Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

I thought this would be about Galileo's daughter - silly me. It was really about Galileo and mostly about the events that led up to his arrest by the Inquisition. Both of his daughters lived most of their lives in the convent of the Poor Clare's but he had a very close relationship with his eldest daughter and it is her letters to him that elevate the human rather than historical nature of those events. His story is sometimes scientifically dense but mostly rich in details of life during the late 16th and early 17th century - the political intrigue, the power of the church, the struggle to find a place in all that for the truth. There are parallels to be drawn between that last notion and today but I doubt that anybody today can write letters like those written by Galileo's daughter. LOL or OMG cannot begin to match the formality and sincerity of her letters and one can ponder what it says about us or our society that "people don't talk like that anymore." And then you can wonder what it would be like to make an important universe altering discovery and be forced to deny what you absolutely know to be true.