I adored this book and I was so sad it had to end. Elizabeth Zott is such an amazing and strong and brilliant female lead. It’s the late 50s and early 60s and women were NOT supposed to go against the grain. Women were wives and mothers and extensions of their husbands. Little thought of and rarely if ever listened to in a male dominated world. Enter Elizabeth. With a mind for science and a spirit of recognizing that being a woman didn’t mean you didn’t have intelligence and dreams of your own. Her struggle to simply be accepted as a scientist like all the men (even the less intelligent ones) was not without catastrophic adversity. There were times I wanted to throw the book across the room I was so angry. But she always comes through it, never compromising who she is. She even finds her soulmate in Calvin Evans, who struggles himself with what is “normal” in life and love. She also eventually agrees to do a “simple cooking show” that turns out to be anything but. She ends up inspiring women all over the country to not just accept the status quo but to challenge it and chase their own dreams. It’s all about choices. And even if you do choose a stay at home mom life, that is a job that should have the greatest of respect. Disaster weaves its way throughout, but she has a zany cast of characters (including the beloved Six Thirty) to help her through it all. There were moments I laughed so hard I had tears. And in the end she does come through with maybe not the family she thought she would have, or even wanted, but a complete and beautiful one. I wish I could read this again for the first time! There were all the emotions: anger, love, respect, laughing out loud joy, sorrow and more.