Her enthusiasm had a contagious magnetism about her. I appreciated her passion for her excitement in writing this book — Fast forward and Elizabeth has a daughter named Madeline, Mad for short. Elizabeth was trying to work as a scientist at a lab in her home. She is a consultant for scientists who need and want her help, but it’s not enough to provide for herself and her daughter.

I have a lot of thoughts. For the sake of my own energy and sanity, I’m just going to bullet point the things I want to say: Elizabeth Zott, a research chemist at Hastings Research Institute, believes in equality, not a popular opinion in 1952. The all male research team she works with talks down to her rather than appreciating her as the driving force behind their projects. She's weary of males talking over her when she presents her findings and taking credit for her work. Bestway now describes itself as the seventh largest family business in Britain. It is still owned by the Pervez, Choudrey and Sheikh families, and has made billionaires of Choudrey and Pervez, who was knighted in 1999. Within 2 years, her show is a staple in every household, with those in the studio audience and at home taking notes -jotting down ingredients, recipes and chemical equations! Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ('combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride') proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.Anything less than a 5-star review for Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel is a minority opinion, so take my 4-star thoughts with a grain of salt. Or as the book’s heroine Elizabeth Zott would say, a grain of sodium chloride. In 1960, after her traumatic experience at UCLA, she starts working at the Hastings Research Institute, which is administered with a male workforce that ignores her enthusiasm and hard work. Only one person sees her and shows respect for her accomplishments: an aspiring, Nobel Prize-nominated, grudge-holder named Calvin Evans.

Patriarchy, pencils in the hair (see cover art of some editions), sexual assault, rowing (boats, not arguments), a kindergarten family-tree project, and the corrupting power of money all feature prominently. The two main differences between the book and the adaptation are that the talking dog device has largely been dropped and the part of the nosy neighbour Harriet Sloane has been beefed up into something meaningful. The canine companion is – bar one episode – now no longer given a voice or anywhere near as much narrative space or weight. For those of us who always found it a slightly emetic conceit, this is nothing but good news. The advent of Harriet redux is even better news. Mesmerisingly played by Aja Naomi King, who has charisma to burn, she is now – as well as the wife and mother who is able to dispel maternal myths for Elizabeth, when she is in danger of drowning in the demands of new motherhood – a community activist and one-time law student who has been as stymied in her goal as Elizabeth, this time by the prejudice against her race as well as sex. What an absolute delight this was, from the very first moment to the last. It possesses all the hallmarks of the very best stories. It made me laugh, feel, think, and wonder. It filled me with joy and buoyed my spirits. It gave me everything I wanted and everything I didn't even know to ask for. And it deserves a further eye roll for the fact that because she is all into science and logic and whatever, this means Elizabeth is also cold, robotic and devoid of emotion. Cos we all know you can't be a scientist AND have feelings. Maybe the author worried if she showed emotion we'd find her too womanly. Do not allow your talents to lie dormant ladies. Design your own future. When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started”Further business ventures included the creation of a cement manufacturing business in Pakistan, Bestway Cement, one of the country’s largest, while the group also took a strategic stake in one of Pakistan’s biggest banks, United Bank Limited.

Image: A mixed pair of rowers: students Jodie Cameron and Ryan Glymond at the 2021 British Championships ( Source)

Overall, this is the best book I have read lately! I fell in love with everything about this story and highly, extremely, and absolutely recommend it. A few weeks later, I discovered it's being made into a TV series, starring Brie Larson. See imdb here. Before anyone knew there’d even be a sixties movement… when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible.” SOMEHOW, she has agreed to host a “cooking show” on TV-though she insists that her show is about Chemistry!

Also, we are given information at the end that suggests there was a valid reason Elizabeth wasn’t accepted in the doctoral program, that had nothing to do with her gender or an incident that happened early in the book. This confused me?! What was the message? 🤷🏻‍♀️ The way the author pits science and religion against one another is exhausting. As if a person couldn’t possibly have a rational, scientific brain and also believe in something supernatural. 😑 She relies HEAVILY on negative stereotypes of the Catholic Church to prove her point that religion is ignorant, and I’m just tired of this argument. It’s boring, small-minded, and irritating to belittle someone or a group of people you personally disagree with REGARDLESS OF WHAT CAMP YOU’RE IN. Can we be adults and agree to disagree without being petty and taking a shot at someone’s intelligence? Elizabeth as a main character just isn't that likeable. I get that she is supposed to be super intelligent and 'quirky' but she doesn't feel like a real person for much of the book, there is nothing to connect to. She also speaks like she is quoting from a textbook about sexism and feminism which does not feel genuine or organic. It felt more like the author was lecturing us. Also don't get me started about her daughter and how intelligent and advanced she was at a ridiculously young age. Of course she had a genius daughter. *eye roll* It's not just Elizabeth who warms my heart. This story has the most wonderful collection of supporting characters. They add so much color and spirit to the whole thing. I wanted to hug them all. And if you're an animal lover of any sort, just be ready to have your heart burst into a million ooey gooey pieces. In fact, Six-Thirty might just be my favorite literary dog of all time. So this book centres on Elizabeth Zott, an impossibly intelligent woman with perfect 21st-century politics (also she's beautiful but she doesn't, like, care about that) who's been inexplicably plopped into a 1950s setting. She's a self-taught chemist, working on abiogenesis, which the book appears to think can low-key disprove religion (this book has a very weird relationship to religion - edgelord atheist vibes), but because it's the 1950s, she's forced out of her doctoral programme and undervalued at work. She strikes up a relationship with a powerful chemist who adores her, but he dies in an accident, leaving her unwed, pregnant and fired, doing consultation work so the men at her old lab can actually understand their results. Undeterred, she builds a lab at home, and ends up getting hired to a local cooking programme, which she converts into a serious scientific cooking programme that the housewives of America love because She Treats Them Like Adults.With a book titled ‘lessons’, it is only right to share a few of life’s lessons that Elizabeth is guided by The cooking show doesn't come into play until at least half way through the book. Theres also a subplot regarding her husband's parentage which just felt...tiring by that point to be honest. Oh...we also get the dogs POV for alot of the story, which was a choice. To be fair, I was more invested and in the dog than Elizabeth and would have preferred the whole book in his voice. At least you could connect with him...the dog. 🤔