Moya Nolan; Doubleday
Lessons in Chemistryis getting a makeover for its paperback edition!
Garmus tells PEOPLE that she is “really excited” to finally have the paperback version of the book coming out as an option for fans after the runaway success of the hardcover, and was particularly thrilled at seeing the alternative book cover.
“I always love the portability of a paperback, but I really love the new cover,” the author says. “It’s both fun and powerful, and with the gold periodic table as the backdrop, it also feels celebratory.”
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“It’s easy to lose hope — especially now — but we must keep fear at bay and continue to work toward eliminating bias. Our society and our planet depend on it,” she added.
Larson also picked up an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination for her role as protagonist Elizabeth Zott and composer Carlos Rafael Rivera received an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.
On seeing her book adapted into an Emmy-award-winning series, Garmus tells PEOPLE: “It was amazing! I was especially happy for series composer, Carlos Rafael Rivera, whose music composition is stunning. He deserved that Emmy.”
The paperback version ofLessons in Chemistryis set to hit stores on April 1. Read an exclusive chapter below.
‘Lessons in Chemistry’ paperback edition.Doubleday
Doubleday
Missiles of Madness
Months later, Walter Pine would look back on this time and realize, despite the stress, he’d never been happier.Supper at Sixkept ticking along. Viewership increased, the Afternoon Depression Zone grew less depressing, everyone seemed happier.
But that’s how television is: it has a habit of presenting one way of life even as another festers. It was 1962. Race riots raged.Marilyn Monroedied.Nelson Mandelawas arrested. And despite the impossibly blue skies in Commons, Calif., a darkness seemed to be creeping into the national consciousness.
But it wasn’t as if Americans were completely unprepared. They’d been building fallout and bomb shelters for a decade already. As for their children, they’d been taught Duck and Cover drills at school — partly to avoid the broken glass that would shoot from the windows like a million transparent weapons post-impact, blinding some and killing others, but also to protect themselves in the event of a total building collapse. Should the bomb drop, their building would fold like a weak hand of cards, burying them alive before they’d had a chance to get any better at long division. But thanks to Duck and Cover, at least their dead bodies would be protected.
That is why, when President Kennedy took to the airwaves on Oct. 22, 1962, demanding that the Soviets stop their “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace,” it was clear that nuclear war was not only possible, but imminent. And because of it, a nation gathered its children in shaky arms and began preparations to go underground.
“Elizabeth who?”
“Jesus Christ, turn it up,” shrieked households from Fresno to Manhattan.
“First things first,” Elizabeth continued. “Don’t panic. If you find yourself panicking, realize that is exactly what the enemy wants you to do. So, take a deep breath. Hold it. Let it go.” She paused and leaned forward into the camera as if waiting for the nation to finish the exercise. “Good. Now let’s get started.”
“Safety is a group effort,” Elizabeth said, “and everyone has a role to play. Ladies, as captains of the home, I’m putting you in charge. Organize the following efforts: one family member to gather two blankets per person, and another to place every canned good you have into boxes. As most of you know, I don’t usually advocate the use of canned goods, but today I’m making an exception. Don’t forget the can opener. Moving on, designate another family member to gather every pitcher, jug and watering can and fill them with H2O. Men, ferry these down to the bomb shelter.”
In Duluth, Minn., a mother pointed at specific family members as each instruction was read. “That’s you, Ken,” she said. “That’s yours, Cindy,” she instructed. “Start lugging, Tom.”
“Younger children,” Elizabeth Zott continued. “Gather all the candles and matches you can find. Do not light them — you’ll have your chance later. Ladies, locate and box all medications and double-check the contents of your first aid kit. Men, find the toolbox; then await further instructions from your wife.”
“First aid kit?” a man said in Pensacola, Fla. “Where the hell are we going to get one of those?” His wife pointed to a small suitcase at her feet. “I’ve had this ready for years. It’s filled with aspirin, bandages, ointments, safety pins, tweezers, needle and thread, rubbing alcohol, a scalpel and penicillin. And potassium iodide.”
“Potassium what?” he asked.
“Potassium iodide,” Elizabeth Zott said from the set.
“What’s it for?” he asked.
“In case of radioactive fallout,” Emily and Elizabeth informed him simultaneously. “To protect the thyroid.”
“Work with purpose,” Elizabeth continued. “Don’t rush.”
“But we don’t have a bomb shelter,” a teenage boy worried from his family’s den in Canton, Ohio.
“I realize some of you won’t have bomb shelters,” Elizabeth said. “So here’s what I want you to do: store your gathered goods under the sofa and the table — anything that will offer some protection from a possible blast. If you’re in a department store, try the furniture department. Leave some room under there for yourself, as well. Do it now.”
From his hospital bed in Silver Lake, Calif., Phil Lebensmal woke to see a woman with a large knife in a familiar setting telling him what to do. He fainted.
“Next step,” she said. “Choose a book that offers comfort. I’m taking a biochemistry textbook.”
“No,” a mother in Reno, Nev. informed her teenage daughter who started to reach for a well-worn hardcover. “Peyton Place is out. You may bring the encyclopedia. And the dictionary.”
“Next step,” Elizabeth said. “Bring whatever you can of your fresh food — fruits and vegetables first. And a few utensils. And please, don’t forget your pets. All fish, birds, lizards, tarantulas, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice, rats, cats and dogs, and whatever it is they eat, go with you.”
“She didn’t say snakes,” said a mother in Baton Rouge as she watched her daughter coil a brightly patterned reptile around her neck, its tongue flicking in the evening air. “Rattles stays above ground.”
“But Mommmm!” the girl cried.
“Don’t mom me.”
“I almost forgot,” Elizabeth said, “Snakes, too.”
“America, we’re ready,” Elizabeth said, resting one hand on Six-Thirty’s neck. “Should the Soviets make the extremely poor decision to launch these missiles, they will soon wish they hadn’t.”
She looked out past the set to the empty seats that would have normally been filled with her studio audience, weighing her next words.
Then she leaned into the camera and said in a voice that could have peeled paint, “We eat bullies for breakfast.”
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Lessons in Chemistrycomes out in paperback on April 1 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
source: people.com
