Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
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Book Reviews of Einstein: His Life and Universe
Book Review: This book is really deep.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is really long, and deep. Be prepared! The book gives an excellent history of Einstein all the way from his childhood up until his death. You will read all the classic stories - how he wasn't the greatest student, mostly because he was bored in school. He wanted to study what was of interest to him, not what was in the curriculum.
The accounts of his interpersonal relationships are interesting. He wasn't the unfeeling analytical type that people assume he would be. He had his own struggles with love and family, just as all of us do.
This book is very scientific and reads like a text book in some parts. Be prepared to spend some quiet time reading it in small doses. You will get to know all of the interesting facets of Einstein's personality and realize that is was human, too.
Book Review: Understanding Einstein
Summary: 4 Stars
Many people consider Albert Einstein the smartest man who ever lived. While that may be true in the world of science, the book Einstein: His Life and Universe certainly shows that it wasn't true in other areas of his life. He's a man who dumped his first wife to marry his cousin. His relationship with his sons was tenuous at best. He was a pacifist until faced with the alternative. Einstein: His Life and Universe is a book that paints a full picture of the man behind the theories. He was a person who could be a great friend to others and yet he seems to have kept himself oddly aloof from the world.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book, but trying to understand Einstein's scientific theories, although Walter Isaacson did his best to explain them in layman's terms, still gave me a headache at times.
Book Review: did the author know of Einstein's Asperger Syndrome?
Summary: 3 Stars
Forgive me. I have only read the review while I search for a good biography. I see a grave error. The author is wonderfully enamored with Einstein, yet applaudes a humanistic view? eh? Einstein is a genius. And like many geniuses the brilliance on intellect comes with downsides on empathy/humanism. Einstein is believed by many scholars to have had Asperger Syndrome which is a biological/neurological handicap in understanding empathy and readying people situations. that is, they are emotionally like 3-10 y/o for their entire life. . .which explains some of the absurd non-scientific pontifications.
My point is simply that a good biography should understand his pros and cons, including Asperger Syndrome, so as to more accurately portray the brilliant, yet difficult individual.
Book Review: Well-written, comprehensive review of Einstein's entire life
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very well-written and engaging review of Einstein's entire life. I found this to be an informative review of his impact on physics, explained in a way that was understandable and interesting to me as a layman. That's all well and good, but what made the book engaging for me was the presentation of Einstein the man, complete with all his flaws and very much in the context of the times in which he lived - through the first two world wars and the birth of the atomic bomb.
The story of Einstein's life is laid out in chronological order and reviews all the facts and figures, yet the feel of the book is far from dry and objective. The author clearly did a tremendous amount of research for this book and does a great job of peppering in details in all the right places.
Book Review: Even Einstein can't live up to being Einstein...
Summary: 3 Stars
I was impressed with the amount of research that Walter Isaacson put into this book. He obviously worked not only to accurately capture who Einstein was, but also did a credible job of explaining Einstein's discoveries for a non-scientific audience.
Where the book left me wanting was not the rendition, but the subject matter itself. There should be some expectation here; Einstein is larger than life and there is bound to be some disappointment once the pedestal is removed. To someone who studied Physics in college as I did (and yet has few advantages in understanding Einstein's work over everyone else), Einstein holds rock-star status. However, I found that were I offered dinner with past figures of my own choosing, Einstein likely would not make my short list.