"Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus

This reads like a kind of cleaned up memoir.  A woman talks about her mother's challenging path as a female scientist of the 1950s.  But it's not a memoir.  It's 100% fiction.  The fact that it reads so realistically is a credit to author Bonnie Garmus.  She connects to the reader by making the prose accessible and the character, while a bit difficult, oddly approachable.  The book also has a good deal of humor, which is unexpected given the serious life-challenges of lead character Elizabeth Zott.  It is, perhaps, the quirky character of Ms. Zott which makes the whole thing work.  Ms. Garmus has done something terrific -- she has written a seemingly simple novel which has sneaky layers and inferences.  Even the title has a half-dozen meanings.  It was a fast read and a thoughtful story.  If some of the threads come together in a convenient manner it doesn't really matter.  I felt a connection to the tale, and will make a bet that most readers, particularly the ladies, will feel the same.  Favorite quote:  "(Men) either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do.  She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they’ve buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard."