It was an interesting book and I did enjoy most of it however it took me a while to become engaged. I dont think I'm much of a biography reader

A fascinating insight into a true genius. This book is fascinating, providing a deep and personal insight into one of the most complex and intelligent scientists in history. Sensitive and informative, the book provides the perfect balance of personal and scientific, whilst maintaining a level that allows those with no or little knowledge of physics to be able to engage with this story, and immerse themselves within the world of Stephen Hawking.

The book I have just finished reading is Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics. Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to review this title.

The reason for my wanting to read this book in the first place is simple, I have long been fascinated by Mr. Hawking, loved his outlook on life and enjoyed reading his works over the years. I've read other biographies which have been interesting but none captured the man as much as this book does I feel. Leonard Mlodinow worked closely with Mr. Hawking over a period of two decades and was a great friend and it is interesting to read his account of their time together. The two had previously collaborated on other works including The Grand Design and A Briefer History of Time.

It is an interesting book, very enjoyable too. However, at times I must admit the theoretical physics parts were a little heavy going for me as I have no knowledge whatsoever in that field.

All in all though, this is more than just a story about Mr. Hawking, it is a great account of a friendship. We see the heart and the brain presented to us in this work. I wholly recommend it, a wonderful testament to the man. A few tears, but a lot more laughs. A heart-warming book if a bit difficult to read at times.

I received a copy of this book via net galley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the opportunity. I have read some of Hawking's work including A Brief History of Time. As non fiction they are not particularly easy to understand. This book mixes parts of his work with his personal life and information on a book he was writing with Leonard Mlodinow.

The depth of the friendship between these two men is obvious. The picture the author paints is definitely a warts and all view of Stephen Hawking. It would not necessarily enamour you to Hawking who comes across in some ways as selfish - perhaps this is what allowed him to survive.

The physical concepts described are certainly much more understandable in this book but I think if you asked me in a month I would have retained very little. Some of the personal accounts of dining and working with Stephen seemed repetitive.

I enjoyed the book but it isn't in my top ten

Not very far into it yet, but I've read enough to make me feel a lot less jaundiced in my judgement of social media - if only it could be used more in this incredibly painstaking way to winkle out the truths that are so often kept under wraps or - worse - disguised. Piecing together the route of the fatal Buk missile carrier left me quietly cheering the international geek community. Looking forward to finishing it and maybe writing a more considered review. For the moment, it's five stars from me.

Stephen Hawking was an extraordinary man, and this biography showed his personal side as well as his professional side, showed us that, though extraordinary he was still just human, with flaws, like all of us.

A brilliant mind that people in all fields will find something to relate to and learn from.

For me, having a personal background in Physics myself, it is always fascinating to learn more about the lives of people like Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and so many others.

Being a biography, it's definitely not a book you can rush your way through, otherwise you will miss little details.

I thought it was very well written, I enjoyed reading it and it is definitely a book that many people should read, despite being interested in science or not.


Thank you kindly to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for my opinion and honest review.

#StephenHawking #NetGalley

This has taken me quite some time to get through (albeit interspersed between other, lighter reads).

An interesting book about an interesting and complex man, written by a friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking.

Long ago, I attempted to read "A Brief History of Time", knowing nothing about Stephen Hawking at the time. I cannot claim to have understood more than the basics, nevertheless found cosmology fascinating.

Over the years I found out more about Professor Hawking, and became full of admiration for his spirit. This book gives a human insight into the man himself, flaws and all - a brilliant, complex, determined, humorous, yet very difficult-to-live-with human being.

This isn't a light read (there is quite a lot of science too, but well explained), and is at times an uncomfortable read. It's well worth persevering though..

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

An amazing book about a complete genuis.

I love everything that Stephen Hawking stood for. He was such an inspirational and influential person and I am very grateful to have read this book.

Wow I really, really enjoyed this one. Really getting an insight into Stephen's life, seeing his life achievements and his personality, a really great read! Highly recommend!

It was so interested to read this book. Leonard knew Stephen Hawking for many years ahving worked on books together, and saw the private side of the man, which he writes about in an easy,intelligent, funny and descriptive way. There is a little basic physics here and there, but mostly it's stories and ideas about what he feels makes the famous man tick. It reveals a real sense of humour, determination and almost superstitious nature in someone so logical (his need to believe that his extensive vitamin protocol was keeping him alive). Surprisingly entertaining!

Written by fellow physicist Leonard Mlodinow, this is an intimate insight into Stephan Hawking life. A beautiful and deep story about a friendship that was kindled in 2003 when Hawking invited Mlodinow to collaborate on “A Briefer History of Time”,

Mlodinow describes how Hawking barely tried during his first degree at Oxford because he found it impossibly easy. A picture is painted of a man who much like a piece of driftwood floated hardly putting in any effort and I’m sure to a lot of people surprise he was much more interested in his social life.

I loved how Moldinow draws upon his own experiences of working and socialising with Hawking. Mlodinow talks about Hawking’s daily life and physics, his personal struggles have been written with so much care you can feel the friendship between them. I sometimes felt like a fly on the wall with the lovely small details. This at times was a sobering read but the scattered humour helped lift the book.

I highly recommend this book, you will not be disappointed

I was keen to read this book to learn more about Stephen Hawking as my knowledge really only included what was in main stream media or in the film “the theory of everything”. This book, written by a friend of Hawking, is an interesting read. I’m not sure the balance between the science (sometimes to in depth for me) and the information shared on Hawking’s personal private life was always quite right (sometimes far too much than was necessary). Although biographical memoirs are not my favourite genre, I did find it interesting and so would recommend to someone who wanted to learn more about Stephen Hawking.

Leonard met Stephen in 2003, when Stephen was an already very well accomplished scientist, and he wanted help writing his sequel to A Brief History of Time.
This is a story of how Leonard and Stephen worked and lived so closely together that Leonard came to understand more of Stephen’s illness and the hardships that he had to bear.
An incredibly intimate account into how two people shared so much, and makes Hawking more ‘human’ to many of us, whilst also keeping true to the physics.

This book is the story of a friendship. It is the story of the creation of a book. It is a story of a great man. It is a story of a troubled man. It is the story of a disabled man. Mlodinow worked with Hawkins on his major works. This book explores the relationship between Hawkins and his; work, family, friends, his disability and his own identity. In addition, it places Hawkins, and his work, in wider historical perspective.
This book has been written by a friend and it shows. It is broadly sympathetic to its subject. In fact, the start of the book, it takes the shape of hagiography, continually speaking of Hawkins as an inspirational character who overcomes his disability. The account becomes more nuanced as the book, and the relationship on which it is based progress. The tone changing as; the relationship grows and the individuals develop.

However, Hawkins was not just a disabled individual. He was a physicist. His work was an important part of his life. This book looks at his work and the way that it fitted into, and changed the wider physics debates. It would act as a good introduction to modern day physics. Although, the long discussion of theory could prove off-putting to the impatient reader.

I enjoyed this informative work. It is a good place to start if the reader wishes to understand Hawkins; his life and his work. I highly recommend the book.

This book gave an insight into both the personal life of Stephen Hawking and for me, some clarity in my understanding of quantum physics. His personal life as described by his friend shows up the fortitude he displayed regarding his illness and the difficulty he seems to have had sustaining a stable relationship with the women close to him. One can now understand that his strength of character had to be as strong as it was and that translated into a demanding personality towards all those who tried to assist in his healthcare and in the production of his books. Those who had the patience and their own strong personalities endured his foibles and established unique bonds that allowed him to use his amazing mental faculties to delve into and to solve, from his perspective, the origins of the universe. An enjoyable book that kept me enthralled looking at the man and his science.

A new insight into the life and research of Prof Hawking.
The cheeky young scholar shines through and as the book progresses we begin to understand the man behind the science. I don’t pretend to have read all the physics in detail but that’s not really needed . The sensitivity that Mr Mlodinow has shown in details of his friends difficulties with family and health is woven through with humour and a passion for learning . Prof Hawkins search for the truth in science will live on with new discovery’s in the future . A true genius of our time. Well worth reading .

My thanks to Allen Lane and Netgalley for the copy of this eBook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
A point to note: I rarely do spoilers or dwell on the plot and story. If you want these, I suggest you read the publisher's blurb and other reviews - my interest is in the author and her/his craft.
Leonard Mlodinow has written a clear and entertaining biography of his time with Stephen Hawkins. Whilst his friendship and personal feelings have coloured his narrative they have not distorted it and he presents the great physicist a clear unvarnished way.
I wanted to read this volume in the hope that I would understand Hawkins theories. I can't say I understood it all but I can say many of the myths and half truths that appear in popular press have been clarified.
If you are interested in modern theoretical physics and/or Hawkins this book will not disappoint you. Five starts from me.

So, I've read Brief History, and I've seen the film starring the ubiquitous Eddie Redmayne. That pretty much confirmed my view of the great physicist. But what happened next?  How did he manage through all those unexpected years of life, and what else did he do?

I confess I missed his other books: even Briefer History, brought out in a 'simplified' version. During this book by Leonard Mlodinow, I laughed many times, but particularly at the following assertion. They had to make considerable changes to Stephen's original prose in the first book, because he started off preaching to a reader who knew nothing, but quickly turned it into a post-graduate lecture. I hate to say it, but that was one of my criticisms of the finished book!

This memoir does not suffer from those short-comings. Dr Mlodinow still teaches physics at one of the most prestigious physics universities in the world, but he also communicates complex theories in a way the lay person can understand, more or less.  And we lay people do not necessarily wish to enter the theoretical debate, just get an idea of what the debate is about. I found it most helpful to know that physics is about the why, and engineering about the answers and application, since that's what I've thought for years!

The narrative does dodge about a bit. I suppose when you're writing about space-time it's sensible not to take things in a linear process.  I'm not sure if this always helped the story, but we got the basics of Hawking's life and struggles fitted in between other diversions, including the about-turn on radiation from black holes. This discussion was exceptionally interesting, if you enjoy the science side.

What comes across? A picture of a warm, funny, caring man, loved by those who knew him, but incredibly difficult to live with. He inspired dedication. I don't think people felt sorry for him, even if they might have started out that way. Reading of Stephen's love of adventure and even recklessness, you can understand they cared. It must have driven his loved ones crazy.

Altogether a very readable account of a friendship based on theories you might not follow, but highs and lows you certainly will.  Recommended.

I have always been fascinated by physics and the universe however most texts are wildly out of reach due to the language over complicating things for the normal person. This book manages to combine both the physics and a look into Stephen Hawkins life not only as a physicist but also as a friend. It manages to capture his sense of humour and gives an understanding to the struggles he faced.

I personal.y really enjoyed this and found it super interesting. There were times when I just wanted to read on and understand more and consume more. Don’t get me wrong it is not a page turner but it will keep you hooked!

I would recommend this to anyone who has even a small interest in science or the life of Stephen Hawkins and that is why I’ve given it 4 stars.

The author, physicist Leonard Mlodinow, first met Stephen Hawking in 2003 and became a friend until Stephen’s death in 2018. Stephen was born into an academically able family. Both his parents were students at Oxford, the town where he was born. Stephen did his undergraduate degree at Oxford before moving to Cambridge University in 1962 to do a PhD in cosmology. It was in that first year at Cambridge, at the age of 21, that he was diagnosed with a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neuron disease (MND) also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). For most death comes within two to five years of diagnosis and only one in twenty survive twenty years or more. Incredibly Stephen survived fifty five years. Undoubtedly helped by his ability to earn sufficient money to find the large team of people he needed to simply stay alive, especially in the last thirty years of his life. Stephen fell very ill in 1985 and his only hope of survival was a tracheostomy. He did survive but from that point was unable to speak and needed 24/7 care which the British National Health Service was unable to fund. Initially Stephen survived thanks to a grant from the Macarthur Foundation but within years he had written A Brief History of Time which sold over 25 million copies and meant he could fund his own care.

Leonard Mlodinow had turned down approaches to write a biography of Stephen but liked the idea of writing a memoir about him and physics. The resulting book focuses on the period 2005-2010 when Leonard and Stephen worked together as co-authors of The Grand Design, a popular-science book. As well as seeing Stephen at his annual visits to Caltech in Pasadena, Leonard now spent weeks at a time with Stephen in his office in Cambridge, UK as well as frequently dining with him at home or in Gonville and Caius College.

This memoir alternates personal sections of Stephen’s day to day life with explanations of major topics in physics as they were theorised, researched and debated over the five decades of Stephen’s career. These include quantum physics, general relativity, unified field theory and black holes. All these, and others, are introduced in a way to give the non physicist a chance of understanding the concepts. These concepts are so vast though that I suspect they will go over the heads of most readers unless they are physicists or already have a passion and knowledge of these subjects. I was keener to read the personal sections about Stephen and learn more about his relationships with family, colleagues and friends so skimmed some of the physics sections but I do feel inspired to go back and reread these at some point.

Some of the sections about Stephen’s life got a bit too personal for my liking when writing about some aspects of the personal care that he received from his team of carers. Stephen came across as being extremely sociable and driven with little sense of ‘woe is me’ apart from occasional periods in his life when health setbacks took away a bit more of his independence until he was eventually only able to communicate via a computer at a word of so a minute. It’s hard to imagine just how challenging every second of Stephen’s life must have been and yet quite awesome to think how his large team of carers, family, colleagues and friends did their bit to keep him alive and in good mental health. For someone with his health condition he did indeed live the most extraordinary life with travel world wide and a very good circle of supportive friends.

I found this book very readable, interesting and quite inspirational. With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review