Lessons in Chemistry
The modern classic multi-million-copy bestseller
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4.4 • 2.3K Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
OVER 8 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
Meet Elizabeth Zott. Scientist. Trailblazer. Rule-breaker.
The multi-award-winning international bestseller, now a major Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson.
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There is no such thing as an average woman. Especially not Elizabeth Zott.
It's the early 1960s, and Elizabeth is a brilliant chemist working in a world that believes science is a man's job.
At Hastings Research Institute, the only colleague who truly recognises her extraordinary mind is Calvin Evans, a brilliant, Nobel Prize-nominated chemist. But life has other plans.
When Elizabeth becomes the reluctant star of America's most popular cooking show, Supper at Six, she refuses to tell women simply how to cook. Instead, she teaches them to question the rules, trust themselves and change their lives.
As millions tune in, Elizabeth is no longer demonstrating recipes. She is challenging the status quo, one molecule at a time.
Perfect for readers of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Wedding People - an unforgettable novel about love, resilience and the courage to rewrite the rules
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A New York Times Top 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Reader's Pick
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Debut Novel
Winner of the Books Are My Bag Reader's Choice Award
British Book Awards Author of the Year
Waterstones Author of the Year
Readers love Lessons in Chemistry:
'Everyone needs to read this.'
'The best book I have read this year. Funny, warm and utterly unique.'
'Funny, honest and heart-wrenching. I was hooked until the very end.'
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A fiery encounter with another parent leads to a drastic career change for chemist Elizabeth Zott, who finds herself the unlikely host of a hit TV cooking show. Unconventional and fiercely intelligent, Elizabeth relishes the chance to subvert the notion that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” in front of a national audience. Bonnie Garmus’ debut novel playfully probes the cultural stereotypes of its 1960s setting as Elizabeth challenges her viewers to change the status quo. In single mother Elizabeth, Garmus has crafted a vibrant and unforgettable heroine—a role model for self-determination who will have you cheering for her success. The story is clever and uplifting, and the writing wonderfully deft. At its core is a message of ambition, capability and self-acceptance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Garmus debuts with a perplexing feminist fairy tale set in 1960s Southern California. Plucky chemist Elizabeth Zott believes she's not like other women ("Most of the women she'd met in college claimed they were only there to get their MRS," Garmus writes. "It was disconcerting, as if they'd all drunk something that had rendered them temporarily insane"). She proceeds to fall madly in love with her colleague, have his child, and then, after being sidelined by double standards, sexual harassment, and scandal around her pregnancy, she's dismissed from her job and becomes an overnight sensation as the host of a daytime cooking show. This trajectory, and its few tragedies, are intermittently interrupted by the anthropomorphized thoughts of her dog, Six-Thirty: "Humans were strange, Six-Thirty thought, the way they constantly battled dirt in their aboveground world, but after death willingly entombed themselves in it." In the end, everything works out—not because the patriarchy is destroyed or fairness is achieved, but thanks to the favors of a rich female benefactor equipped to strike back at those who humiliated Zott. While the scenes of Zott hosting her show do have their charm, the overall effect is about as deep as a Hallmark card. The author has a great voice, but contemporary readers will be left wondering who this is for.
Customer Reviews
Entertaining
Was interesting enough to keep me reading but I wouldn’t call it a page turner
Lessons in Chemistry
Not what I was expecting at all. Endearing. Off beat entertainment. Engrossing.
Great book
Kept you reading the whole time, love it!