It’s the early 1960s and Supper at Six is America’s most beloved cooking show, reluctantly hosted by brilliant chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott. Her irreverence for social mores and outright rejection of traditional gender roles is what got her fired from the Hasting Research Institute, but it’s also what makes her such a successful host. She refuses to talk down to her female viewership the same way that her all male research colleagues always talked down to her, and with her barely concealed anger about the patriarchy, her unconventional lessons in kitchen chemistry, and her refusal to play by the rules, Elizabeth is threatening to do more than teach America’s stay at home mothers and wives about cooking. She’s threatening to lead them in a revolution.

This novel was all over #BookTok and #bookstagram when it first was published a few months ago, and I can see why. With incisive wit and disturbingly timeless observations about patriarchy and gender roles, I flew through this and adored every minute. Elizabeth is such a wonderful central character. I loved her take no prisoners, suffer no fools attitude, but what really makes this novel work is the full cast of characters. Bonnie Garmus effortlessly shifts between their perspectives in a way that would be confusing in less capable hands, but absolutely makes Elizabeth’s world come alive. I read this as a buddy read with the lovely @what_jess_reads and @literaleah and we all really liked this. Definitely worth the hype if you haven’t had a chance to read this yet!