This is not an easy book to review because it is not an easy book to put in a category - and our brains tend to like thinking in boxes and categorizing things. And actually, this book is someone's thoughts, simply put together and trying to make sense of things and the concepts presented in the book, influenced by her experiences as a documentary filmmaker, that took the author all over the world and shaped her thoughts and ideas.

The narration flies from an idea to another, however it stays on the same main topic, and while this way of sharing information might not be everyone's cup of tea, it is definitely mine - because this is how I think (sometimes how I write or even talk with people). It is not hard to follow either, although I do recommend taking your time with the book and thinking everything over.

The subjects vary from architecture to agriculture, from the Giza pyramids to the Large Hadron Collider. But the book is about shape, and not just the architectural shapes of a building or the complex mathematical shapes we can find in nature, even though it talks about these things. The main subject is the metaphor of shape - I am using the words of a friend, she said them when I was telling her about the book. It is about shapes and patterns, how they evolve and how they change, and how we change alongside them.

The book has snapshots of the author's work in the field as well as brief history of the world. The aim is to highlight a universe that is connected, ever lasting and deserves empathy, not neglect.

This is a picture book that wants to be more than that.
The first part reads like Intro to Human Anthropology. There’s an intriguing observation about shapes, the round and the square in Liberia shown as examples. One gorgeous photo brought good memories of Stonehenge, before it was fenced off. The Big Dipper-Great Bear-laptop thing was a bit forced, though that was quickly overshadowed by the most beautiful shot of a spiderweb ever.
This is definitely not something you should read in one sitting, with numerous philosophical discussions that will make you pause to think. This isn’t a coffeetable book that gets opened to look at pretty pictures; the photos here serve to highlight the text.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

Not quite what I was expecting, but it has great photography and an interesting story.