A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman: A Memoir

by Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Book Overview

"Fierce, absorbing, and ultimately inspiring." --ELIZABETH KOLBERT

"[A] riveting book, beautifully written." --Washington Post

From one of the world's leading planetary scientists, a luminous memoir of exploration on Earth, in space, and within oneself--equal parts ode to the beauty of science, meditation on loss, and roadmap for personal resilience

Deep in the asteroid belt between...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063086905
• ISBN13: 9780063086906
• Release Date: June 2022
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Instantly a new favorite book

I can't get over this book. It is incredibly inspiring and so well written. Elkins-Tanton is someone who I am so very happy they put their life down on paper, good and bad parts. This memoir felt, above all, honest. She wrote her life the way it happened, without much artifice or obvious streamlining for 'narrative' which I appreciate because life is never narrative. I read memoirs to experience a life different from my own and this book delivers that. What most resonated with me is that she is someone who has not just lived life and is recounting it, but she looked for insights every day in her life and she shares these insights with us as readers. She was constantly learning and figuring out what she could glean from every job and relationship and experience, in a way that is humble and earnest, not didactic. This woman very casually within this memoir taught me so much about both working and personal relationships, about hard-work, about endurance. Loved this book, can see myself coming back to it for years to glean more from it. Should warn there is mentions of childhood abuse for anyone who can't read material like that. She does cover addressing this in therapy.