Lessons in Chemistry

Different cover for ISBN 9780385547345.

Elizabeth Zott, a chemist, is not your typical lady. Elizabeth Zott would really be the first to tell you that an average woman does not exist. However, her all-male Hastings Research Institute team had a rather unscientific definition of equality in the early 1960s. With the exception of one person, Calvin Evans, a reclusive, intelligent, and Nobel Prize nominee who harbors resentment and falls in love with her thoughts. There's true chemistry.

But life is unpredictable, just like science. For this reason, a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself the reluctant star of Supper at Six, the most popular cookery program in America, in addition to being a single mother. Elizabeth's unconventional cooking method—combining one tablespoon of acetic acid with a sprinkle of sodium chloride—turns out to be rather effective. But not everyone is content as her fan base develops. Because Elizabeth Zott isn't only instructing women in cooking, it turns out. She is defying them to alter the current situation.

As unique and colorful as its lead character, Lessons in Chemistry is a hilarious, sharply perceptive novel with a brilliant supporting cast.