Figuring

Maria Popova
305.435 Pop

Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement.



Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists—mostly women, mostly queer—whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the way we understand, experience, and appreciate the universe.—Random House, Inc



"Connecting the narrative dots between several fascinating historical figures, and composed in much the same way as her excellent website, from Johannes Kepler to Rachel Carson."—Submitted by Ned B., Information Technology


Bicentennial Staff Picks

  • Simulacra and Simulation


  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


  • Their Eyes Were Watching God


  • Hopscotch


  • Station Eleven


  • Clear and Present Danger


  • Nitro --The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapes of Ted Turner's WCW


  • Warrior of the Wild


  • Star Wars : from a certain point of view : 40 stories celebrating 40 years of Star Wars


  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


  • The Master and Margarita


  • The Diary of a Young Girl


  • Mouse Guard: Fall 1152


  • Dealing with Dragons


  • Parable of the Sower


  • Copper Beach


  • The Pirate Coast


  • Raintree County


  • The Jordan Rules


  • Little Bear


  • Cinder


  • A Study in Scarlet Women


  • The Lost Coast


  • The Index Card


  • Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey


  • Do Fish Sleep?


  • Near to the Wild Heart


  • Wild Beauty


  • Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art


  • The Rest is Noise


  • Jane Eyre


  • Persepolis


  • Illuminatus! Trilogy


  • Running with Sherman


  • Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks


  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City


  • The Girl From Rawblood


  • The Chronicles of Amber


  • X'ed Out


  • East of Eden


  • The Room : A Novel


  • Naked Lunch


  • True Grit


  • The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy


  • The Library


  • Foucault's Pendulum


  • Dune Messiah


  • The Mistress of Spices


  • Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale


  • The Music Lesson


  • The Licanius Trilogy


  • On A Sunbeam


  • Inferno: The World at War 1939-1945


  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


  • The Johnstown Flood


  • Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste


  • Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality


  • Six Seasons


  • The Travelling Cat Chronicles


  • The Little Prince


  • Strange Planet


  • Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker


  • Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years


  • Growth of the Soil


  • Look Both Ways : a Tale Told in Ten Blocks


  • The Shipping News


  • Fables. 8, Wolves


  • Communing With The Divine: A Clairvoyant's Guide To Angels, Archangels and the Spiritual Hierarchy


  • Under the Volcano


  • Wolf Hall


  • To Kill A Mockingbird


  • Stormy: A Story About Finding a Forever Home


  • Dune


  • The Never Game


  • The Lifespan of a Fact


  • Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


  • Watchmen


  • The Go-Between


  • The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms


  • Spoon River Anthology


  • A Little Princess


  • The Road Less Traveled


  • Suttree


  • Cry, Heart, But Never Break


  • Providence


  • VALIS


  • Ulysses


  • Foundryside


  • The Time Traveler's Wife


  • Catch 22


  • Autobiography of an Execution


  • In Full Color


  • Hawkeye omnibus


  • Daisy Jones & The Six


  • Matter : a Culture novel


  • The College of Beer : The Story of Nick's English Hut


  • The Color Monster


  • The Ghost Clause


  • Through a Life


  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood


  • Patriot Games


  • Four Novels of the 1940s & 50s


  • Once & Future, Volume 1


  • War and Peace


  • Rural Free


  • The Snowy Day


  • The Monkey's Raincoat


  • His Majesty's Dragon


  • The Goldfinch


  • The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath


  • Sunny


  • Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction


  • Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid


  • I Know This Much is True


  • The Brothers Karamazov


  • Braiding Sweetgrass


  • Figuring


  • My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book One


  • The Clan of the Cave Bear


  • Siddhartha


  • Gilead


  • A Clockwork Orange


  • My Brother's Husband, Vol. 1


  • Taproot : a story about a gardener and a ghost


  • The Universe in a Nutshell


  • Know My Name: A Memoir


  • Robin


  • The Lost Words: A Spell Book


  • Unterzakhn


  • The Raven Boys


  • Anne of Green Gables


  • The New Moosewood Cookbook


  • The Blue Sword


  • The Word Is Murder


  • The Eye of Minds


  • One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish


  • Three Things About Elsie


  • Birdie and Me


  • Castoff: The Strange Adventures of Petra De Winter and Bram


  • The Wild Robot


  • Tropic of Cancer


  • Oreo


  • Fog Island


  • The Snow Child


  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine


  • Riddley Walker


  • The Woman in White


  • Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World


  • The Last Wish


  • Slaughterhouse Five


  • Dark of the Moon


  • The Charterhouse of Parma


  • The Luster of Lost Things


  • Dangerous Laughter


  • Feeling Sorry for Celia


  • My Name is Asher Lev


  • Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems & Drawings of Shel Silverstein


  • Why You Like This Photo : the Science of Perception


  • Chloe's Vegan Desserts


  • Lost Horizon


  • Dawn


  • The Story of Ferdinand


  • The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works


  • Pretty Deadly, Volume One: The Shrike


  • The Quilter's Apprentice


  • The Stardust Road


  • Travels With Charley


  • Prelude to Bruise


  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking


  • Oleanna


  • Cannery Row


  • Big Sur


  • Snotgirl Vol. 1


  • Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters


  • Dragon's Merry Christmas


  • The Shell Seekers


  • The Far Field


  • Dragon Bound


  • Dietland


  • The House at Pooh Corner


  • The King's Stilts


  • The Essential Tales of Chekhov


  • The Friend


  • In the Dust of This Planet


  • The Stand


  • Giver of Stars


  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time


  • Life


  • Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero


  • Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow


  • What is the What


  • Wired


  • Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?


  • The Life and Art of Felrath Hines : from dark to light


  • Me Talk Pretty One Day


  • The Lord of the Rings


  • The Murderer's Ape


  • I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness


  • The Woman in the Dunes


  • The Silmarillion