"I'll gladly read anything by Jane Brox on any subject, but her poetic and original retelling of the story of man-made light provides a suitably grand occasion for her superb powers of observation and her intimate, precise, startlingly evocative prose to shine."---Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time"Just one of the many pleasures of Jane Brox's sweeping history of human light is its evocation of the wonder and fascination the lowly light bulb roused when it was new, before it became, by virtue of the reverse alchemy of mass production, abundant and declasse. Brox succeeds brilliantly thanks to writing that rivals her subject in sparkle, glow, and wattage."---Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind"Brilliant is fascinating in its subject matter, charming in its storytelling and accessible style, and meticulously researched. This kind of book helps place science in a human context."---Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams"In gracious, elegant, unhurried prose, Jane Brox unspools the story of light. Every page contains at least one small marvel, but the greatest wonder is the realization that what she has illuminated is nothing less than a story of ourselves, and of the myriad ways our lives are `interconnected, contingent, and intricate.' BRILLIANT indeed."---Leah Hager Cohen, author of Train Go Sorry and House LightsIn Brilliant, Jane Brox traces the fascinating history of human light, from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future, and reveals that the story of light is also the story of our evolving selves. As Brox uncovers the social and environmental implications of the human desire for more and more light, she captures with intensity the feel of historical eras: the grit of daily life during the long centuries of meager illumination when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours, and the driven, almost crazed pursuit of whale oil and covered spermaceti across the world's oceans. She indelibly portrays the emergence of a vibrant street life under gaslight, a new illumination that not only opened up the evening hours to leisure, but also fundamentally changed the ways we live and sleep. These changes became all the more pronounced with the advent of incandescent light, as Edison's "tiny strip of paper that a breath would blow away" produced illumination that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox's informative, chilling portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us.Reminiscent of Mark Kurlansky's Cod in its reach and scope, Brilliant is a compelling story imbued with human voices, startling insights, and---only a few years before it becomes illegal to sell most incandescent light bulbs in the United States--- timely questions about how the light of the future will shape our lives. Read Less