Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't even finish it
Review: I diligently read all of the rave reviews about this book and sadly enough, the first few chapters, which are more historical, were SO Galileo-centric, that I have abandonded the book entirely. While some background of the political and scientific climate were well warranted, the amount of it and lack of his daughter's character during that time was severely disappointing. Maybe some day I will pick it up again, but that is doubtful.
Rating: 
Summary: Best biography of Galileo I've read
Review: This book is beautifully written, wonderfully accurate, and I fell in love with Galileo's daughter, who spent her entire life cloistered in a convent that would make Alcatraz seem like a five star hotel. Sobel does a wonderful job of integrating Suer Maria Celeste's loving letters to her father with Galileo's science and his conflict with the Church. Her masterful pen brings that era's everyday life into sharp focus. My psychologist wife also loves this book. As a trained scientist who happens to believe that God works naturally and that creation obeys the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, including evolution, I am frequently in discussion with my co-religionists who reject science in favor of 500-year-old dogmatic arguments. This book recounts those arguments and Galileo's responses under the Taliban-like power of the Church of his time. This could happen to us.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Biography
Review: Galileo's Daughter puts the reader in the middle of a revolution. Of course, the revolution here is philosophical rather than physical, but no less dangerous. In this uprising, the lone revolutionary can lose his souls as well as his life, and Dava Sobel's sense of story conveys this danger to her readers. As with most revolutionaries, Galileo's attention is diverted by other concerns. So, while he fends off the Jesuits and placates a fickle Pope, he must also tend to the needs of his daughter, Maria Celeste, who's monastic life is filled with its own challenges. The result is a very human portrait of this brilliant scientist and the world in which he lives - an alian world removed from ours by almost four centuries; a world in which a beloved daughter's teeth fall out one at a time and her father can do nothing about it. Yet this world may not be as different from ours as we first think. The political intrigues, the double dealings, the two-facedness of the characters make the story as current as tonight's television channel guide. That is Sobel's strength and the main strength of Galileo's Daughter. It reads like fiction and engages the reader in the lives of two characters for whom the reader comes to care.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, the *facts* about Galileo!
Review: It is amazing the amount of misinformation that is floating about
under the guise of factual accounts of the life of Galileo. This
wonderful, unabridged audiobook weaves Galileo's extant letters
with historical narrative. All of the "holes" are patched; all of
the evil deeds performed by the Catholic church against him are
itemized and explained; and the true man comes to life through
his remarkable correspondence with his oldest daughter and
others. Although I also own the hardback version, I prefer the
audiobook because the narration is so good, and it makes for
an excellent listen while on the road.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes scientific history a page turner
Review: I do have to agree with other reviewers that this book is not about his daughter, but besides that I found little wrong. I was hoping for historical fiction when I picked this one up and almost gave up when I discovered a more biographic approach. I am so glad I stuck with it. I never knew the details of Galielo's trial and his relations with the church, etc. I was even unclear whether he was put to death for his beliefs before I read it! Most explanations I was able to follow, but some still eluded me. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction or would be interested to know the background of this amazing man.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't expect this to be a page turner
Review: I was amazed when I found that I could not put this book down. It is rare (extremely so, unfortunately) to find a biography of anyone, much less a historical figure, written with wit, sympathy, and thorough research. Galileo's Daughter not only provides a window into the heart of Galileo, but into his mind. There is a significant amount of scientific information in this book, but in terms so simple that a layperson can understand. This book provides insight into history, astronomy, and religion. I would consider this book a must for the individual who wants to understand this time in history.
Rating:
Summary: Lucid, Moving Biography of The Father of Modern Science
Review: Dava Sobel's extraordinarily readable biography of Galileo is as much a portrait of the mind of a genius as it is a tapestry of Renaissance Italy. What infuses this masterful book with life, however, are the quirky, intelligent letters written to him by his daughter. Cloistered in a convent from the time she was a young girl, Suor Maria Celeste's loving correspondence to her father reveals the human side of Galileo. But the scope of Sobel's book encompasses more than the sum of its parts - in the final analysis, we are treated to the inner workings of a surprisingly "modern" approach to science (not least of which was the concept of a sun centered planetary system) in the face of malevolent censorship by the Catholic church. When Galileo is condemned of heresy, Sobel's book illuminates the political machinations behind the church's case, so that we understand the motivations (some of them nasty and personal) that fueled the fire. More importantly, we feel for the all too frail Galileo, under house arrest in the twilight of his life, and cheer when the centuries finally celebrate the genius that he was. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it is a genuinely moving surprise. Brava Dava Sobel!
Rating:
Summary: Then as now... Galileo's Daughter
Review: Dava Sobel offers her readers a vivid window to the 17th century--- full of politics and power plays, as well as the small, tactile details of everyday life. It is meticulously researched yet imbued with care and warmth . The love and regard mutually shared by father and daughter shines through the centuries to illuminate the personal side of a towering historical figure. And, yes, there is humor as well! I recommend this heartily to anyone who appreciates history---- and is mindful of how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Plus ce change...
Rating:
Summary: Galileo's ideas and how they changed
Review: The author of this highly readable biography of Galileo can be forgiven for making us think her book was about Maria Celeste, the scientist's daughter. While she quotes several charming letters which move us with Maria Celeste's devotion to her father, the book is almost entirely about Galileo's scientific odyssey. The use of his daughter's perspective allows light to shine on the pioneering scientist from a fresh and sympathetic perspective that makes Galileo come to life for modern readers. From Galileo's early education and relation with a high church official who later became the pope, to his trouble with an influential dowager, Dava Sobel provides us a wealth of detail that serves as background for his showdown with the semi-autonomous body better known as the Inquisition. Galileo, a devout Catholic, was the first scientist in history, in the sense of a being a researcher whose desire to know what is true about the universe was stronger than his allegiance to any institution or philosophy. His entire professional life is an example to four centuries of pioneers who followed him, even those in other fields such as Pasteur in medicine. Sobel shows how the telescope, which Dutch opticians had invented 10 years earlier, was first pointed at the heavens by Galileo. We see an actual page of Galileo's diagrams of the moons of Jupiter, which no one in recorded history had ever seen before! A clever politician as well as a ground-breaking astronomical theorist, Galileo got the church to give him official exoneration of charges of impiety when accused falsely by a rich female admirer of a priest who adhered to some of Aristotle's outdated ideas. This was a foreshadowing of Galileo's showdown with the Inquistion, which required a dangerous journey to Rome during a time of plague and quarantine. Galileo was never convicted of heresy, despite what one editorial reviewer wrote. Sobel shows in page after page of detail how Galileo negotiated the rocky road of compromise between the demands of his church opponents and the irrepressible urges of his scientific curiosity. He made the necessary public statements and achieved the medieval version of an out-of-court settlement while continuing to circulate his true manuscripts abroad. This is the best biography of a scientist I've ever read, one which brings to life the thoughts and feelings of a great but often misunderstood man who gave birth to modern science. I recommend it to anyone who loves science, religion, or his daughter!
Rating:
Summary: The title got it wrong-it should be:
Review: Galileo AND His Daughter. This book is not a biography about Sister Maria Celeste. Which is fine really--truthfully, I'm more interested in Galileo himself; I just take issue with the title. We do learn a bit about his daughter and her fawning adoration for her father, but missing are Galileo's letters to her. Instead, weaved into a biography of her father, are many of the letters she sent. If you're reading this review, I'm assuming you know a bit about Galileo--a man who studied math, matter, gravity, and of course, the heavens. He improved the telescope, and introduced his daughter to the stars in their garden when she was young. Much of his life was devoted to studies of the sun and planets--and to rejecting Aristotle's philosophies (adopted by the Roman Catholic church), in favor of Copernicus's theories. Although his belief's didn't distance him from all theists (he remained a theist to the end), he made some powerful enemies. One was a scientist--a scientist who happened to be a member of the Dominican Order, which staffed the Office of the Inquisition. Sobell characterizes the problems Galileo experienced as differences of opinion based on astronomy rather than differences based on science and religion. Although Galileo was found guilty by the Inquisition, he remained a respected scientist. The Archbishop of Siena still publicly supported him, and with that support, he continued to produce great work. Galileo's relationship with his oldest daughter is also explored, of course. We realize the extent of their love for each other through the surviving letters--all of which came from Maria. As another reviewer mentioned, we also learn of Galileo's financial support to the convent in which he placed his illegitimate daughters. The book is written clearly, and unveils more than just the science in a great scientist's life. We become aware of a man rather than just a name, with emotional ties that run deep. It's a great story--and I'm glad Sobel was the one to tell it.
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