Get The BookBrowse Anthology, our 880 page collection of our past decade of Best of Year reviews, now available in hardcover!

What readers think of You Are Here, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

You Are Here by Christopher Potter

You Are Here

A Portable History of the Universe

by Christopher Potter
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2009, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2010, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 1 of 1
There is 1 reader review for You Are Here
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

Peter Best

Some good answers to the Big Questions!
As a physicist of old, this book is a revelation as it maneuvers so easily between many technical subjects - in fact it reminds me of Peter Watson's "A Terrible Beauty" - a favourite- in its breadth and fluidity. It is not a "popular science" book if you expect oversimplification; it does give many insights into the ways and perils of the "scientific method". The use of orders of magnitude to take you up and down the scales of space and time works well. The book has enough surprises and short anecdotes to entice a reader to keep going (and delving for themselves).

My one disappointment was that Christopher Potter looked fully at most aspects of "You are here" except the "You". I would have loved an extra chapter or two with him delving through recent areas such as "interpersonal neuropsychology" to look at what is involved in the creation of self and perception, both in childhood when we start wondering about the universe and in older age when we have the luxury of pondering our own fuzzy path through life.

But I am heartily recommending the book to friends who appreciate an enjoyable read and explorations in personal space-time.
  • Page
  • 1

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
    by Evie Woods
    From the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop.
  • Book Jacket
    Real Americans
    by Rachel Khong
    From the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, a novel exploring family, identity, and the shaping of destiny.
  • Book Jacket
    The Devil Finds Work
    by James Baldwin
    A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).
  • Book Jacket
    The River Knows Your Name
    by Kelly Mustian
    A haunting Southern novel about memory and love, from the author of The Girls in the Stilt House.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

  • Book Jacket

    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

  • Book Jacket

    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

  • Book Jacket

    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

Who Said...

Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

J of A T, M of N

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.