pain that came with this important gain in the medical science world. That is the world that Garmus wrote about. The story was so compelling that it has become a tv series on Apple TV. Today there are more women than men in the medical schools around the country. At least there is some evidence of progress in our troubled world.
There is a beautiful love story between Zott and a remarkable chemist, Calvin Evans, who was put up for a Nobel Prize year after year. Also, there was a wonderful subplot about a very smart stray dog who followed Elizabeth home one day, and subsequently became a part of her family.
Even if your main genre of choice is murder mysteries, this book deserves your attention. It may be the best book I read in 2023.
I thoroughly enjoyed your review of "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus. The novel's blend of humor, feminism, and scientific exploration is truly captivating. Elizabeth Zott's journey as a chemist in a male-dominated field during the 1960s is both inspiring and thought-provoking. Her resilience and determination to challenge societal norms resonate deeply. For anyone inspired by Zott's passion for chemistry, seeking chemistry tuition can be a great way to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the subject.
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