dumbmaddie's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.75
atamano's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Cancer, Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Grief, Classism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, War, and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy and Animal death
india_g's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
finalgirlfall's review against another edition
5.0
this book wandered a lot for the first third or so--but then popova started to talk about dickinson, and things began to come together. :-)
codey_spartan's review against another edition
5.0
One of the few books where I mostly have the exact phrasing from the book in my notes than paraphrasing it myself. Maria Popova’s style of prose could make even the mundane meaningful. A book rich in so many different genres that it resembles the very human lives it tries to portray - interconnected web of stardusts. Life, Death, Love, Loss etc are all handled with grace that I felt the very emotions the figures in the book were going through. I am definitely going to reread this over the years as different versions of me will find different things from the book as all great ones do.
conorsweetman's review against another edition
5.0
Maria Popova, in her yellow-bound delight of a book “Figuring” relishes in the extravagant lengths that the human spirit will go to make our moments beautiful and meaningful. Even with the aspects of progressivism that I have a hard time with, the politics fall flat on their face in reverence to the more important realities of which Popova so lovingly speaks: the unbounded bigness of the universe; the subtle delight that can be drawn from each moment.
The book itself—concerned with the intertwined relationship of science and art—acts as both a microscope and a telescope, zooming in and out in incredibly moving ways on the minutiae of grief at having affection denied—as in the stories of Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville—and the triumphs of a young mind’s opening to the limitlessness of the ocean and the arts—as she shows in the lives of Margaret Fuller and Rachel Carson. This book exudes the love of language, poetry and the world, and though the author cannot see any sense in God, I see God’s love of creation through this work.
The book itself—concerned with the intertwined relationship of science and art—acts as both a microscope and a telescope, zooming in and out in incredibly moving ways on the minutiae of grief at having affection denied—as in the stories of Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville—and the triumphs of a young mind’s opening to the limitlessness of the ocean and the arts—as she shows in the lives of Margaret Fuller and Rachel Carson. This book exudes the love of language, poetry and the world, and though the author cannot see any sense in God, I see God’s love of creation through this work.
sophielua's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
rick2's review against another edition
4.0
Very beautiful writing. Interesting and wonderful examination of non traditional western thinkers. Seemed scattered and a bit disorganized.
loragracegrace's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book after reading Heroines by Kate Zambreno, and the way Maria Popova weaves the lives of so many historical figures (mostly women, many queer) does for women in science what Zambreno did for women in literature. It’s long, over 500 pages, but I think it’s worth making it to the end for Emily Dickinson and Rachel Carson. There’s so much straight washing in historical accounts of these famous scientists and artists, what a breath of fresh air to see them in their whole being! My only wish is that she had done the same with race—it’s a very white list of people.