Join SAL for a conversation with Bonnie Garmus, author of one of the greatest literary phenomena in recent years! With over eight million copies sold, her novel Lessons in Chemistry has struck a chord with readers around the globe.
Meet protagonist Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” in 1960s California, whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show (The Washington Post). This novel is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” (The New York Times Book Review) and has been named a best book of the year by the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek.
Select tickets come with a paperback copy of Lessons in Chemistry. To purchase a book, select a ticketing level that includes “Book.” The book will be mailed by our bookstore partner, Elliott Bay Book Company to the ticket holder’s address.
It’s the early 1960s, and Elizabeth’s 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.
Bonnie Garmus is the author of Lessons in Chemistry, a number-one global bestseller and winner of over fifteen national and international awards, including Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year, Hay Festival’s Book of the Year, Goodreads Choice Award Debut of the Year, British Book Awards Author of the Year, Waterstones Author of the Year, Books are My Bag Author of the Year Award and Readers’ Choice Award, Germany and Australia’s Booksellers Book of the Year, Australia’s International Book of the Year, and many more. Lessons in Chemistry was also selected by Queen Camilla for the Queen’s Reading Room and has been on the New York Times, Sunday Times and Der Spiegel bestseller lists for nearly three years. Currently published in forty-three territories, it has sold almost nine million copies.
