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Some interesting anecdotes and nuggets of information but ultimately not worth reading. It was mostly conjecture and a lot of it felt like trying to force thoughts together that were unconnected.
This is not a bad book. The writing is lucid, at times poetic, and the story of the Eversheds picks up in interest as the chapters go by. But it is not the book of its subtitle, or that advertised in the blurb. Mary Evershed's contribution to astronomy is primarily in the fields of literature and history. The two books she authored -- one about Dante's cosmos, the other about lunar nomenclature -- were not "trailblazing" nor did they "open the heavens". Without question Mary was an intelligent w...
"The lights did not disappoint: just after dusk, a green band crossed the ecliptic. It began to waver like moonlit water in an ice pond in the wake of a minor earth tremor; the waver became a wind-blown drape, heavy velvet, a silence crackling in the night, pulling swiftly across the vast black window of the sky, now magenta, blue, and purple in addition to green, a mosaic in motion. Waterfall mist. Mary gripped John's arm and let herself go dizzy in the distance."
It's good to read about a woman scientist overcoming sexism in her field, but I found this book to be boring. I read a little of the Divine Comedy when I was a teenager and I've been wanting to get back to it again, but, for some reason, this book also makes me want to stay away from Dante.