Maria Popova's The Universe in Verse weaves science and art into a tapestry of curiosity and creativity. Through fifteen essays, she explores subjects ranging from dark matter to ocean life, intertwining the lives of scientists—with a special focus on women scientists—with their work and poetry. Paired with striking illustrations, the book highlights the shared wonder and interconnectedness of humanity’s quest for knowledge. Ultimately, it’s a transformative journey that reveals the profound beauty of the universe and our place within it.

to tell stories about
what is real and
what is possible,
and what it means to be.
- Maria Popova

This book “The Universe In A Verse” is a collection of Essays about scientific discovery from a human lense. The author discusses about flowers, entropy, trees, yearning, curiosity, matter, search for life, wonder and creative spirit.

This is a book where scientists are not reduced to just labs or dry facts. It talks about their wonder and how curiosity lead them. It shares that all this is not just supposed to be boring or dry, there is a beautiful rhythm and poetry in this universe with science and mathematics.

Reading this book was an impeccable experience for me in the way the author Maria Popova talks about these concepts and I felt encouraged l to want to re-learn this stuff.

Because when I studied all this for the first time, I was too concerned about grades but not curious enough to learn them for the comfort of my heart.

This book here will make you want to do the learning in the most beautiful way. The addition of one poem in each chapter is yet another amazing bit.

There are terms that are a bit technical so they require one to google.

I would like to thanks netgalley and Storey publishing for sending me an E-ARC.

Fascinating concept and really well-executed! I enjoyed the pairings between science and poetry, which opens a whole new perspective on both. And as an educator, I really appreciated that the essays were written both with absolutely masterful style and with nuanced, layered meaning. Definitely going to be introducing my high school classes to a selection from this book the next time time they tell me they're bored of reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This is a beautiful collection of essays, coupled with poetry (and art) that explores the wonders of the universe. A wonderful way to learn.

This is a very interesting theme on poetry, science wasn't really my thing but I did enjoy in general.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

“The history of our species is the history of learning and forgetting and relearning this elemental truth.”

The Universe In Verse is a very different book. This is an incredible experience that circles the concept of how science and poetry feed each other, as different but complementary ways for us to try to understand our world, to catalog it. I loved to navigate along the chosen exemples, and take a glimpse about how concepts –mostly abstract– can be caught by both, though through a different prism.
Poems, history of sciences facts and companion arts make from The Universe In Verses a little philosophical book, a dive into the human mind. In some ways, by telling us the History of Science, the author also narrates the History of Humanity. The whole is completed by incredible artworks that illustrate the same concepts, making that little book an entire work that questions the human condition. How –why– are we looking for abstraction in Nature, how we need to classify everything –and label it– as a try to, maybe, understand ourselves.

Thank you Maria Popova, Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.


Rate 4.5

I have been a fan of The Marginalian (earlier Brain Pickings) for years now and I truly love everything Maria Popova has ever written whether it’s on their site or in books.

The minute I saw this book on NetGalley, I rushed to request for the book. I don’t read about science in books at all and I haven’t read any poetry collection this year so this seemed like a perfect read for me. And it was! The book is a collection of essays / stories about several scientific discoveries or theories ranging from dark matter, our solar system, etc. and each topic is accompanied by a poem and an illustration.

The essays give a concise insight into the history or people behind discoveries, often featuring women who broke barriers or those who have been ignored in textbooks. The poems accompanying them are the perfect fit to the essays and Maria does a brilliant job of weaving some information about the poet or the poem in the essay before you move into the poem.

It’s hard to pick a favourite but if I had to, it would be the essay titled ‘Entropy and the Art of Alternative Endings’ which is accompanied by W H Auden’s poem ‘The More Loving One’.

One of my favourite lines from the book: ‘There are no known infinities in nature— as transient creatures suspended in space between the scale of atoms and the scale of stars, suspended in time between not yet and no more, we simply cannot conceive of infinity.’

The illustrations by Ofra Amit are magical and could not have been more suited to this entire collection. I already have the physical copy of the book pre-ordered and highly recommend this to everyone who wants to marvel and fall in love with science, poetry, and the way the two balance each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC.

I would like to Thank Netgalley for this ARC as it was truly a work of art.

Maria Popova had me hooked from the first sentence "We live our human lives in the lacuna between truth and meaning, between objective reality and subjective sensemaking laced with feeling.". I love that she linked science to poetry through essays which helps us understand our meaning within the universe and the history of discoveries.

It touches on women in science and astronomy which i found quite interesting as most of the information provided I was not aware of.

I would highly recommend this book and will be purchasing the hard copy as it was beautifully illustrated by Ofra Amit.

Maria Popova
The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder Through Science and Poetry
Storey Publishing, October 2024

In "The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder Through Science and Poetry" (Storey Publishing, LLC, 2024), Maria Popova seeds the seemingly disparate fields of poetry and science with equal parts curiosity, awe, and discovery.

Popova, the creator of The Marginalia (formerly Brain Pickings) and author of "Figuring" (Pantheon, 2019) and "A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader" (Enchanted Lion, 2018), approaches each of the 15 portals like its own biome by including a scientific essay, a lush illustration, and a fitting poem.

Her essay topics are culturally relevant and psychosocially probing. For example, “Emmy Noether, Symmetry and the Hidden Order of Things” discusses the influence of mathematician Emmy Noether on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. “Entropy and the Art of Alternative Endings” introduces entropy, ecology, and the end of time but segues into W.H. Auden’s romantic history.

The gorgeous, thoughtfully rendered illustrations by Ofra Amit lift “The Universe in Verse” into the upper echelons of poetry and essay books. The Tel Aviv-based artist’s illustrations are heartfelt and emotionally expressed. My favorite is from the “Entropy” chapter about W.H. Auden. Amit depicts a close-up portrait of two men embracing, superimposed by a flower losing its petals and a large teardrop. Her color palette throughout the book is reds, blues, white, and black, which, instead of limiting her creativity, allows it to take flight and still speak to the natural elements contained in all fifteen “portals to wonder.”

Thank you kindly to Maria Popova, Storey Publishing, LLC, and NetGalley for the eARC!!

The title spoke to me, it sounded interesting. And it was pretty interesting to read. Just not fully for me. It was fast to read, especially because of the poems in there, but for me at least not always easy to read. Most of the time i just didn't fully understand what i was reading. I also still think that poetry isn't really for me. But because it was still interesting to read i ended giving it 3 stars, nice in the middle

Did not finish at 25%. Started of well but lost interest in the book soon after. Maybe this is not for me.

Thank you to Maria Popova, Storey Publishing, Storey Publishing, LLC, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader copy of "The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry" for an honest review. This books a sweeping view of the discoveries of math, science, adaptation, space, civil rights, and so much more. The expanding universe all around us, written with the interweaving of science, exploration, and artistic expression all woven together as it was ever supposed to be and represented through all our cultures until only recently.

I loved this so much. I feel enraptured thinking about it,
and I cannot wait to get my copy and to give it to friends.

This is a short anthology of brief essays framing a certain subject to introduce a poem, the poems themselves, and an accompanying illustration. What ties all these pieces together is the marriage of art and science, both of which the author argues, are ways of understanding and capturing the world around us, and by extension, the universe.

This collection was lovely precisely because of how it brought together science and art as areas that support and complement each other rather than opposing ways of seeing the world. For example, sometimes you see something in nature that takes your breath away and you wish a poet were around to put that into words for you. There were also tidbits of scientific history sprinkled into some of the introductory mini-essays, and those were fun to read too. I enjoyed reading the selection of poems a lot, and I loved how each “section” was pieced together from different forms of art to create a new whole.

This was a wonderful collection of poetry and prose, along with some beautiful illustrations. I wanted to frame each piece as I was reading through this book. Would recommend to those looking for wonderful poetry collections.

Thanks NetGalley and Storey Publishing, LLC for a copy of the ARC!

A lovely little book of love for the universe itself. Despite the marketing for this as a book of poetry, I was glad to find a well-written history of discoveries at the heart of this work. The editor focused on so many women in science, and especially those who I had heard of but never knew they were women. I attend a women’s college! I should have learned this! But it seems there is still so much to be learned and so much to appreciate.

I love when science and artistic expression are combined and this poetry collection does just that. The art is very nice! I bet it looks even better in print. Each poem is introduced with a short excerpt on the poet or topic. I liked that it included a variety of STEM areas. I plan to get a copy for my library for our more scientifically inclined audience.

Beautiful mix of science, history and art. As a woman in science myself, I appreciated the focus on the history, the feelings and the incredible reslience and achievements of science women throughout the centuries. While I recognized many of the names, I did learn a few new names and stories.

The accompanying art is also wonderful. While I recieved this as an eARC, the images and poetry are beautiful enough that I would love to have on my physical bookshelf.

Thank you Storey Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC of this beautiful book.

This collection attempts to blend scientific discovery with poetry--- with a focus on space & nature. I found myself quite moved by certain sections, and others I found to unsuccessfully link the 'essay' to the verse. This was most successful when I left the essay wanting to chew on the idea presented. My biggest issue was an issue in expectation, as this was marketed as a book of "illustrated essays" but these were like 3 (not full) pages of text, an illustration, and then (in 14 of the essays) someone else's poetry? I just expected ~30 page essays and more science. Shame on me.

When one thinks of science, you don't automatically link it with poetry. And yet, it is the perfect match.

This book is filled with interesting scientific facts, linking them with poems from a variety of poets and accompanied by the most beautiful illustrations.

This was such a lovely read and one I will reread often.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Beautiful. Creative.

It will make a beautiful book in print. The poems are diverse covering the science and natural world. I think many poetry readers will definitlet enjoy this one.