Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely outstanding - Once in a decade...
Review: Nine years may seem like a long time to wait for an encore. Overbye's 1991 "Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos" was an instant classic - a scientific biography of a half-dozen of astronomy's most interesting characters. I've often lamented that this was Overbye's only book. Why couldn't someone capable of writing such a seamless blend of biography and popular science have a whole shelf of his own?Dennis Overbye has answered that question with a resounding "patience, patience..." Overbye has indeed been busy. For the last several years, he has spent considerable time with a dozen or so scholars who are pouring over the Einstein papers - a vast repository of personal documents that had been tied up in legal limbo since Einstein's death in 1955. As this material is slowly and deliberately digested by scholars, a much more personal picture of the man is emerging - a portrait beautifully captured by Overbye in this effort. Overbye's book "Einstein in Love" is a stunning follow-on to his earlier work, this one focusing on a single individual - the most famous scientist who ever lived. It fully captures his relationships with family and friends. Besso, Solovine, Habicht, Grossman, Mileva - his first wife and the mother of his 3 children - all come to life within these pages. Overbye documents the mysterious disappearance of his first child, the daughter Lieserl, but doesn't attempt to solve it. There is no shortage of biographical and popular scientific books on Einstein and relativity. Overbye sets his latest effort apart from the pack with an unprecedented personal look into the life of the young Einstein as can only be achieved with the wealth of personal correspondence available in the Einstein papers. Overbye's writing style is almost poetic. He has a way of turning a phrase and capturing the essence of a moment. I have read a great many of the above mentioned works on Einstein (as well as biographies of many other scientists) but have never felt so captivated by a story. This book continues the slow process of eroding some enduring myths regarding Einstein. For instance, it is frequently noted that as a patent office clerk in Bern, Einstein was cut off from the scientific world, blissfully unaware of the work being done by physicists in Europe and the United States. To the contrary, Overbye notes that during his tenure in the patent office, Einstein was writing review articles for a German physics journal, summarizing the content of dozens of articles being published around the world. He also documents how Einstein almost certainly read the Michelson-Morley research while he was still a student at ETH under Weber, and was well aware of the precarious state of the "aether." Overbye admits that this book is not strictly a biography. He begins the story during Einstein's college years and ends soon after the completion of the theory of general relativity and the confirmation by Eddington's eclipse observations. This is in part because the vast work of sorting through the Einstein papers is itself not yet far enough to permit further exploration, but surely more is to come. And if that's not enough, Overbye doesn't gloss over the science. To the contrary, he has equal facility in explaining thorny physical concepts in language that any reasonably educated and interested person can understand. He doesn't attempt to explain relativity mathematically, but does a wonderful job of tracing the development of Einstein's thought over time, as played out in correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues. In fact, he has woven the scientific and personal together in a way that is surprisingly smooth, given that almost a century has elapsed since some of the principle discoveries, not to mention that Einstein himself has been dead for nearly half that long. This book will quickly take its place as one of the most important and popular works on the life of Albert Einstein, and one that should not be missed by any lover of science history.
Rating:
Summary: A biography worthy of its subject
Review: No one writes about science--and scientists--with more insight, poetry and passion than Dennis Overbye. I loved his previous book, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, and I love Einstein in Love. It succeeds gloriously both as scholarship and literature. By revealing the -all-too-human mortal behind the mythical genius, Overbye makes Einstein's achievements appear all the more miraculous.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging Account of the Man of the Century
Review: The first comment that comes to mind about Einstein in Love is that Overbye can really write well; I find the prose to be much more enjoyable than that of any other Einstein book I am aware of. Overbye also does a good job of at least attempting to explain relativity to a lay reader, while also not ignoring the other important works of the young Einstein on Brownian motion, gravity, etc. I do find the title more than a little misleading, though - Einstein's marriages to Mileva and Elsa and his dalliances with others seem to have little connection at all with the progress of his scientific thought. I suspect that the title is little more than a device to capture attention and sell books. I also find it odd that the book just seems to end for no apparent reason around the time of his divorce from Mileva. Still, if you want a good read about a true genius and his early life and works, this is one of the better places to turn - just don't expect much "scientific romance," except for the beauty pouring out of Einstein's head.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging Account of the Man of the Century
Review: The first comment that comes to mind about Einstein in Love is that Overbye can really write well; I find the prose to be much more enjoyable than that of any other Einstein book I am aware of. Overbye also does a good job of at least attempting to explain relativity to a lay reader, while also not ignoring the other important works of the young Einstein on Brownian motion, gravity, etc. I do find the title more than a little misleading, though - Einstein's marriages to Mileva and Elsa and his dalliances with others seem to have little connection at all with the progress of his scientific thought. I suspect that the title is little more than a device to capture attention and sell books. I also find it odd that the book just seems to end for no apparent reason around the time of his divorce from Mileva. Still, if you want a good read about a true genius and his early life and works, this is one of the better places to turn - just don't expect much "scientific romance," except for the beauty pouring out of Einstein's head.
Rating: 
Summary: Einstein did his own mathematics
Review: The idea that Einstein's first wife Mileva checked his mathematics for the special theory of relativity is laughable. This issue has been put to rest by Einstein's biographer Abraham Pais in his 1994 book "Einstein Lived Here." Here is why. First the special theory of relativity requires only elementary mathematics, the breakthrough is in the concepts. Second Mileva was unable to pass her final examination in mathematics in 1900 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Einstein passed). She failed again in 1901 and did not receive a degree. Third Einstein was able to master the advanced mathematics necessary for the general theory of relativity which came after his divorce from Mileva. It takes a very creative reading of the documents to ascribe any role to Mileva whatsoever in the special theory.
Rating:
Summary: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Review: This book gave me a much more detailed and intimate look at Einstein's personal and intellectual life than anything else I've read, and it makes for a truly fascinating read. Overbye spent years poring through Einstein's letters and personal papers to research and write this book, and it shows. There is a wealth of detail describing and chronicling Einstein's life as he struggled with the creation of the momentous scientific discoveries that were to make him famous, especially the long and difficult path to his final solution for the General Relativity problem. Along with this, you get a detailed look even into his personal day-to-day life, learning about his friends, scientific associates, and even his loves. Einstein is no longer a towering, remote intellect plumbing the depths and secrets of the universe in cloistered solitude; Overbye's account displays Einstein's very human side also, showing him to be a man of his times, often with Bohemian and avant-garde personal, social, and political ideas. For example, Overbye mentions how Einstein and his first wife, Mileva, had their first baby out of wedlock, and subsequently married. And the dark side of Einstein's personal life, the unhappy ending to his first marriage and his often careless dealings with the women in his life, don't escape Overbye's purview. But don't be misled by the title, it's not just about Einstein's sometimes checkered love-life (although he did have more romantic dalliances than I would have expected); Overbye also does an excellent job of presenting Einstein's most important ideas, including a good explanation of the special and general theory of relativity. And last but not least, Overbye is a fine writer whose prose flows and doesn't get in the way of the story, and who has a good command not only of the personal, but also the scientific side of Einstein's life. Altogether a well-written and fascinating book on a fascinating historical and scientific figure. (P.S. Did anybody happen to notice the title of my review is the sub-title for Edwin Abbott's classic mathematical and social allegory, "Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions?" But it works equally well here as a segue into my review of Overbye's biography.)
Rating:
Summary: This book puts you in Einstein¿s shoes!
Review: This is an outstanding book! New York Times science writer, Overbye spent years researching Einstein's letters, he traveled places Einstein lived, studied, worked and climbed. This tremendous amount of work done by Overbye combined with his excellent writing style pays off! His depiction of early 1900s era is so vivid and detailed that I almost could smell Zurich and Prague of that time and talk to Einstein's family and colleagues. Einstein was in love with far more than one woman, but his greatest love - theoretical physics and search for truth - are treated extensively as well. The book is not intended and cannot be considered as an introduction to relativity theory. Nevertheless, I have been so moved by engaging treatment of relativity that I found on Internet Einstein's 1905 paper in English translation (the first part of this paper does not require math beyond 8-th grade, yet leaves you with dizzying feeling of turning the world upside down). I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Einstein in flesh, blood, heart and brain
Review: This is one of the most elegant and thrilling science books I have ever read. Overbye explains the revolutionary physics of the early twentieth century so vividly and comprehensibly that I felt as though I were practically there at Einstein's kitchen table, listening as his ideas took shape, and as he thrashed them out with friends, colleagues, rivals, Mileva. "Einstein in Love" is a miracle, neither hagiography nor pathography. It is instead a work of art, because it is a work of truth, a nuanced portrait of a profoundly complicated, brilliant man whose thoughts transformed the world.
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