A review by kellynallyse
Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe by George Johnson
3.0
I picked up this book in order to do some research on Miss Leavitt for dramaturg work for the play Silent Sky (which is fantastic and if you love space, theatre, or both please go read).
It starts off very with a chapter-long parable about assumptions which set the tone for the book. It is written very conversationally which is enjoyable, but feels like it was likely written for an astronomer audience. Many terms were glossed over and it would go into tangents about the math that I would have to reread a few times to understand.
For the title having Henrietta Leavitt's name in it, there isn't much about her overall. This is most likely because there isn't much information about her recorded, but you spend a good chunk of the book reading about other discoveries that happened because of Henrietta's discovery, not about the woman herself.
It starts off very with a chapter-long parable about assumptions which set the tone for the book. It is written very conversationally which is enjoyable, but feels like it was likely written for an astronomer audience. Many terms were glossed over and it would go into tangents about the math that I would have to reread a few times to understand.
For the title having Henrietta Leavitt's name in it, there isn't much about her overall. This is most likely because there isn't much information about her recorded, but you spend a good chunk of the book reading about other discoveries that happened because of Henrietta's discovery, not about the woman herself.