Lessons in Chemistry @ Professor Java's

Special note: Since we are nearing the holiday season, I would like to suggest two ways we can celebrate together:

1. Cookie swap! Bring 1-2 dozen of your favorite cookie (or other baked good) to share. Please also bring your own baggie or to-go container so participants can take home 1-2 cookies from everyone. (for anyone anxious about rules: I checked with Prof Java's that outside food is okay in this instance).
2. Literary grab bag. Bring a wrapped, small, literary/bookish gift you think other readers would enjoy. I would ask that everyone keeps this to $12 or less. This could be cute bookmarks, a notebook, a dish towel with a bookish saying on it, a tiny reading light, etc.

Participation in both of these events is 100% optional. We will do the holiday grab bag and cookie swap at 6:15, a little earlier than normal, so we can still get down to discussing the book by 6:45ish.

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We're reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus on Thursday, December 12th at Professor Java's in Albany.

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.

Upper Hudson Library System Access:
audiobook via Libby
ebook via Libby
physical copies (regular and large print)

Future meetings will generally be on the second Thursday of the month at Professor Java's in Albany. Drop book suggestions here: https://forms.gle/pEQ8rBtNUnLM58ov8