Starstruck
A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark
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Narrated by:
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Sarafina El-Badry Nance
About this listen
In a beautifully written, science-packed, and inspirational memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares how she boldly carved out a place in the field of astrophysics, grounding herself in a lifelong love of the stars to face life’s inevitable challenges and embrace the unknown.
As a child, Sarafina El-Badry Nance spent nearly every evening with her father gazing up at the flickering stars and pondering what secrets the night sky held. The daughter of an American father and Egyptian mother who both pushed her toward academic excellence, Sarafina dreamed of becoming an astronomer and untangling the mysteries of the stars overhead. But it wasn’t long before she was told, both explicitly and implicitly, that girls just weren’t cut out for math and science.
In Starstruck, Sarafina invites us to consider the cosmos through fascinating science lessons to open each chapter. But she also traces more earthbound obstacles—of misogyny and racism, abuse and intergenerational trauma, anxiety and self-doubt, cancer diagnoses and recovery—she faced along the way. As her career and passion for space brought her from UT Austin to UC Berkeley, and even to a Mars astronaut simulation in Hawai’i, Sarafina learned how to survive—and ultimately thrive—in a space that was seldom welcoming to women, and especially not to women of color.
Honest and empowering, Starstruck sits at the intersection of the study of our cosmos—itself constantly changing—and the transformative experience of embracing resilience to pursue one’s passion.
©2023 Sarafina El-Badry Nance (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Fascinating memoir…Nance [is] a passionate advocate for science literacy, cancer prevention, her fellow Arab Americans, and women in science. Readers will be intrigued by these topics and more, and inspired by the young scientist who brings them to life.”—Booklist
"Nance is all about making space feel accessible and personal through education and engagement. Should help STEM-curious readers feel less alone in the universe."—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Thanks to Nance’s genius for clear explanations, I understand how, with pressure and time, suns are created. How fitting, then, to be learning of Nance’s own journey: the dark pressures of childhood, the molten hot passion for science, and the way these forces combined to make the brilliant light that is Sarafina Nance. A star is born!”—Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Fuzz and Packing for Mars
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Nearly 26 years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein's donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart - immediately. A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: "I'm there." Nine remarkable women - Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane - put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy's side.
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Great listen!
- By Natalie on 05-13-23
By: Amy Silverstein
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Color Me In
- By: Natasha Díaz
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, 16-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom's family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time. Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but because she inadvertently passes as white, her cousin thinks she's too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices African Americans face on a daily basis.
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Mixed feelings about this book
- By Rachel Kohlbrenner on 02-02-20
By: Natasha Díaz
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Man Alive
- A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man
- By: Thomas Page McBee
- Narrated by: Thomas Page McBee
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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What does it really mean to be a man? In Man Alive, Thomas Page McBee attempts to answer that question by focusing on two of the men who most impacted his life - one, his otherwise ordinary father who abused him as a child, and the other, a mugger who almost killed him. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood and tells us how a brush with violence sent him on the quest to untangle a sinister past and freed him to become the man he was meant to be.
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Worth a listen
- By Kade on 05-30-18
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I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying
- Essays
- By: Bassey Ikpi
- Narrated by: Bassey Ikpi
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying, Bassey Ikpi explores her life - as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist - through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her own truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy.
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Full, poignant, purposeful
- By Bree on 08-21-19
By: Bassey Ikpi
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Rooms
- A Novel
- By: James L. Rubart
- Narrated by: James L. Rubart
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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One rainy day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, 25-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning, brand-new, 9,000-square-foot house. When bizarre things start happening there, locals tell cynical Micah the place is “spiritual”. But he will slowly discover the home isn’t just spiritual....
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Wonderful Book...
- By b.radford on 10-26-10
By: James L. Rubart
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Starworld
- By: Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Emma Galvin
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility.
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lovely story
- By Chess on 11-05-19
By: Audrey Coulthurst, and others
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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The Start of Me and You
- By: Emery Lord
- Narrated by: Angela Goethals
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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It's been a year since it happened - when Paige Hancock's first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school...and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her - the perfect way to convince everyone she's back to normal. Next: Join a club. But when Ryan's sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team, her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop.
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Better for MG readers
- By Pink Amy on 06-21-24
By: Emery Lord
What listeners say about Starstruck
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nobobvan
- 06-08-23
This story is worth hearing
I pre-ordered this book the day before it’s release on a whim. Its not the kind of book I normally read and was a little wary at first. After a day or two I realized that I really wanted to keep listening and was okay with listening to parts multiple times if I didn’t get it at first. There is so much to relate to in your story and even more to learn from it. I’m already looking forward to reading it again.
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- Meaghan Mercer
- 06-13-23
Beautiful story!
Sarafine’s story is the perfect mix of science and a life lived. It was so relatable being a woman of science and high achieving anxiety. Thank you for the reminder to be a student of life 💕
Highly recommend!!
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- Margaret
- 06-06-24
Live lessons for me
Loved the way she tells her story and in the end she becomes a warrior ❤️
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- bray
- 07-30-23
Bray
I was thinking it was going to be more science/math/being a woman in a man’s world and with that much more difficult to understand. But it turned out to be a perfect blend of the personal and the science. Thank you for sharing your journey and all of your ups and downs.
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- Loay
- 08-26-23
Wasted few hours of my life
Whiny overplays victimization as Middle Eastern. Even though she looks white and has a white name, I can't help but wonder how the story would have been different if she hadn't lived in liberal Austin and attended a private school. She portrays Middle Easterners as violent through broad generalizations. She consistently exaggerates victimization by every man and generalizes instances of abuse. The audiobook is incredibly slow; I had to listen to it at 1.7x to 2x speed. I regret wasting a credit on it, especially since I prebought the book and was initially excited to listen to it. The book draws you in with the hope of something positive, but it predominantly focuses on her criticizing numerous surgeons who declined to operate on her due to disagreements with the action plan. Essentially, it's just another victimization story seeking self-glory. It seems that she aspires to become an influencer. Referring to herself as a researcher after only 2 years in research raises eyebrows. I wish her good health and success.
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- MGGGK9
- 11-29-23
Very, very misleading title
I painfully struggled through this entire book just so I could review it. It’s hard to believe this person is an astrophysicist. 10 hours of complaining with little tidbits of science that could be easily found on Wikipedia. She has gone through struggles in her life, but so has everyone and do a little research to find out how she covered the cost of her healthcare.
She sounds more like a fortune cookie or an astrologer rather than an astronomer. Literally rips off Sagan, Tyson, and Carroll without any mention of the actual incredible women who have made tremendous discoveries in the science of astrophysics and complains about them never being mentioned. Here was your chance and you brought no light to their contributions.
It’s obvious NASA has lowered their standards letting this person into their organization…read this book and you’ll see a ton of red flags.
This is one person’s opinion, so for those who have found inspiration from this person thats cool, but I would highly recommend reading the works of Carl Sagan or other science communicators for a better understanding of astrophysics.
This book is NOT recommended.
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1 person found this helpful