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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
It's not an easy read by any stretch, and I bet my book club friends are hating me for recommending it. (I didn't read it before putting it on the list!). It's interesting though. We'll see!
Well, here's the update. I gave up. I like to read for pleasure and that was just too much effort.
Well, here's the update. I gave up. I like to read for pleasure and that was just too much effort.
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
reflective
slow-paced
A very dense book. A tough subject to make particularly thrilling but well written nonetheless. Would recommend an interest in Catholicism to really enjoy it.
Preferred the parts more set on Galileo than the religious bits, although to be fair this constitutes most of the interaction with his daughter.
Preferred the parts more set on Galileo than the religious bits, although to be fair this constitutes most of the interaction with his daughter.
Is actually just another biography of Galileo, written smoothly, with the newly discovered correspondence with Maria Celeste, which shed new light on the personality of G: as a father, not as a scientist. Still, she has a relatively limited share in the book. If MC dies, the suspense is completely gone.
There was a lot of interesting information! It does read like a text book though, so after working at it for a month (and falling asleep sometimes) I finally skim read it to the end.
I hadn't originally planned on putting this book under social issues but the more I thought about it the more I thought it fit.
First, the daughter part of the title is a catch. The book is a memoir of Galileo. Sobel adds to the history but including the close relationship Galileo had with his daughter, a forgotten character in history, and includes the letters (only from his daughters side since Galileo's cannot be found) she wrote to him during her life as a cloistered nun. I really could have done without the daughter angle as it was mildly interesting but Galileo is interesting enough without that.
I added this into social issues because every scientific discovery Galileo makes, most notably building off Copernicus' theory the sun is stationary and the earth revolves around the moon, Galileo Gahlei has to battle the church. He must also battle himself, as he was a faithful and practicing catholic. He battles following the churches decrees with revolutionizing science. He is called by Einstein "the father of modern physics - of modern science altogether". For his beliefs, he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and forced to spend his last years under house arrest.
Sobel is not the most exciting writer, but her biographies are thorough, informative, and well researched. I already knew a great deal regarding Galileo, but I learned even more.
First, the daughter part of the title is a catch. The book is a memoir of Galileo. Sobel adds to the history but including the close relationship Galileo had with his daughter, a forgotten character in history, and includes the letters (only from his daughters side since Galileo's cannot be found) she wrote to him during her life as a cloistered nun. I really could have done without the daughter angle as it was mildly interesting but Galileo is interesting enough without that.
I added this into social issues because every scientific discovery Galileo makes, most notably building off Copernicus' theory the sun is stationary and the earth revolves around the moon, Galileo Gahlei has to battle the church. He must also battle himself, as he was a faithful and practicing catholic. He battles following the churches decrees with revolutionizing science. He is called by Einstein "the father of modern physics - of modern science altogether". For his beliefs, he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and forced to spend his last years under house arrest.
Sobel is not the most exciting writer, but her biographies are thorough, informative, and well researched. I already knew a great deal regarding Galileo, but I learned even more.
informative
slow-paced
I loved Dava Sobel's Longitude when I read it a decade ago; I wasn't sure how I'd appreciate her writing after all these years, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. The integration of the history and the letters is delightful, and I'm grateful for the rich contextualisation of events that I knew about only in vague terms.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Couldn’t finish it - I found it dry, repetitive, and more about Galileo than his daughter.