Shelf Indulgence Book Club

Adult Program 

Join in as we discuss Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. (details below)

This book will be available in limited physical quantities at the library circulation desk about a month before we meet. E-book and audiobook formats are available in Libby. Please register by 1:00PM that Tuesday so I can prepare seating, send discussion questions in advance and send a Zoom link in case you decide to attend virtually.  This is a hybrid event - attend in person or virtually via Zoom. You must have a valid email address to use Zoom.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2022)

Winner for Best Debut Novel (2022)

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.