Grand Design, The; Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow; 2010; Bantam Books; 181 pgs, glossary, index

I do not know why I delayed in reading this book. I think it is Hawking's last popular book. He died in 2018.

I quite enjoyed this book. It is a bird's eye view of modern physics and cosmology and attempts to explain the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Loose leading, a lot of white space and  quite a few high quality illustrations which add up to a quick read.

It starts with an historical perspective and ends with M-Theory… the only current possibility for a viable marriage of QM and Relativity. Because the book is a short summary of a huge topic (literally and figuratively), my summing up a summary would be a waste of time. Suffice to say that when you get to the end of the book, the "answer" is a lot closer to 42 than it is to god.

​It has zero (or nearly zero) mathematics in it and is readable for anyone from a first timer asking these questions to someone like me, who reads a fair bit on the subject.

Recommended for religious friends with a open mind (that might be a oxymoron).

---