Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 I loved this book. I loved the main character, Elizabeth, and her very precocious daughter, Mad, and their dog Six-Thirty. I read almost the whole book in one day and couldn't wait to see how it ended.

The time is the 1950s. Elizabeth is a brilliant chemist who can't get anyone to take her seriously because she's a woman--until she meets an equally brilliant scientist named Calvin, who is crazy about her and takes her brilliant mind seriously. They fall in love and life is good until, through a series of misfortunes, Elizabeth finds herself an unemployed single mother trying to figure out how to keep a roof over her daughter's head. Enter Walter, the father of one of Mad's schoolmates. He is a TV exec who is trying to fill a hole in his afternoon programming schedule and thinks Elizabeth and a cooking show will nicely fill the bill. She refuses unless she can do the chemistry of cooking  (and stay true to her roots). 

Elizabeth knows who she is and is determined to persevere, no matter how many obstacles men throw in her way. It makes you really appreciate how many more opportunities women have now, even though the pay scale still isn't equal.

I particularly love the author's dry sense of humor. The scene where we learn how the daughter got the name Mad still makes me laugh.