If you liked
Books like Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
Lessons in Chemistry drops a brilliant, blunt 1960s chemist into a world that will not let a woman be a scientist, so she becomes the most subversive cooking-show host on television instead. Bonnie Garmus writes it funny and furious at once. If you want more of that mix, these are the picks.
The shortlist
What to read next
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fineby Gail Honeyman
“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 2017 review. A thirty-year-old Glasgow office worker develops her first adult friendship. British Book Award Book of the Year 2018.”
A Man Called Oveby Fredrik Backman
“A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 2012 review. A fifty-nine-year-old Swedish curmudgeon plans his suicide until a young family moves in across the courtyard. Backman's debut.”
Anxious Peopleby Fredrik Backman
“Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 2020 review. A failed bank robber takes a Stockholm apartment-viewing hostage. Backman's structurally most ambitious novel and the basis for the Netflix limited series.”
The Maidby Nita Prose
“The Maid by Nita Prose 2022 review. A neurodivergent hotel maid finds a guest dead in his suite and becomes the primary suspect. New York Times bestseller and the basis for the Florence Pugh film.”
Hello Beautifulby Ann Napolitano
“Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano 2023 review. Four sisters in 1980s Chicago and the graduate-student basketball player who marries into the family. Napolitano's breakout literary commercial novel.”
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugoby Taylor Jenkins Reid
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 review. An aging Hollywood icon agrees to tell the true story of her career and her seven marriages, but only to an unknown journalist. The TikTok-era literary fiction novel that defined contemporary Hollywood-memoir-fiction.”
FAQ
Common questions about Lessons in Chemistry read-alikes
- What is the closest match in voice?
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Both books run on a socially blunt, brilliant woman the world keeps misreading, and both swing from very funny to genuinely moving. If you loved Elizabeth Zott's refusal to soften, Eleanor is your next narrator.
- I want the same warmth and heart.
- Fredrik Backman is the natural fit. A Man Called Ove and Anxious People deliver the laugh-then-cry rhythm, and The Maid gives you another lovably literal narrator solving a problem the world would rather she ignore.
- I want a woman making her own way against the era.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows a mid-century starlet controlling her own myth in an industry built to use her up. Different tone, same spine of a woman refusing the role she was assigned.
- I want an emotional literary-fiction next read.
- Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is a warm, sad family novel in the Little Women tradition. It trades the comedy for feeling, but it shares the deep affection for its characters that makes Lessons in Chemistry land.
The original