Bonnie Garmus

A delight for readers of Where'd You Go, Bernadette and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, this blockbuster debut set in 1960s California features the singular voice of Elizabeth Zott, a scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show. Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with--of all things--her mind. True chemistry results. But 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. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

A Novel

Lessons in Chemistry

Lindsey Barnett

If relationships are a puzzle, then theirs was solved from the get-go—as if someone shook out the box and watched from above as each separate piece landed exactly right, slipping one into the other, fully interlocked, into a picture that made perfect sense.  

ausra

Imie Kent-Muller

Victoria Justice

Ian Brakspear

Katy Schwarz

For instance, I know someone who's very proud to be a direct descendant of Galileo, and another who can trace her roots back to the Mayflower. They both talk about their lineage as if they have a pedigree, but they don't. Your relatives can't make you important or smart. They can't make you you.

Caitlyn 

Elizabeth Zott held grudges too. Except her grudges were mainly reserved for a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A soci- ety that believed men went to work and did important things- discovered planets, developed products, created laws-and womer stayed at home and raised children. She didn't want children--she knew this about herself -but she also knew that plenty of other women did want children and a career. And what was wrong with that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got.

 "Whenever you start doubting yourself," she said, turning back to the audience, "whenever you feel afraid, just remember Courage is the root of change and change 1S what we're chemi- cally designed to do. So when you wake up tomorrow, make this pledge. No more holding yourself back. No more subscribing to others' opinions of what you can and cannot achieve. And no more allowing anyone to pigeonhole you into useless categories of sex, race, economic status, and religion. 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.”

Hannah L 

Ehe er in dieser Gasse gelandet war, hatte Halbsieben nämlich in Camp Pendleton, dem nicht weit entfernt liegenden Stützpunkt der US-Marines, eine Ausbildung als Bombenspürhund gemacht. Leider war er kläglich gescheitert. Nicht genug damnit, dass er es nie schaffte, die Bomben innerhalb der vorgegebenen Zeit zu erschnüffeln, er musste auch noch das Lob ertragen, mit dem die hochnäsigen Deutschen Schäferhunde überschüttet wurden, denen das immer gelang. Letzten Endes wurde er von seinem wü- tenden Ausbilder entlassen - unehrenhaft - und an irgendeinem einsamen Highway ausgesetzt. Zwei Wochen später verschlug es ihn irgendwie in diese Gasse. Zwei Wochen und fünf Stunden spä- ter wurde er von Elizabeth eingeseift und auf den Namen Halbsie- ben getauft.

Just as people have a bad habit of dismissing others' problems and tragedies, so too did they have a bad habit of not appreciating what they have.

Lessons in Chemistry quotes

Join the club