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sunbirder's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve read this beautiful book twice now and each time I try to say something about it, anything at all, I’m at loss for words. It’s just so beautifully-written— all the individuals mentioned and their struggles at understanding science, poetry, people, emotions, and the universe. Maria is great at blending everything seamlessly and making you feel that your existence is consequential, despite knowing that our time here is almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things. If you’re lucky, you might be remembered for your ideas, your work, and impact on people’s lives. Even if you’re eventually forgotten, you can’t deny that existing alone, is beautiful, even if it’s just blip in time.
P.S. Ever since I read this book, I’ve been looking for similar ones. Nothing quite compares yet, but I’ve found some that are almost quite as beautiful. No complaints though.
P.S. Ever since I read this book, I’ve been looking for similar ones. Nothing quite compares yet, but I’ve found some that are almost quite as beautiful. No complaints though.
authorandreader's review against another edition
5.0
When I was barely a teen, I stole an anthology of Romantics from my local library. That's because I was a straight-up delinquent, but, for some strange reason, I just had to take my time reading all the William Blake and Wordsworth. Reading the emotional, mostly anti-science views of the "feeling" individual in the world was exhilarating. I was 13, played D&D, and listened to Led Zeppelin -- so mystical and self-involved was fine by me. At 14, I matured, used my library card, and was on to the Transcendentalists and happily brainwashing myself again with their less-fear-of-science stance and even stronger views of self-reliance and what I believe is a misguided assessment of the purity of the individual.
So, here I am, reading this magnificent book, with that same feeling of genuine discovery, starting in those periods I began so long ago. It's a familiar world to me but with totally new pathways. The figures throughout the book are exciting and well-chosen to tell the long story, directly correct history, and explore love, achievement, and what it means to "do" life. This is how I like to take my history; deeply connected and said with aplomb and song.
Some readers might say this book is too much, and what it is trying to say could have been told much more sparingly, but I could have read an additional 500+ pages easily.
So, here I am, reading this magnificent book, with that same feeling of genuine discovery, starting in those periods I began so long ago. It's a familiar world to me but with totally new pathways. The figures throughout the book are exciting and well-chosen to tell the long story, directly correct history, and explore love, achievement, and what it means to "do" life. This is how I like to take my history; deeply connected and said with aplomb and song.
Some readers might say this book is too much, and what it is trying to say could have been told much more sparingly, but I could have read an additional 500+ pages easily.
shorwitz5's review against another edition
I was just listening to this as an audiobook and it just got kind of confusing to know whether the part they were reading was a direct excerpt from someone’s diary or whether it was written by the author in audiobook format and it kept taking me out of it. When I have more time to read physical books, I might come back to it
beetlady's review against another edition
Not what I’m looking for right now and overall direction of plot is missing.