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. She’s daring them to change the status quo. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. 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.

True chemistry results.īut like science, life is unpredictable. Except for one: Calvin Evans the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with-of all things-her mind. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. This novel is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” (The New York Times Book Review) and “witty, sometimes hilarious.the Catch-22 of early feminism.” (Stephen King, via Twitter)Ī BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, NewsweekĬhemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman.

Meet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.

Chemistry lesson book