Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein is a LONG read, so you might want to make this a project for the winter. Einstein: His Life and Universe was published in 2007. It's a mere 551 pages in paperback. If you're one for details, you can read another 88 pages at the end of the book where you can see the sources and notes. The index will help you locate specific information that you may be curious about.

Just to be honest, I must state that I didn't understand all 25 chapters of this book. Still, I trudged carefully on through every page, hoping that I would somehow magically absorb the facts about quanta, molecules, and relativity. Science and physics are not my area of expertise, yet I guess I think of myself as somewhat of a "scientist wannabe." If I COULD accurately explain chapters 5 and 6, I would love to do that. I would love to be able to explain Einstein's doctoral dissertation of 1905, but I wouldn't be very good at that either. He chose a paper entitled "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions" for his dissertation, and it was eventually accepted by Professor Alfred Kleiner, although at first the professor thought it was too short. So, Einstein added one sentence and the dissertation was accepted. So be it. The paper would turn out to be one of Einstein's most cited and useful papers with "applications in such diverse fields as cement mixing, dairy production, and aerosol products" (p.101-103).

I am an observer of human nature, so I enjoyed learning about Einstein's personal life. He was married twice. He had three children with his first wife Maric: two sons and one daughter. He never really knew his daughter and did not have a relationship with her. Very little is known about her. One of his sons was was mentally ill (Eduard) and the other son (Hans Albert) eventually came to the U.S. to live and work as an engineer. His wife, Elsa, was with him during the second part of his adulthood. Additionally, Einstein was an "inactive" Jew, but he did things to try to help the Jews after the war. He struggled with many of the things that all people face, struggles such as finding a job, fidelity, career development, finding time to relax, raising children, etc. I enjoyed reading about the "person" of Einstein, not just the scientist. His life journey took him from Germany to Princeton, and wherever he went people came to him to discuss his theories. Einstein died in 1955 from an internal hemorrhage. He was 76.

You should be well-rested when you read this book. I'm glad I read it this summer, but it's not for everyone. Still, don't be intimidated because although we all may not understand ALL things, we can understand SOME things. So be brave...read this Einstein biography.

Coming soon...I'll tell you what I think about a children's book called Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach, retold by Carmen Agra Deedy.