Tag Archives: Nonfiction

Review of “Depphjärnan” by Anders Hansen

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Title: Skärmhjärnan (The Happiness Cure)
Author: Anders Hansen
Narrator: Anders Hansen
Series: –
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 5 hours 26 minutes
Published: 2021, Bonnier Fakta
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

As a species, we’ve never had it so good. We’re living longer and healthier lives than ever before; the sum of human knowledge and endless entertainment are only ever a few clicks away.

So why are we in the midst of a mental health crisis?

The Happiness Cure offers a radical new way to think about fulfilment. Blending neuroscientific research and empirical breakthroughs with stories of ordinary individuals, leading psychiatrist and viral TedX speaker Dr Anders Hansen reveals that by adopting an evolutionary take on life, we can re-set our perspective on happiness to find longer-term meaning and lasting contentment.

MY REVIEW

This was good! I kind of feel like I am already going in the right direction here (wisdom that has come with age), but it was so necessary to hear it. Five and a half hour read by the enthusiastic Anders Hansen himself while driving through Europe was exactly what my boyfriend and I needed.

This is the third book by Hansen that I’m reading and I love that even if they are supposed to be three individual pieces, it feels like they follow each other and intertwine.

So, what makes this book of his so great? He explains everything very thorough and several times in different ways so his words really stick with you. He also uses great analogies and explains our history in such a logical way that makes you say: Of course! That makes so much sense!

I won’t spoil anything, but the general idea of his meaning is that we are not programmed to be happy all the time, we are not programmed to be happy at all, because all our brain wants is to survive. And most importantly, evolution is SLOW, our society and technological advances are WAY TOO FAST for our evolution. We are not made to live in this world. And all of our anxiety, panic attacks and depressions are normal. Those are signs that our brain is functioning as it should. It still sucks! But that’s just how we as a species work. I will also try to remember that our memories are not something written in stones. They are meant to change to ensure our survival. Which justifies me taking photos of things I know I will eventually forget the details of, haha!

I’ve always thought that I was cynical and more and more carefree the older I got. But it is reassuring to know that my inexplicable downs that happen every now and then are completely normal. My depressions are normal, and it is okay! It is okay to not be happy. I mostly am happy and feel happiness which probably means that I unconsciously have accepted this. And it feels even more reassuring having heard this from a doctor. Anders Hansen is great and I did not take this read as something depressing which I think some people can interpret it as. It’s just the way it is.

It was a great short listen! I highly recommend it! Five out of five!

Review of “The Universe in Your Hand” by Christophe Galfard

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Title: The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond
Author: Christophe Galfard
Narrator: Anton Körberg, Swedish
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 11 hours 32 minutes
Published: 2016, Volante
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Quantum physics, black holes, string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph.

Christophe Galfard’s mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the reader directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way.

 

MY REVIEW

First, I want to say that I listened to this in Swedish, narrated by Anton Körberg, and he did it absolutely brilliantly. Second, this book was brilliant. An excellent combination and I do recommend everyone to read it. Yes, everyone! Even people who think they don’t “know physics”. You get a deeper understanding of our universe and the theories of today that explain our world, what it consists of and how it works. It does so in an easy and very entertaining way with only one formula presented and I bet a big majority of this world’s population have at least heard it, I would like to think so at least: E=m*c².

The most special thing about this book that separates it from all the other books on astrophysics I’ve listened to lately is the perspective it’s written in. It’s written in a second person perspective. I don’t think I’ve ever even read a book written in that way before. The super cool thing about that, is that the author puts you in the center and describes the universe from your perspective. You get to see planets and galaxies and the ridiculous size of our expanding universe just to be shrunk to your “mini you” to enable you to look at atoms and quarks and strings and everything.

I think Galfard’s intention of writing in second person perspective is to make it easy for everyone to understand when you picture yourself in the middle of it all. He succeeds. I loved being on that beach in the beginning of the book, only to fly out in the universe and observe everything. But I have to admit that I once again zoned out a bit when he started describing quantum physics. No, zoned out is the wrong word. It was harder for me to imagine what was going on. I couldn’t visualize it as easily because I don’t have any understanding of quantum physics. And it seems like no one does. Was it Einstein who said that if you said you understood it, you really didn’t?

To sum it up, it is a visualizing book about astrophysics and Galfard explains it… No, shows it to you in a simple way. I absolutely loved it! There’s also humor and it’s easy to relate to the things he uses as examples, like the old aunt in Australia who always gives you vases.

I highly recommend you to read it. Or if you’re Swedish, listen to it with Anton Körberg narrating. It’s only available on Storytel in Swedish unfortunately. But it was worth signing up for a month listening to it, haha! Easily the highest grade: 5!

 

Review of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki

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Title: Rich Dad Poor Dad
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
Series: Rich Dad #1
Genre: Nonfiction, finance
Length: 6 hours 9 minutes
Published: 2012, Brilliance Audio
My Grade: 3 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

In Rich Dad Poor Dad, the #1 Personal Finance book of all time, Robert Kiyosaki shares the story of his two dad: his real father, whom he calls his ‘poor dad,’ and the father of his best friend, the man who became his mentor and his ‘rich dad.’ One man was well educated and an employee all his life, the other’s education was “street smarts” over traditional classroom education and he took the path of entrepreneurship…a road that led him to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii. Robert’s poor dad struggled financially all his life, and these two dads—these very different points of view of money, investing, and employment—shaped Robert’s thinking about money.

Robert has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people, around the world, think about money and investing and he has become a global advocate for financial education and the path to financial freedom. Rich Dad Poor Dad (and the Rich Dad series it spawned) has sold over 36 million copies in English and translated editions around the world.

Rich Dad Poor Dad will…
• explode the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
• challenge the belief that your house is an asset
• show parents why they can’t rely on the school system to teach their kids about money
• define, once and for all, an asset and a liability
• explain the difference between good debt and bad debt
• teach you to see the world of money from different perspectives
• discuss the shift in mindset that can put you on the road to financial freedom

 

MY REVIEW

I am one of those people that Robert Kiyosaki frowns upon who says that I have no interest in money. I’ve grown up thinking it doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t get yourself into debt. This April, in the middle of the Covid-19 crash of the market, I bought my first few stocks. I love numbers. So why have I never thought that money interested me? Honestly, it still doesn’t. Even if it is fun to watch the numbers change and my savings increase more rapidly than if I had them on a zero interest account. But money is not all, there are other things I value in life as well and I don’t want to spend my valuable free time working to get wealthy.

This book was however very inspirational. He lists the lessons his rich dad taught him at a young age in the beginning of the book and ends the book with a list of actions to take. I am very inexperienced and felt that that list did me next to no good. I don’t know what I should do.

He is mostly a real estate investor and he keeps saying that you don’t need money to make money, as long as you have financial intelligence. But even his example of a man who bought a house to rent and only paid the down payment of 7 900 USD, is so far away for me. For him, with millions of dollars working for him, that might not be much, but for me it is.

It would be great to be out of the rat race one day, but I don’t feel like this was the book to help me get there. But like I said, it was inspirational and I will take a few things with me as I invest more and more on the stock market (the real estate market in Sweden right now is completely out of the question, it’s insane!!):

  • You can beat the laziness that blocks your way with a little greed, but only a little.
  • Kiyosaki’s definitions of assets and liabilities
    • Assets generates money
    • Liabilities takes money

It is a book full of motivation and reminded me a lot of Omgiven av Motgångar by Thomas Erikson. It is not super well written (there are so many adverbs in it, why are there so many adverbs in a self help book on personal finance?! He did definitely not read Stephen King’s On Writing), but the message is loud and clear. No one likes losing money and the goal should not be to not lose money, but to gain money.

I will give this book a 3. It was short and inspirational and worth my time reading. I hope it will bring me some joy in the form of some kind of wealth sometime in the future.

Review of “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari

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Title: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 15 hours 17 minutes
Published: 2017, HarperAudio
My Grade: 4 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?

Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power … and our future.

 

MY REVIEW

When I was younger, history was not something that always appealed to me. I understood that we had to know the past to not make the same mistakes again and all of that. All I wanted (and perhaps still want?) is to leave reality and explore other worlds. But I’ve come to realize that the past is another world. And that is now super clear to me after listening to this book by Yuval Noah Harari.

I’ve heard people talking about Sapiens and the follow-up Homo Deus and at least this first one, did not disappoint. The title really gives the content justice, it is a brief summary, but I also feel like it covered so much. There’s a lot of information an author can squeeze into 15 hours of audiobook. And I guess that I learned more about our history than most people who are interested in history did. It was interesting.

The book covered a lot, from the agricultural revolution, to the introduction of the stock market, slavery, wars, exploration, colonies, capitalism, religion, and at the end he discussed happiness and a small introduction to our future (which Homo Deus covers). I haven’t finished the Science of Well-Being class yet, but I recognized everything he had to say on the matter and it was a good ending to the book. Are people today more happy than the peasants in the middle ages?

There was so much said in this book that I can’t get into details. It feels like I’m just rambling. The narrator was great! The book was great. It was provocative and made me agree with the author: we have gone in the wrong direction. I kind of feel bad for being a human, even if I specifically am not to be held accountable by all the horrible things our kind has done to bring us to where we are now. Sapiens gets a strong 4, I highly recommend it.

One last thing that I think everyone should take to heart, is something he says in the beginning of the book. Per definition, anything that is possible is natural. Biology enables, culture forbids.

Review of “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking

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Title: A Brief History of Time
Author: Stephen Hawking
Genre: Science, Nonfiction
Length: 5 hours 46 minutes
Published: 2012, Phoenix Books (originally published 1988)
My Grade: 3.5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Stephen Hawking is one of the world’s leading cosmologists and is widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. Although he has been widely published within his specialized field, A Brief History of Time is the first work he has written for the non-mathematical layman. In it he explores the outer reaches of our knowledge of astrophysics and the nature of time and the universe. The result is a revelation: a book that not only serves as an introduction to today’s most important theories on the cosmos but affords a unique opportunity to experience one of the most imaginative and influential thinkers of our age.

Confined to a wheelchair for the last twenty years by a motor-neurone disease, Professor Hawking is best known for his work on black holes. But here he turns his mind to the biggest question of all: the search for a unified theory that combines general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Always in the clearest, most accessible terms, Stephen Hawking reviews the great theories of the cosmos. From Galileo and Newton to Einstein and Poincaré, and then moves on into deepest space for the greatest intellectual adventure of all. Could time run backwards? Will a “no boundary” universe replace the big bang theory? What happens in a universe with eleven dimensions? These are just some of the questions considered with devastating lucidity and brilliance in A Brief History of Time, a work that is bound to become a classic of its kind.

 

MY REVIEW

I feel that my grade for this book is not fair. But the truth is that I did not connect with the narrator (and no, it’s not THE Michael Jackson). I have never zoned out so easily during an audiobook before. It might be because of the narrator or because I’ve had so much else to think about the past week. In either case, I will reread this at one point. I feel that this book has so much more to give me than what I got.

It’s been more than 30 years since it was originally published and there has happened a lot since then. But nothing is outdated and it still feels very relevant.

I really like that Hawking involves god in all of this. I’m not a believer myself, but I do like that he as a scientist at least tries to see where such a person possibly could fit in our cosmos.

I have now listened to his first and last scientific book and both are without any formulas or mathematics in it which is great! The universe is complicated as it is. And many ideas and theories are far beyond my reach of understanding. But at least now I’m aware of some theories that I can read more about now.

I believe that the grade should be at least one more than 3.5. But my gut tells me 3.5 right now and I always go with it.

Review of “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan

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Title: Cosmos – A Personal Voyage
Author: Carl Sagan
Genre: Science, Nonfiction
Length: 14 hours 31 minutes
Published: 2017, Brilliance Audio
My Grade: 4 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Cosmos has 13 heavily illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos television series. In the book, Sagan explores 15 billion years of cosmic evolution and the development of science and civilization. Cosmos traces the origins of knowledge and the scientific method, mixing science and philosophy, and speculates to the future of science. The book also discusses the underlying premises of science by providing biographical anecdotes about many prominent scientists throughout history, placing their contributions into the broader context of the development of modern science.

The book covers a broad range of topics, comprising Sagan’s reflections on anthropological, cosmological, biological, historical, and astronomical matters from antiquity to contemporary times. Sagan reiterates his position on extraterrestrial life—that the magnitude of the universe permits the existence of thousands of alien civilizations, but no credible evidence exists to demonstrate that such life has ever visited earth.

 

MY REVIEW

Sometimes I regret listening to books on astrophysics because that means I miss out on all the pictures. And I do feel that I’m not always following so I’m sure I missed a lot of good points made in this book.

First published in 1980, this book still feels very up-to-date, 40 years later. It is funny listening to Sagan talking about the US and USSR though, haha! But when it comes to the cosmos, not much changes except new discoveries. The ancient history is the same and always will be the same.

I haven’t seen the TV show, but I will now that I’ve finished the book. I think a lot of things will make more sense and it will make me remember hearing things that I probably unconsciously soaked in.

What surprised me a bit was that this was not a book strictly about planets, galaxies, and astrophysics. There was so much history in it, about communication, war, human nature. History that we need to understand in order to move forward. How will we be able to understand a possible message from an alien civilization? Who will speak for Earth when that happens? Us humans who have mass destruction weapon and kill each other for nothing?

Sagan stir up many questions. Much like Stephen Hawking does in his books. Both authors almost feel philosophical sometimes. Maybe they are? In the ancient times, the scholars were everything apparently.

After reading this, I am starting to feel the lust to listen to history books. I’m certain I would enjoy them as much!

It was a rather long book, but interesting and it makes me want to know more. I love that all of these authors that I’ve listened to lately have spurred my scientific interest again. It’s been dormant for many years. No more. Cosmos gets a strong four.

Review of “Omgiven av Motgångar” by Thomas Erikson

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Title: Omgiven av Motgångar (Surrounded by Setbacks)
Author: Thomas Erikson
Series: –
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 9 hours 36 minutes
Published: 2020, Bonnier Audio
My Grade: 4 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

The successfull author Thomas Erikson has previously dealt with idiots, psychopaths, couch potatoes and bad bosses. This time, he takes on a holistic approach on setbacks in all of its forms: problems at work, in the family, economic issues, trouble in paradise, crazy neighbors, consuming relationships… When life feels like one major uphill. As usual, Thomas uses examples that all of us recognize ourselves in. With a slight bit of humor, he guides us towards the light at the end of the tunnel and points to solutions both within and outside ourselves.

 

MY REVIEW

Compared to his other books that I recently read, Surrounded by Idiots and Surrounded by Psychopaths, this book is solely based on his own experiences and that made me a bit skeptical when I started listening to this book. But after finishing it, I’m glad I spent those ten hours doing it. I don’t think these kinds of things needs to be backed up by science and trials, it’s honestly just sense and logic. What I needed was to hear it so that I could be more aware of it. In my world, what he says makes sense and in contradiction to my blue personality, I don’t feel the need to have all of his claims to be backed up by data and science.

As with his previous books, he describes how the different colors of the disc-system, that is described in Surrounded by Psychopaths, think of setbacks and success. Even if he shortly describes the colors even here, I suggest you read Idiots first to have a greater understanding.

He gives us examples of situations, what the people thought they had to do in order to be successful and why or why not they didn’t succeed. He gives us an eight point list with things we need to have in order to be successful. But the most important thing is that success and setbacks are different for all of us. Each of us need to define what we see as a success and that’s hard when we’re surrounded by all social media and commercials and other people. I thought it was great that he mentioned Hjärnstark (The Real Happy Pill) by Anders Hansen. I love that all of the books I’ve read lately, and the class I’m taking, The Science of Well-Being, all fit together and claim the same things. It makes me feel safe somehow. And more secure in myself.

As usual, I didn’t take the exercises that he gave us. But I’ve been thinking about it, and even if I can’t say right now what success is for me, I am successful. And have been for quite some time. We all face setbacks, and I’ve definitely had my share, but I think what’s had me going is my attitude that I can make things better if I want. Sometimes I don’t want, sometimes I want to be in “Later-ville”, but as long as I don’t get stuck there and keep on going toward “winning-ville”, that’s fine.

This might not have been a science book with acclaimed facts and data, but it was definitely a go-get-it book with lots of inspiration and motivation to make me want to become a better and a happier person. If you need that, it’s definitely a good read. It therefore gets a 4 out of 5.

Review of “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling

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Title: Factfulness
Author: Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund
Series: –
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 10 hours 18 minutes
Published: 2018, Natur & Kultur
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends – why the world’s population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty – we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world.

 

MY REVIEW

Wow. Just read it already! And don’t forget to take the test in the beginning of the book. I wish I had, but I have a general feeling that I wouldn’t have done especially well. Which means that this book was an eye-opener for me.

I stopped watching the news a while ago, I got sick and tired of all the bad things they were reporting. Never anything positive and some of the news I knew for a fact were untrue just to create a dramatic headline that would lure readers into reading. It made me angry, but also made me take distance from the overdramatized media. But I never bothered to find out about the good things, or about the things that slowly are getting better. So I have to admit that I am one of those who thought the world was getting worse. For example, I was sure that the answer to question 11 (Tigers, Giant Pandas and Black Rhinos were listed as threatened species in 1996. Since then, have any of these species become more critically endangered?) was that two of them had become more critically endangered since then. Apparently they all have increased in numbers. Who knew?

But after listening to this book and the way he lays out the evidence and data, it all makes sense. And I feel calmer now. It was worse before. We are going in the right direction.

It was not just the facts that were presented that made this book so good. The way it was presented with humor and enthusiasm as well. But also the reader, Andreas T. Olsson, did such a good job. It was easy to hear the author through his reading.

In summary (some spoilers even?), here are the ten tricks of factfulness that each chapter describes (I wish I understood from the beginning that that was how the book was outlined):

  1. The Gap Instinct – Look for the majority, the world is not divided into poor and rich most countries are in the middle.
  2. The Negativity Instinct – Expecting bad news, we take in bad news more easily than good news which fuels our misconception that the world is deteriorating when in fact it is improving.
  3. The Straight Line Instinct – Not all lines are straight, even if it looks like the world’s population is increasing but the rate of the increase is slowing down.
  4. The Fear Instinct – Calculate risks, we automatically focus on dangers and risks but it fuels the misconception that the world is more frightening than it actually is.
  5. The Size Instinct – Put things in right proportions, big numbers look big and without the right proportion and comparison, they are very misleading.
  6. The Generalization Instinct – Question your categories, we have a tendency to create categories and compare groups of things (people or countries e.g) that are in fact very different from each other.
  7. The Destiny Instinct – Observe slow changes, we often mistake slow change for no change because we assume that qualities determines the fate of people and countries.
  8. The Single Perspective Instinct – Get different tools, we like simple explanations and solutions and that makes us blind when new information is given to us that does not fit into our perspective.
  9. The Blame Instinct – Resist pointing finger, we always search for someone to blame or someone to praise for things that happen instead of searching for the cause or alternative explanations.
  10. The Urgency Instinct – Take small steps, it is rarely “now or never” and we can’t forget to think about the long-term risks that our rash actions for complex problems can cause.

Rosling ends the book by describing the six actual global threats that we face:

  1. Global pandemic
  2. Financial crisis
  3. World War III
  4. Climate Change
  5. Extreme poverty

Number one is happening right now. I definitely do not think that enough people in higher places read this book before the corona-pandemic broke lose.

These five listed threats are self-explanatory. The sixth is the unforseen event that we couldn’t even predict but still have to be prepared for.

To summarize, it was an eye-opener, and according to Rosling’s statistics, it will be for most of us. So I highly recommend it! Five out of five.

Review of “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” by Stephen Hawking

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Title: Korta svar på stora frågor (Brief Answers to the Big Questions)
Author: Stephen Hawking
Genre: Science, Nonfiction
Length: 6 hours 31 minutes
Published: 2019, Mondial Förlag
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Stephen Hawking was recognized as one of the greatest minds of our time and a figure of inspiration after defying his ALS diagnosis at age twenty-one. He is known for both his breakthroughs in theoretical physics as well as his ability to make complex concepts accessible for all, and was beloved for his mischievous sense of humor. At the time of his death, Hawking was working on a final project: a book compiling his answers to the “big” questions that he was so often posed–questions that ranged beyond his academic field.

Within these pages, he provides his personal views on our biggest challenges as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next. Each section will be introduced by a leading thinker offering his or her own insight into Professor Hawking’s contribution to our understanding.

 

MY REVIEW

  • Is there a God?
  • How did it all begin?
  • What is inside a black hole?
  • Can we predict the future?
  • Is time travel possible?
  • Will we survive on Earth?
  • Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
  • Should we colonize space?
  • Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
  • How do we shape the future?

Ten questions. Ten big questions that Hawking answers really well. Many things are still theories, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those theories are to be proved in the somewhat near future. He talks about our biggest challenges, for example an asteroid collision to which we have no defense, but also about the potential annihilation through nuclear war and how AI might affect our future in many different ways. He also writes about some parts of his life. And the foreword by Eddie Redmayne (he played young Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, the biography about him) was very touching.

I’ve never read anything by Hawkings before and I’m surprised I haven’t. I guess I’ve always thought of him as a bit intimidating as he was one of the world’s smartest people. Maybe I was thinking that I wouldn’t understand anything at all. But I was wrong. Brief Answers to the Big Questions was a very easy read, or more like a very easy listen. He used words that every day people like myself could easily understand, he gave the whole picture on so many important and interesting things and I felt that I learned a lot. It might have been easier for me to understand since I listened to it in Swedish, but I honestly doubt it.

He’s funny in his writing and I could feel his positivity through his words. Optimist through and through and I’m not sure I agree with him on all his beliefs for the future. But I sure hope he is right in believing in everything good that potentially could happen.

It’s sad to think that he is no longer with us. But I’m so glad that he outlived his doctor’s predictions of only having a few years left when he was diagnosed at the age of 21. It’s incredible that he lived to be 76!

I’ve read a few books on astrophysics now. And this was the best of them. It contained more than just science. I definitely recommend everyone to read it, we all need know more things! Five out of five, easily.

Review of “Welcome to the Universe” by deGrasse Tyson, Gott, Strauss

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Title: Welcome to the Universe
Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson, J. Richard Gott, Michael A. Strauss
Genre: Science, Nonfiction
Length: 17 hours 53 minutes
Published: 2017, Audible Studios
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today’s leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all–from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.

Describing the latest discoveries in astrophysics, the informative and entertaining narrative propels you from our home solar system to the outermost frontiers of space. How do stars live and die? Why did Pluto lose its planetary status? What are the prospects of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? How did the universe begin? Why is it expanding and why is its expansion accelerating? Is our universe alone or part of an infinite multiverse? Answering these and many other questions, the authors open your eyes to the wonders of the cosmos, sharing their knowledge of how the universe works.

Breathtaking in scope and stunningly illustrated throughout, Welcome to the Universe is for those who hunger for insights into our evolving universe that only world-class astrophysicists can provide.

 

MY REVIEW

I loved this book. It was long, it was thorough, it was fascinating. And it made me feel small. And maybe a little dumb? I have always found physics interesting and actually enjoyed it in high school and I really wish that this book had been released back then. I think it would have been an awesome complement to the literature we had in school. An entertaining complement. I probably would have understood more had I read it back then compared to now. As with all non-fiction books I “read” now, this was listened to as well. Which definitely made it more complicated to follow. I couldn’t see the formulas, and hearing them in English was new to my Swedish ears (as we only used Swedish in high school). The language of physics is in Swedish for me still unfortunately. That’s why I think for me, it would have been better to physically read it, not listen to it. What also sucked was that this book had illustrations in it. There was an accompanying PDF-filen with the figures, but it was impossible to time it when they referred to a picture since the file was not following where I was in the audiobook.

Oh well, even if it was the wrong medium to take this book on, I still enjoyed it very much and it has only given me a bigger appetite when it comes to astrophysics. And there are so many books on the subject out there!

This book was written after the three of them co-taught an introductory class at Princeton for non-science majors. It was supposed to introduce everyone to science and astrophysics and everything. I assume that this book is a very compromised version of that class, but it was fast-paced and sometimes hard to follow. Still, it was entertaining, I got the bigger message even if I didn’t see the formulas in front of me and could understand where they came from, and it was interesting and left me with a bigger understanding of the universe. I think this is a book that I would want to see in my bookshelf within a not too distant future.

Even if I sometimes zoomed out and didn’t quite understand everything, it was a very well-written book that explained so many things. It even brought up time travel. I’ll definitely read that chapter again when I’m writing my sci-fi book. It gets an easy five. If space is even slightly interesting to you, please read it.