Ratings8
Average rating4.3
Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries--beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists--mostly women, mostly queer--whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the way we understand, experience, and appreciate the universe. Among them are the astronomer Maria Mitchell, who paved the way for women in science; the sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who did the same in art; the journalist and literary critic Margaret Fuller, who sparked the feminist movement; and the poet Emily Dickinson. Emanating from these lives are larger questions about the measure of a good life and what it means to leave a lasting mark of betterment on an imperfect world: Are achievement and acclaim enough for happiness? Is genius? Is love? Weaving through the narrative is a set of peripheral figures--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman--and a tapestry of themes spanning music, feminism, the history of science, the rise and decline of religion, and how the intersection of astronomy, poetry, and Transcendentalist philosophy fomented the environmental movement.
Reviews with the most likes.
So many fascinating people and connections are covered here, and so beautifully. I had a notes list for things I needed to lookup or people I needed to learn more about - hard to construct given that I listened to this book while running! But really, the stories are given so well, I couldn't help myself from wanting to learn more about them.
This book is primarily about people - people who have had an outsized influence on your life - people you have heard of but maybe did not know influenced each other ... or you never understood a particular relationship of people in time - Maria will shine some light on it.
Maria Popova's prose is well-crafted. While she is busy discussing the lives and drives of famous authors and artists and scientists, her words are spinning their own web - I was pausing and replaying to listen to some of the sentences again and again. I don't know if that would be better with a physical book or if it was better audibly.
This book could be read to middle grades on up. I'd recommend it for all - especially budding scientists and artists who might be a little self-critical or anyone who enjoys a good narrative and history.
** I listened to the audible version
Featured Prompt
2,097 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...