Chemistry for Beginners — Anthony Strong

Is true love simply a chemical equation?

Dr. Steven J. Fisher thinks he has love down to an exact science. A brilliant young biochemist whose closest friend is a bonobo ape named Lucy, Dr. Fisher spends his time in an Oxford research lab studying orgasms -- watching them, listening to them, analyzing them -- in his quest to find the first cure for female sexual dysfunction, a Viagra-like pill for women. But for all his candor about human sexuality in the lab, he is really a shy scientist, a beginner in the ways of love.

Dr. Fisher and his research team are weeks away from launching the drug when Annie -- a brilliant but orgasmically challenged Ph.D. student -- joins his study as a test subject. For the first time, Dr. Fisher's results don't seem to add up. And as he and Annie bond over IP addresses and romantic poetry, Bunsen burner-lit meals created through molecular gastronomy, Pink Floyd, and sessions of Swamps and Sorcerers, he has to ask himself, What scientific hypothesis can explain this new data -- let alone the change in his own feelings?

A sweet, witty romantic comedy that takes in everything from evolutionary theory to the odd/even rule of Star Trek movies, Chemistry for Beginners gets to the heart of how men and women view each other -- and shows us that sometimes even simple biology is all about chemistry.