Excelent analysis of the life of Madame Curie
922961
Excelent analysis of the life of Madame Curie. It was a pleasure to discover and analyze many unknown details of the life of this wonderful woman in times when being a jewish, a woman, a pioneer and a scientist was so difficult. In the author's eyes, the conversation goes about passion, feelings, responsabilities, fights, especially when loosing the husband, the masculine figure around both of them.
2738867
This book was a very detailed description of Lise Meitner's life-her family growing up, her hardships, her fond memories, accounts of important events, etc.  Meitner was surrounded in an intellectually stimulating environment, one that her family encouraged and which continued throughout her life.  She attended school at the University of Vienna, where she was able to attend lectures and classes from famous professors, such as Franz Exner and Ludwig Boltzmann.  She graduated summa cum laude and was even awarded a doctoral degree.  She became the first woman Assistant in Prussia under Max Planck, and was also the first woman in Germany to gain the title of Professor.  She and Otto Hahn developed a reputation together in radioactivity and went into nuclear physics independently.  She also faced many hardships, the main one being deprived of the Nobel Prize she deserved for her contributions to the discovery of nuclear fission.  However, despite great disappointments and unfair events, Lise Meitner was able to look forward.  She is remembered as "a physicist who never lost her humanity."

 The author of this book, Ruth Lewin Sime, wrote this book to give a voice to a woman of science who has almost vanished.  Throughout the years, women have been deprived of recognition for their contributions.  Although women have made all kinds of accomplishments, many go unnoticed, neglected, and become almost invisible.  In Meitner's case, her name is hardly seen in literature and the distortion of reality and the suppression of memory are evident, especially since it was during the time of Nazi Germany.  Even her contributions to nuclear fission were ignored and unrecognized.  Although she faced unbearable unfairness, she kept quiet and did not complain or fight for herself.  Sime wished to be the voice of the amazing life Lise Meitner lived, surrounded by family, friends, and a love for physics.

 If you are truly interested in physics and the events that took place "behind-the-scenes," then you should read this book.  It gives amazingly accurate accounts of Meitner's life and everything she went through.  Not only does it give the personal account of Meitner, it also has scientific explanations of her discoveries and collaborations with other scientists.  It blends the personal life and the scientific life of Lise Meitner in an interesting way.
2272589
This was one of the best researched analysis of the life of the beautiful, intelligent  and commanding Jezebel I have read. The book is extremely well written and I am recommending it to my friends. A wonderful narrative and compelling reading.
4086060
Author did an excellent job of showing the reader what a dedicated Person Florence Nightingale was. She set the standards high for other nurses.
4454074
A wonderfullly researched and well presented treatise on the life of this extraordinary woman.  I have read virtually everything about blavatsky and this book enhanced my depth of understanding and also assisted some of the pieces to come together through my own research.  I also enjoyed and dowloaded many of the resource materials mentioned throughout the text.  A great read
4351151
It was an excellent book on Empress Marie and very readable. Provide insight into Empress Marie's life both pre and post revolution.
370406
This is a splendid book.  VERY engaging; it is hard to put down once picked up.  For me, it is so interesting tolearn about this incredible woman who has contributed so much to understanding and protecting our environment.
It is so well written - a pleasure to read.
3490279
Enjoyed how Robert K Massie placed the woman in the context of her environment from the influences of her very early life to the influences and personal interactions with other living symbols of the age such as Voltaire to her death. His adding in her actual written letters were helpful in revealing depth to her personality. He revealed her as a dimensional persona engaged in friendships and liaisons with other historical figures. He gave her humanity out of an otherwise flat historical factual accounting we have heard in history classes.
3449679
There is a lot more attention being paid to the empowerment of women (or more correctly, the lack thereof) in earlier times.  The author, Carrie Brown, has delivered a wonderfully and lyrically written story about one such intelligent woman, Carolyn Herschel.  While Carolyn was a wonderfully adept scientist in her own right, her only acknowledgement came through the fact that she assisted her brother, William Herschel, with the major strides he made in the public's understanding of astronomy and telescopes.  Herschel is rightly recalled as the inventor in the 18th century of the most advanced, largest telescopes of that age, discovery of Uranus, and the listings of the planet nebula.  While his sister should have been equally recognized, that was not the practice of that time period.  She manages gracefully to suceed to the admiration and success given to her brother, but at a cost to her self esteem and isolation.  The book offers excellent insight into both their characters, as well as into that time period and the inequalities suffered by the women who never received the success they richly deserved.  Highly Recommended.
1942724
I truly enjoyed the life of Annabelle. She h a d such a hard life, but truly an inspiration to us all. She told her life story to her great granddaughter who was interested in the ancestry of their lives. After Annabelle had died her great granddaughter was able to find other things out by her most memorable diary she left in her chest of other memories of her whole life. Excellent book I would recommend this book and give it a 5 star rating.
2741545
A very good book about a woman who/lived an extraordinary life.
4424273
I really enjoyed learning about the amazing life of this woman pioneer of the early 19th century. Her modern thinking, ideals and philosophy prevail to our times. I had no idea that she grew up in France, that her father was from Peru, or that her family denied her inheritance which forced her to go from a rich aristocrat to work as a full time nanny, while others would take care of her own children (just like a soap opera story). She spent many years of her struggled life in England, were she worked, and got involved and created the concept of workers unions. I am surprised that more people in North America don't know about her. A must read if you are a feminist thinker.
4889078
Outside of knowing that Florence Nightingale was known as the Lady with the Lamp and that she worked in the British Army hospitals during the Crimean War, I knew nothing else. So I picked Florence Nightingale: The Courageous Life of the Legendary Nurse by Catherine Reef to read.

I learned that Florence Nightingale had a very difficult life because she went outside of the social norm at the time In England to work. She came from a wealthy family and was expected to marry, have children and take care of her family. She was not supposed to be interested in math, engage in the hard work of cleaning or work under deplorable conditions. She felt that she had a calling, she studied subjects not intended for the gentle sex. she worked long hours, often 20 hours a day in caring for the sick and injured.

She was different as a child, she rescued injured animals and nursed them back to health. Not bending the customs of the day disappointed her parents and caused her sister to think ill of her. She did not get the support that she wanted from her family but she went on and pushed nursing as a profession into a career of respect. She recognized the benefits of clean clothing and fresh air and left her stamp of greatness on nursing.

The author writes about Florence Nightingale objectively and gives much insight to her decisions and her beliefs. Well researched and profusely illustrated, this book gives us many insights into her character and distinguishes between the myth and the reality of this woman.

I highly recommend this to all who are interested in important figures in history.
1374329
I haven't read all the biographies yet but so far, I think this book is well done. The women are interesting and extremely impressive figures, and the author avoids feminist propaganda and tries to stick with facts. For example, she explains that something may have happened or probably happened because the scientist was a woman, but she does this without emotion. I don't think that anyone would dispute that women scientists in the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century had a difficult time. That's how things were, and I don't think an angry screed would have improved a book like this. My one criticism of the book is that the author goes into a fair amount of scientific detail but makes absolutely no effort to explain the scientific concepts. I was quite surprised to see this, but since I am much more interested in the women's lives, especially in the context of the period and the country in which they lived, this did not interfere with my appreciation for the subjects of the book. I think the level is high enough that this book can be enjoyed by adults as well. I'm not entirely sure why it's considered a children's book.
838231
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Marshalls biography based on the lives of Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Peabody.  While the book contains an impressive amount of detailed research on the lives of these exceptional women, it reads like a novel.  One the aspects that I found most enjoyable was exploring both the facts about their lives as well as their relationships with one another.  The other aspect that I applaud Marshall for is shedding light on the contributions of women during this time period as well the myriad of constraints placed upon them.  The cast of characters in this book includes some of the more prominent and widely written about figures of the era including William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Mann, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Allston, Theodore Parker and Margaret Fuller.  Once again, Marshall adeptly broadens the readers perspective of the time period by using her research to develop the Peabody sisters relationships to these notables.  The length of this book did not deter me;  In fact, it left me wanting more.  It is imperative to acknowledge and learn from these movers and thinkers of the day who challenged the status quo and left their mark in the areas of philosophy, religion, education and art.  Perhaps Marshall will follow up with a book that covers the sisters later years.  In the meantime, I look forward to reading her account of Margaret Fuller.
2376506
It was a great pleasure to read the book by Dr. Corredoira. He shows the internal mechanisms of how the modern science
works which are probably unknown to the general public. He provides deep analysis of the philosophy and motivation behind the scientific activity.

The book includes a historical perspective of science from ancient times to our days which helps a reader to better understand the place
of science in modern society. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is attracted to science.
871141
The author spent much time and exhaustive effort to put together a true story that at times moves along like fiction, and presented characters that had me totally engaged.  I loved how the science was told with detail that would satisfy professionals and then told again "in plain English" for readers like me so that I could understand the importance of Henrietta Lacks' part in cell research.  Rebecca Skloot holds nothing back--except her own occasional skepticism.  This book is not to be missed!