4.0

Maria Celeste reminds me of a friend of mine -- very capable and smart, so kind and helpful (nearly to fault, if it weren't clearly making them happy), and a joy to talk to. The relationship between her and her father in her adulthood sounded sweet. I'm grateful to the author for presenting it among bits of historical and personal context, which made it easier to paint a mental picture of the life of a figure I usually imagine as too grand to walk amongst people.

I'd recommend this book to anyone curious about science history and/or the interplay of science and religion. As a previous physics and astronomy student, I found myself thinking of the book as a spinoff from school texts that referenced Galileo, so that was fun. Fascinating read.