The One Book program engages our college community in a dialogue about a common text that addresses a current issue. Students, faculty and staff share the experience of reading a text and examining its effects upon our community. Faculty who incorporate the text into their curriculum receive copies for their students. Programming is provided throughout the year to continue the discussions that begin in the classrooms of various disciplines. The culminating event happens each spring semester when the college invites the author of the chosen text to visit, interact and speak with our student body. The One Book program promotes literacy in an innovative way and creates interest within a subject that students may be encouraged to pursue and advocate for in the future. The program invites analysis, promotes critical thinking, and encourages positive change.
2025-2026 One Book Selection
Sponsored by the BHCC One Book Program
Bunker Hill Community College’s 2025-2026 One Book selection is Bonnie Garmus’s novel Lessons in Chemistry.
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Bonnie Garmus is an American author, copywriter, and creative director whose debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, became an international bestseller and cultural phenomenon. Before publishing her first book, Garmus had a successful career in scientific and technical writing, marketing, and advertising, which informs her sharp prose and keen insights into the worlds of science and gender politics.
Published in 2022, Lessons in Chemistry has been translated into over 40 languages and was adapted into a television series by Apple TV+, starring Brie Larson. The novel was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post, and was celebrated for its wit, emotional depth, and feminist spirit. Garmus is known for her ability to blend humor and heartbreak, creating compelling female characters who challenge societal norms.
Synopsis
Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry is a novel set in early 1960s California, where Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in a male-dominated scientific field, finds herself dismissed by her colleagues and forced off the career path she deserves. Unexpectedly, she becomes the star of a beloved cooking show, where she begins to teach more than recipes: she delivers scientific thinking and feminist empowerment to a national audience.
The novel is funny and moving, exploring themes of sexism in the workplace, the politics of science, single motherhood, identity, and the quiet (and not-so-quiet) ways women resist societal constraints. Lessons in Chemistry is a story about persistence, reinvention, and the transformative power of knowledge and self-belief.