Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Week 1: Opening — Meeting Elizabeth Zott
Read the opening chapters of Lessons in Chemistry through Elizabeth's introduction to Hastings Research Institute and her first significant encounters with Calvin Evans.
Free Week 1 sampleRead all of Week 1 free — no card.
When you’re ready, choose this complete guide once or get every guide for a year.
Before the cooking show, before the heartbreak, there is simply Elizabeth Zott — a woman who insists on being taken seriously in a world determined not to. This week we meet her on her own terms.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Garmus establishes Elizabeth's voice and worldview almost immediately. What specific details — her word choices, her interactions, her habits — tell you exactly who she is before the plot has even taken shape?
a.What does her approach to language (insisting on precision, rejecting euphemism) reveal about her character?
b.How does the novel's narrative voice — often wry and omniscient — complement or complicate Elizabeth's own perspective?
2.Hastings Research Institute is portrayed as a place where women are tolerated at best and undermined at worst. What specific policies, attitudes, or individual behaviors make this atmosphere vivid and believable rather than cartoonishly villainous?
3.Calvin Evans is introduced as a loner and a grudge-holder — someone who has cultivated difficulty as a kind of armor. What draws him to Elizabeth, and what does his attraction to "her mind" suggest about what he has been missing?
Get the complete 12-week guide
All 85 questions across 12 weeks, with thoughtful discussion prompts, a PDF and printable weekly handouts for your group.
Where your receipt and sign-in link go. No password to remember.
Full Library
Every guide in the library, all year
The first-year discount is already applied — there’s no code to type. $59 is the first-year price for new customers, then it renews at $79/year.
- Every week of Lessons in Chemistry on the web, plus printable weekly handouts
- Every guide in the library (200+ and growing)
- 4 full-guide PDF downloads every 30 days, so you can print a whole study ahead
- If your group picks a book we don’t have yet, we write the guide — 3 included a year, $9 each after that
- A leader email each week of the study: that week’s questions and a short prep note
$59 today, then it renews at $79/year.
First-year price for eligible new customers. Everything unlocks right away. We email you 30 days before it renews — cancel or pause online anytime, no phone call.
This Guide Only
One study, no renewal
Nothing renews. 7-day money-back guarantee before downloading the PDF or handouts.
- Every week of Lessons in Chemistry (12 weeks, 85 questions)
- PDF for you, printable handouts for the group
- A link you can send to everyone in your group
- One purchase covers your whole group — no per-person fee
- No account to set up — we email you a sign-in link
Upgrade within 60 days and your $29 comes off the regular $79 year — you never pay for this guide twice.
Full Library, monthly — $25/month, renews monthly until you cancel. The same library, with 2 PDF downloads and 1 requested book a month. Worth knowing: four months of it costs more than a full year.
More than one leader at your church? Church Plan — 5 leader seats for $199/year, then $29 a year per extra seat. Renews yearly at that price plus any extra seats, unless canceled. Pay by card, or ask for an invoice your treasurer can pay. See the Church Plan
- 30-day money-back guarantee on the year (with 2 or fewer guides downloaded)
- A receipt you can hand your treasurer for reimbursement
- Every guide you download stays yours — even if you cancel
- Secure checkout by Stripe — we never see your card number