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The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir

Product ID : 44044317


Galleon Product ID 44044317
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About The Smallest Lights In The Universe: A Memoir

Product Description In this luminous memoir, an MIT astrophysicist must reinvent herself in the wake of tragedy and discovers the power of connection on this planet, even as she searches our galaxy for another Earth. Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars: so many lights in the sky, so much possibility. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets—especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at forty, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe. As she struggles to navigate her life after loss, Seager takes solace in the alien beauty of exoplanets and the technical challenges of exploration. At the same time, she discovers earthbound connections that feel every bit as wondrous, when strangers and loved ones alike reach out to her across the space of her grief. Among them are the Widows of Concord, a group of women offering advice on everything from home maintenance to dating, and her beloved sons, Max and Alex. Most unexpected of all, there is another kind of one-in-a-billion match, not in the stars but here at home. Probing and invigoratingly honest, The Smallest Lights in the Universe is its own kind of light in the dark. Amazon.com Review Sara Seager is an MIT professor, an astrophysicist, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and is referred to by NASA as “an astronomical Indiana Jones.” And now she can add brilliant memoirist to her list of accomplishments. In The Smallest Lights in the Universe, Seager shares the landscape of her own cosmos—her childhood and life as an astronomer, discovering companionship when your mind works a bit differently than everyone else’s, having babies, and navigating the loss of her husband. She also brings you deep into the science and math of rogue planets which makes the book, interestingly enough, all the more intimate. The sentences are rewarding and so is Seager’s infectious love of the universe: “My heart stopped...I wondered how such beauty could exist, and I wondered, too, why nobody had ever told me about it. I must have been the first person to see the night sky.” Even when her world crumbles after the death of her husband, Seager is determined to navigate the expanse of grief and the solar system. There’s something familiar and hopeful about her words, or maybe she’s just effortlessly channeling her beloved night sky: comforting, limitless, dark, and dazzling. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review Review “It is the easiest thing in the world to resign yourself to what is, to curl around yourself and your circumstances. This is a book filled with hope and wonder, because falling in love after loss is a defiant act of optimism, much like searching the stars for life beyond our own little planet. You’ll leave this book feeling possibility and inevitability, comforted by the knowledge that even in the dark, we are not alone." —Nora McInerny Purmort, author of It’s Okay to Laugh    “Sara Seager’s exploration of outer and inner space makes for a stunningly original memoir. Far from being dwarfed by the scale of exoplanets and galaxies, her most human tale of love, loss, and redemption is illuminated and given meaning by this backdrop. . . . A beautiful and compelling read.” —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone   “I absolutely loved this book. It presents both cutting-edge science and the deeply human side of a MacArthur award–winning woman astrophysicist. While searching for other planets in the universe, she grieves for her husband who died of cancer.” —Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures and The Autistic Brain  “The miracle of this breathtaking book is the way Sara Seager’s search for life in the universe mirrors her search for a fitting life here on earth. Who knew that so much love and beauty and hope could come from so much c