Einstein

Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein draws on newly released personal letters and argues that the physicist's scientific imagination grew out of a rebellious, independent personality. Isaacson follows Einstein through his studies at the Zurich Polytechnic, where his sassy attitude left him the only graduate of his class without a job offer, then a fruitless search for work across Europe, rejection by the Swiss army, and a modest post at the Swiss patent office where his independent research took off. The theory of general relativity gets particular emphasis. To master the science, Isaacson consulted Lawrence Krauss, Brian Greene and Murray Gell-Mann. The biography later reached the New York Times paperback best seller list.