It may surprise you to learn, Dear Readers, that as a kid I wanted to be not a writer or a historian, but an astrophysicist. My parents gave me a subscription to Astronomy and a telescope, entertained my wild theories about gravity, and took me out to see Mir and the planets after dark, which I loved.
And then I realized that astronomy and physics are all about math. Valiantly as I might have tried, math never clicked for me, and thus here you find me, an editor and writer.
Still, I love dipping back into the world of spacetime, so to speak. Here are two science-related titles for your consideration.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli, translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre
I absolutely loved this tiny (81 pages, not counting the index) book. In plain language, Carlo Rovelli discusses the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’ greatest discoveries and theories in physics, ranging from relativity to particle physics and back again. The section on heat and the nature of time completely fascinated me. Do note that one isn’t going to completely grasp these concepts after reading; this is more of a mind-opening book, the kind that encourages curiosity and further reading (take this: “The heat of black holes is like the Rosetta stone of physics”). I will definitely be buying a copy of this book for my shelf at home–it’s the kind of book I want to dip back into from time to time. Highly recommended.
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Jana Levin
I requested this book after reading Maria Popova’s (of Brain Pickings) ringing endorsement, but I was, unfortunately, quite disappointed. The book is about the decades-long attempt to record gravitational waves (produced in the collision of black holes)—a worthy, interesting, and timely topic: LIGO (the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory) detected gravitational waves in February, 100 years after Einstein’s prediction of their existence. Jana Levin focuses on the personalities of the original movers and shakers behind the push to build the massive LIGO machines, and while this might have been a good strategy, the execution is problematic. Long sections of interviews are reproduced without commentary, for example, leaving the reader in the dark about the author’s analysis of various points of contention. Throughout the book, crucial scientific terms that a layperson wouldn’t be expected to know aren’t explained, and I found multiple grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities (perhaps the book was rushed through production after the LIGO detection). This is, alas, a book that would have worked better as a long-form magazine story (like the story about earthquakes in the New Yorker that just won the Pulitzer).
Rosemary and Reading Glasses 
I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid 😉 I’d heard of the Rovelli but you make it sound more interesting than I might have expected. Have you read Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman?
An 81 page history lesson in physics sounds just about right.
Although I’m a science major, physics was my least favourite subject. But only because I hated *doing* the physics, and not so much because I didn’t like the ideas. The ideas and history of it are much more fun. Thanks for this recommendation – I’m going to look for it!
Bravo! Great review. First, the topic is fascinating. Second, it’s so refreshing to hear someone say that some of these books would have been better magazine articles. Can’t wait to read the first one!
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