Lessons in Chemistry

I couldn't stop turning the pages. I started this book on Monday and I read every spare moment and then I reluctantly set it aside when I went to sleep and then I read again as much as I could on Tuesday and once again closed it when I had to go to bed and now I've finished it on Wednesday. It's that good.

Elizabeth Zott is a woman we all were in a world we all once lived in. Well, maybe slightly exaggerated, but, if so, it's just for effect. Zott wants to be a chemist, but she is thwarted in school as well as in the workplace for one reason: Women should not and cannot be chemists, according to all the men who run things. Despite all the obstacles, Zott is a chemist. And Zott does not want to marry or have children, but somehow she falls in love anyway and a child appears anyway. And her lack of a wedding ring and the child she bears only serve to go against her even further with those who run things.

It's a book of extremes, and the humor can be sharp and painful and grim, but the reader can't help but adore Zott and her made-in-her-mother's-image daughter along with their dog who knows hundreds of words and her Catholic neighbor who would do anything for a divorce and a minister who isn't sure about God...

I took away a few points for the sitcom ending but the truth is that I wouldn't have been happy with any other last chapter.

You might want to read this book. It is probably one of my favorite reads of the year.