What readers think of The Smallest Lights in the Universe, plus links to write your own review.

I enjoyed reading The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager. I usually don't read memoirs as they can be poorly written and drag on, but this one is engaging and interesting. Ms. Seager has amazing talent and dedication to her profession (astrophysics). She throws in just enough personal information that you feel like a friend who can empathize with her as she works on learning domestic skills. She deals with gender discrimination, the death of her husband, and raising two kids while widely travelling for her profession with grace and intellect. We all may deal with one or two of those issues, but not all! The book is well worth the read.

Sara Seager's memoir makes challenging reading because after all, it's about astrophysics, but it is about so much more!
The author openly and bravely probes her own inner vulnerabilities and losses as she mourns the death of her young husband from cancer. Meanwhile she must guide her two young sons who are pushed beyond their own orbits while striving to keep herself relevant in an extremely competitive career in astronomy.
As a psychologist, I must admit to be more interested in her inner conflicts and dilemmas but found myself trying to expand my limited understanding of her chosen pursuit of finding exoplanets and other earth like worlds.
For a scientist who later discovers she's on the autistic spectrum, she displays an atypical poetic lyricism in her writing. She also reveals an acerbic wit which left me laughing out loud many times.
A good book should encourage a reader to discover new worlds— and she definitely pushed me beyond my limited knowledge of space. I now am downloading the NASA website. Thanks Sara!

Captivated by Sara Seager's skill and courage as she guides the reader through the challenges of her life, I felt the excitement of entering a new adventure. From the ten-year old girl who fell in love with the stars to the world-renowned astrophysicist in search of life supporting planets beyond earth, Sara maintained a commitment to her quest.

In addition to sharing the challenges of gaining knowledge and respect in her chosen scientific field, Sara also shares the parallel venture of becoming a woman, wife and mother. Love of nature drew her into remote regions. Love of husband and children added the stress of time demands. Companionship with women sustained her through tragedy. Her voice is open and strong, revealing the pain as well as the joy, as she turns the pages of her story.

"I would choose for my heart to be broken rather than never feel a change in its beat." Sara Seager, award-winning astrophysicist and mom of two boys reaches the above conclusion after years of wandering in her own orbit of grief. While Seager is busy advancing in her career and building a full family, she loses the love of her life – the man she calls her lifeline in her world – her husband.

In Seager's poignant and most heartfelt memoir, The Smallest Lights In The Universe, the reader is swept away into Seager's raw grief and humbling honesty. From fits of despondency, to a sorority of widows and their children, to multiple awards for the advancement of exoplanet studies and discoveries, and learning to navigate everyday life (like how to call a plumber) through a little book her late husband so lovingly left her, Seager learns little by little how to thrive again.

I found myself lost in Seager's language and how she so eloquently expresses what her heart feels. At one point, midway through her raw grief, she states, "But when you lose someone, you don't lose them all at once, and their dying doesn't stop with their death. You lose them a thousand times in a thousand ways. You say a thousand goodbyes. You hold a thousand funerals." How many of us have felt that same feeling in our loss? Seager's ability to verbalize the grief she feels inside in such an honest and raw way left me feeling like I was reading poetry. Her expressions can only come from truth and her talent with word expression kept me reading late into the night many times.

Seager gives the reader lots of information about her passion for space exploration and exoplanet studies. Even though we differ greatly in our beliefs about space and how it was formed, I found her career fascinating. She writes about that part of her life with the same stylistic prose as her personal journey in the world of grief and loss.

I highly recommend Seager's memoir. I definitely feel I gained something from walking through her emotional journey of healing and her book was time well spent.

I would highly recommend this book to people with an interest in space exploration and anybody who has suffered the loss of a loved one (primarily a spouse). I have not lost my spouse, thankfully, but I really found the space exploration portion of the book to be fascinating. As a woman who has worked as a Chemist for the past 30 years, I could strongly relate to her struggles to be treated equally to her male counterparts. This has, unfortunately, changed very little since I started my career. Sara has had to overcome a lot of difficulties in her life and has conquered challenges both physical and emotional, which makes this memoir interesting and inspiring. I was happy to see Sara so successful in her career, and I am now watching her TED talk and YouTube videos to follow her groundbreaking work.

I received The Smallest Lights in the Universe as an Advanced Reading Copy from BookBrowse. I was pleasantly surprised because my third least favorite genre is a memoir, and my least favorite genre is anything to do with science fiction or space travels. Seager changed my mind. Her persistence in the study of exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system, has led her to a tenured position at MIT, to the MacArthur Foundation $625,000 'genius" grants, and to work on NASA's Starshade project which is a telescope that allows scientists to see space differently than they could previously see with the Kepler and Hubble telescopes. What amazed me about the book is that her style of writing held my attention and made me understand the complicated aspects of space. Her story describes not only the life of a dedicated and intelligent woman in a field mostly made up of equally intelligent men but also the tragedies of her life. She survives a dismal childhood of separated parents, a feeling of loneness (later diagnosed as borderline autism) throughout her formative years, and the tragic death of her husband, Mike, at a young age. Their beautiful canoe trips through the lakes of Canada and the Grand Canyon, his willingness to move to Boston, and his belief in her career contributed to the sadness of his death. At the age just a few days shy of her 40th birthday, she becomes a widow with two small children. About three months before he dies and chemo ravages his body, he types her a guide to life without him. It includes everything from which grocery stores to hardware stores that he uses. On a particularly dreary day, she discovers a group of ladies who call themselves "The Widows Group." They become her anchors after his death. With help from many friends she is able to continue her work and required travels. During one of her presentations to an amateur astronomers convention, she meets her second husband. Although her sadness and grief throughout the story is apparent, the journey to what she is trying to find in her personal life is balanced with what she is trying to find in space Although she is highly respected in her field and has won many awards, she is a very humble person. I highly recommend the book.

The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager is a wonderful book about navigation: navigating the dark places in the universe where there may be other planets, earth-like, that can support life, navigating the dark places in ourselves, navigating rivers in northern Canada and other wild places, navigating a marriage, being a parent, a mother of two boys, and then a widow, all the while pursuing life in the universe and excelling professionally. From the first few pages, so simply written and so engaging, I couldn't put it down. This memoir will open your heart as it did mine. I enjoyed immensely.

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir by a physicist, even though science has never been a favorite subject. Why? Seager is a darn good writer. She is highly skilled with words, and knows how to strike the right balance between telling us about her personal and professional lives. And there is drama and wonder in both. I learned more science from this book than I ever did in school, and enjoyed it in the process. And although we are different in may ways, I could relate to Seager in her struggles to deal with loss and to be a good mother and a great scientist.