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Dava Sobel is well known for some of her other masterful books, like that on Galileo’s daughter, not to mention the one on longitude, the first one I have ever read by her. The Elements of Marie Curie is another bull’s eye for this author. I was intrigued by Curie’s life while I was reading another biography, of Albert Einstein (by Walter Isaacson), because Curie and Einstein knew annd respected each other. That said, I’ve been a fan of Curie since I was a young boy dreaming of becoming a scientist. She stands out in so many ways in the history of science that it’s hard to think of too many other people that deserve Sobel’s masterly treatment. She was the first woman to win a Nobel prize (twice!), the first woman professor at the University of Paris, the discoverer of two new elements in the periodic table (Polonium and Radium), not to mention a hero of World War I, during which she went around battlefields with one of the first x-ray machines in order to help with the treatment of wounded soldiers. Of course, she ran straight into the glass ceiling several times in her career, for instance having never been accepted as a member of the prestigious Académie des Sciences (where the first woman was inducted only as late as 1979!). Sobel does an excellent job at balancing the travails and the good moments of Curie’s personal life, as well as the ups and down of her professional career, while at the same time providing a balanced historical and social background to better understand her story. There is so much to enjoy in this wonderful book.