Posted by Candice on Saturday, May 4, 2013
I've often thought that, if there was an area of knowledge that I could suddenly gain understanding and excel in, it would be physics and astronomy.
This goes back a bit, to the days when I was fascinated with the planets. When I was 8 or so, I received a book about the beings that inhabit different planets. As it turns out, this book was fiction. I didn't realize that, and was amazed and delighted that the book gave me numerical call signs to actually make contact with the planets--yes, really!! I spent many hours in my room, on the floor facing the window, with my walkie-talkie in hand, patiently tapping out (in Morse code, of course) these call signs. Hours. To no avail. No matter, though, I moved on...I had a period of fascination with Mars, and ordered as many books from the Weekly Reader as I could get my hands on. Then movies about space and aliens and time travel and the future. Books about string theory (started, rarely finished) and the cosmos. Pictures from the Hubble.
As it currently stands, I have a really hard time grasping some (most) of the basic principles, but I am still fascinated by it all. Is the universe expanding? What happened before the Big Bang? What is at the bottom/on the other side of a black hole (a thing we know exists not because we see it, but by the disappearance of everything else around it, that is crazy!)? Do all points in time really exist at the same time, all the time, and if so, can I somehow go back to the 23-year-old me and say 'hey, maybe don't take in 8 cats'? And most importantly, the question that comes to my mind whenever I read something about some distant star, why are we just now seeing the light from something that happened millions of years ago, and does the thing even exist anymore?? I don't understand Einstein's theories, I can't really visualize multiple dimensions, and light years are mind-boggling. I just can't.
Imagine my pleasure upon discovering The Universe: an illustrated history of astronomy. Pictures! Concise explanations! A fold-out timeline! 100 brief and interesting tidbits about astronomy explained for someone like me. If you're like me, and you desperately want to ponder the mysterious stars and expanse of space and matter, but just can't quite manage it on your own, you'll want this book. Or, if you're a little more advanced than I, but want something beautiful and very interesting to read, you just might want it as well.
About the Author
I work at the Info Desk on the second floor, and I select books for the adult nonfiction collection. I have a degree in anthropology, which really helps in selecting...well...almost anything. I also manage the Art To Go collection of framed prints and original art, and the nonfiction DVDs.
What do you like to read?
In no particular order:... more
To be honest, this book wasn't at the top of my TBR list, but it is now! I was lucky enough to catch Leslie reading and in conversation with Kaveh Akbar at Prairie Lights last night, and within a minute of hearing Ms. Jamison read, I knew that I would be diving into this book ASAP. So much has already been said about her meticulous attention to detail and conjuring scene and emotion with just the right words, and it's all true. For me, though, it was her actual reading of her own words that hooked me so quickly--a cadence somewhere between prose and poetry that illuminated the beauty of the sentences and let their meaning come through at the same time. And if you're worried that a book about being a writer or a divorcée or a mother won't appeal to you if you aren't any of those things, rest assured that there's so much more to the work. As the subtitle says, it's a different kind of love story, and I think there is something in this book that everyone can relate to. -Candice