Historical Fiction · Free kit
Lessons in Chemistry
Early-1960s Southern California: chemist Elizabeth Zott is smarter than the men who keep calling her a secretary, and she will be the first to tell you there is no such thing as an average woman. At Hastings Research Institute she finds one colleague who actually reads her work — Calvin Evans, a Nobel-nominated grudge-holder with a dog-shaped hole in his idea of family — and then life does what unrepeatable experiments do. A few years later she is a single mother, a rowing-club regular, and the deadpan star of America's favorite cooking show, where vinegar is acetic acid and the real recipe is telling women to stop shrinking. Funny, furious, and occasionally a little too neat, it is a book club novel about credit, kitchens, and who gets to take themselves seriously.
“Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.”
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Plan your meeting
Lessons in Chemistry This or That
Answer in under three seconds. No wrong answers — only revealing ones.
1 / 40
Rapid fire (60 seconds)
Read these aloud as fast as the group can shout answers.
- 1. Acetic acid or Vinegar?
- 2. Sodium chloride or Salt?
- 3. Number-two pencil or Fountain pen?
- 4. Cue cards or Wing it live?
- 5. Rowing at dawn or A second cup of coffee?
- 6. Lab coat or Studio apron?
- 7. Supper at six on the dot or Eat whenever the experiment ends?
- 8. Beakers as kitchen tools or A proper set of mixing bowls?
- 9. Family tree on poster board or No questions about where you come from?
- 10. A dog with opinions or A cat who could not care less?