The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir
"Sara Seager's exploration of outer and inner space makes for a stunningly original memoir."--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
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.
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Community Reviews
I enjoy the authors writing style and I like the way she began her story. It's not a good time to read this story if you are with your own grief.
This ended up being a challenge for me to finish on two counts. The first was that my younger brother had died while I was in the middle of reading this, so I had put the book down for a few days and when I came back to continue reading, it turns out that it was at that exact moment that Mike died and the while description was too close. After several weeks i was able to return to the story, but there were many times I struggled to stay connected she went deep into the scientific end of things. I think spending some time sharing some of the stiff was very important to who she is and how she make the connections are great, but sometimes she would go way into stuff that just wasn't that appealing to me...at one point she described how her 'friends' would listen even if they weren't interested, that is how I felt during some of her scientific descriptions. It's not that 'some' of it wasn't interesting, it's that it was too much, too deep for the average person. For me that broke up the story and made it a challenge to get to the next interesting parts. Perhaps that's my fault since I found the recommendation of this in a Real Simple magazine and based on that recommendation and description ordered the book to read. Perhaps I should have done a bit more research. I'm not a huge science person with all the math and calculations, but I do absolutely love to watch the stars and listen to the sounds of nature through the various stages of the day and through the night. I guess i misunderstood how the connections between her work and life was going to fill the pages of the book. Still a worthy read, just struggled through the tiffs part and that part and this number and that number stuff.
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