Novelist Bonnie Garmus, author of " Lessons in Chemistry" with Mary Whipple

1521 10th Avenue,Seattle WA 98122

22 April, 2022

Description

Bonnie Garmus reads from and discusses her novel, "Lessons in Chemistry" with Olympic rower Mary Whipple. Bonnie Garmus Lessons in Chemistry Friday, April 22 at 6 p.m. :: Live & In-Person at Elliott Bay Book Company* Registration is not necessary. Attendance is limited so please arrive early. A writer who now calls London home, but has kept a base in Seattle, and lived here for some good years, Bonnie Garmus helps set her delightful debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday) into the waters here this evening. We’re looking at the 1960s, and we’re looking at a woman ahead of her time. “Two chemists with major chemistry, a dog with a big vocabulary, and a popular cooking show are among the elements of this unusual compound. At the dawn of the 1960s, Elizabeth Zott finds herself in an unexpected position. She's the star of a television program called Supper at Six that has taken American housewives by storm, but it's certainly not what the crass station head envisions … Elizabeth is a chemist, recently forced to leave the lab where she was doing important research due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Now she's reduced to explaining things like when to put the steak in the pan … If ever a woman was capable of running her own life, it's Elizabeth. But because it's the 1950s, then the '60s, men have their sweaty paws all over both her successes and failures. On the plus side, there's Calvin Evans, world-famous chemist, love of her life, and father of her child … At the other pole is a writhing pile of sexists, liars, rapists, dopes, and arrogant assholes. This is the kind of book that has a long-buried secret at a corrupt orphanage with a mysterious benefactor as well as an extremely intelligent dog named Six-Thirty, recently retired from the military …Garmus' energetic debut also features an invigorating subplot about rowing. A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.” - Kirkus Reviews. “It’s the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman determined to live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a side…. A page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and Zotty.” —Maggie Shipstead. Bonnie Garmus will be appearing in conversation with American Olympic rower and coxswain Mary Whipple.