I think I heard Janna Levin speak on The Moth or another radio show, and bought her book on a whim, this was at least seven years ago so I don’t really remember. Still, this title, How the Universe Got Its Spots, and the premise (a physicist explaining her musings on the nature of the Universe and discussing her own life in letters to her mother) has had me excited to dive in constantly since then. Unfortunately, after finally prioritizing it this book was overall quite a miss for me. I thought the balance of her life and the physics was unsatisfying, and I wanted more depth in recounting her relationships both to her partner and to her work. Also, it took a long time to get to science that I wasn’t already quite familiar with just from high school astronomy and physics, and I rarely enjoy reading about things I already know. This isn’t Levin’s fault of course, and I think the book would be more enjoyable on the whole to someone who was less familiar with the foundation she spends much time on. When she finally gets to her specific research it was really interesting and I am glad I made my way there even though it was a struggle. THEN she ends the book on a freaking CLIFFHANGER about her PERSONAL LIFE, which was pretty infuriating to me since I spent so much of the book aching for more of the personal life to be integrated into the story