The most recommended cosmology books

Although somewhat dated, this classic work in the history of science remains a readable and dependable rendition of events in astronomy and cosmology in the 16th and 17th centuries.

An appeal of this book is its suitability for discussion together with Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a general interpretation of the history of science of great influence on historians and philosophers of science for approximately 60 years. 

Caitlín R. Kiernan is one of the most prolific, versatile, inventive dark fantasy and horror writers living. Her unique transgressive perspective has won her multiple awards, and her repertoire of styles is as vast as her prose is dazzling. From cosmic horror thrillers to twisted romance, she deepens and enriches every genre she engages with. This collection is an excellent sample across her wide range—and a lure to hook you and draw you deeper into her work.

I saw the exhibit with a dear friend in 2023—and now, every time I look at this catalogue, I think of that wonderful day in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

This is a beautiful book, filled with gorgeous photographs and essays by leaders in their fields. Lives of the Gods wisely arranges its pieces around a central theme—divinity in Maya visual culture—without getting bogged down in technical jargon. Accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike, it is everything one could ask for in a coffee table book.  

Randall, a noted astrophysicist, explains how the extinction of the dinosaurs could be related to galactic astronomy and the distribution of dark matter in the galaxy. Her fascinating idea involves disturbances of our myriad Oort Cloud comets at the very edge of the solar system by encounters with clouds of exotic dark matter. The collisions with dark matter, the resulting comet storms and mass extinctions occur roughly every 30 million years as we cycle through the galaxy. Her provocative hypothesis provides a potential remarkable consilience of astronomy, geology, and the history of life.

Time is fundamentally very strange. Not just from our relationship with it through memory and predictions of the future but also as a studied notion in physics, from the theory of relativity to quantum mechanics and beyond.

Although the material could easily fill a tome that could be a huge turn-off to the layperson, Carlo Rovelli manages to weave art, philosophy, and poetry into an exploration of time over a short 182 pages that makes it a compelling and beautiful read. What is time? How do we experience it? What is a world without it? What is its relationship to physics, mathematics, and ourselves?

It’s a fascinatingly deep and poetic exploration that will make you want to start over again once you’ve finished it. In fact, I think I’m going to read it again soon.

A cosmologist and particle physicist, Carroll shows us how starting from physics, everything else—including everything that matters to people, emerge through a small number of natural processes. Having paid his dues in basic physical science, Carrol provides an accessible pathway from the fundamental level of reality all the way to human values. No mystery mongering, and a Darwinian finish of course! 

It's a history of scientific advances, particularly in cosmology. It’s old now and I don’t know if it’s the best book on the topic, but it influenced my thinking a lot when I was a teenager.

Many advances in science require letting go of what you think you think you know. Letting go of even obvious assumptions – that the sun goes around the earth (plain to the naked eye); that the world is made of 4 elements  – fire, water, earth, wind; that time flows the same everywhere for all people.

My book similarly shows some of the current assumptions that are holding us back – that human intelligence explains our success, the nature of intelligence, and what ultimately drives growth and prosperity.

This 1986 book (revised in 1999) helped me to understand the Big Bang theory. I read it during a holiday in Italy when I was just starting my career as an astronomy writer. What I had read about the Big Bang so far was either extremely elementary (not really explaining anything at all) or full of jargon and dense with equations.

But John Gribbin knew exactly how to strike the perfect balance between the two. While my wife and one-year-old son were enjoying the swimming pool, I delved into quantum physics, expanding space, and the cosmic background radiation, all presented at a level an interested high-school student could understand.

Obviously, some parts of this book are obsolete by now, but it’s still one of my all-time favorites.

Okay, you got me. This is not a book of fiction, although cynics may disagree. It’s a book of quantum possibility based on hard science and evolved visionary theory.

Like all of my stories, Biocentrism places consciousness at the center of its premise, presenting an important new human/world/cosmic view of well, everything. Like its author, Robert Lanza, I believe that consciousness is the essential fabric of mind, soul, and matter. Everything arises from it. Nothing is conceived without it.

The characters in my stories are always guided toward the higher aspects of their awareness in order to create new realities. Waking up to the understanding of a consciousness-centric existence changes not only us, but everything we know. Everything we thought we knew. And most importantly, forms the basis of everything we do from this point forward.

Biocentrism, as well as Lanza’s other books, provide a scientific foundation for what… show more.

Few physicists are more immersed in the history of philosophy, religion, and culture than Marcelo Gleiser. A brilliant cosmologist and Templeton award winner with multiple books exploring the biggest questions in physics and spirituality, Gleiser’s brand new book is, as its subtitle suggests, also a manifesto.

No less than, our very future depends on a renewed understanding of the extraordinary and utterly unique nature of intelligent life and of the special place it holds in the universe.