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In 2006 Maria Popova, a student from Bulgaria at the University of Pennsylvania, started a weekly email for seven friends about things she was reading. It became Brain Pickings, one of the most widely read literary websites in English, renamed The Marginalian on its fifteenth anniversary in 2021. Her books grow out of the same habit: two long works, Figuring (2019) and Traversal (2026), that braid together the lives of scientists, poets and reformers across centuries, and a run of short illustrated books for children and adults. This guide covers her eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 2017–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Maria Popova’s best-known book is Figuring (2019), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. Her other long book is Traversal (2026); the rest are shorter illustrated works such as The Universe in Verse (2024) and The Snail with the Right Heart (2021). Start with Figuring, then see below which short book suits you.
Where to Start with Maria Popova
If you want her defining book
→ Figuring (2019) — four centuries of science, love and art in one braided narrative.
If you want something short first
→ The Universe in Verse (2024) — fifteen illustrated essays, each paired with a poem.
If you want her newest long book
→ Traversal (2026) — the 2026 companion to Figuring.
If you are reading with a child
→ The Snail with the Right Heart (2021) — a true story about a snail.
8 Maria Popova Books, in Order
Leave Me Alone with the Recipes
Rich and MacNaughton found a hand-painted recipe manuscript by Cipe Pineles, the first female art director at Condé Nast, at an antiquarian book fair; she had made it in 1945 as a record of the Eastern European food of her childhood. The book reproduces it alongside essays on her life and mid-century design and a section of updated recipes. It was a finalist for the Gourmand Award for cookbook design.
A Velocity of Being
Popova and Claudia Zoe Bedrick, publisher of Enchanted Lion Books, asked more than a hundred writers, scientists, artists and musicians to write a letter to a young reader about why books matter. Each letter is paired with an original illustration by a different artist.
Figuring
A long, braided book that moves from the astronomer Johannes Kepler to the marine biologist Rachel Carson, through a cast that includes the astronomer Maria Mitchell, the critic Margaret Fuller, the sculptor Harriet Hosmer and Emily Dickinson. Most of them are women, several of them queer, and the book follows how their private loves shaped their public work. It entered the New York Times bestseller list at number five, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology and was a finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
The Snail with the Right Heart
A picture book about Jeremy, a real garden snail whose shell coiled the opposite way from almost every other snail, which made it nearly impossible for him to find a mate. Illustrated by Ping Zhu, it uses his story to explain genetics, chance and difference to children.
The Universe in Verse
Fifteen short essays on subjects such as dark matter, pi, trees and the intelligence of octopuses, each paired with a poem by writers including Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Maya Angelou and Tracy K. Smith. Illustrated by Ofra Amit and published by Storey, it grew out of Popova’s live celebration of science and poetry of the same name.
An Almanac of Birds
A box of one hundred cards rather than a conventional book, published by McNally Jackson Books. Each card collages text and images from nineteenth-century ornithology books, including Audubon’s Birds of America, into a short “divination”. It began as a fortieth-birthday gift for her friends and was conceived as a bird-based alternative to tarot.
The Coziest Place on the Moon
A 44-page picture book illustrated by Sarah Jacoby and published by Enchanted Lion. Re, who feels like the loneliest creature on Earth, travels to a cosy nook on the moon and finds another lonely being, Mi; they keep their own spaces but become company for each other.
Traversal
Her second long book, 608 pages, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on 17 February 2026. Like Figuring, it braids together lives, this time those of Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Marie Tharp, Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, with threads on the Irish potato famine, the decoding of the insulin molecule and the invention of the bicycle, around the question of what makes life worth living.
In What Order to Read Maria Popova
None of her books continue from one another, so order matters less than length. The two long books, Figuring and Traversal, are the core of her work and run to several hundred pages each; the others can be read in an evening.
Read Figuring before Traversal: the method is the same and the first book is the better introduction. If you would rather test her voice first, The Universe in Verse gives you the science-and-poetry pairing in fifteen short pieces.
A reading path
1. The Universe in Verse (2024)
2. Figuring (2019)
3. A Velocity of Being (2018)
4. Traversal (2026)
The years · 1984–2026
Quick facts about Maria Popova
- Known for
- Maria Popova is known for The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings), the website she has written since 2006, and for Figuring, her book linking scientists and artists across four centuries.
- 1984
- Born in Sofia, Bulgaria
- 2006
- Starts Brain Pickings as an email to seven friends
- 2010
- Settles in Brooklyn
- 2019
- Figuring
- 2026
- Traversal
- Born
- Sofia, Bulgaria, 1984
- Education
- American College of Sofia (2003); University of Pennsylvania, communications
- Website
- Brain Pickings (2006), renamed The Marginalian in October 2021
- Lives
- Brooklyn, New York, since 2010
- Prize
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Science and Technology, for Figuring
- Archive
- The Marginalian is held in the Library of Congress’s permanent digital archive
The red mark is 2019: Figuring, her first long book and her best known.
How Maria Popova Writes: Reading in Public
Popova’s books start as reading. For two decades she has written almost daily on The Marginalian about letters, diaries and books by other people, quoting them at length and setting them side by side. Her long books are built the same way: Figuring and Traversal are composed largely from the letters and journals of their subjects, joined by her own commentary.
Her signature move is the braid. Instead of one biography after another, she passes from one life to the next through a shared thread, so that Kepler leads to Maria Mitchell and Mitchell to Margaret Fuller. Science and poetry sit next to each other on purpose, which is also the whole idea of The Universe in Verse. Attribution matters to her: in 2012 she launched the Curator’s Code with the designer Kelli Anderson, a proposed system for crediting where online discoveries come from.
The short books show the other side: a snail, a lonely creature on the moon, a deck of bird cards, each a single idea pared down. For writers with the same mix of science, poetry and essay, see Authors like Maria Popova.
Watch
Maria Popova in Conversation with Sophie Blackall
Maria Popova talks with illustrator Sophie Blackall at the Morgan Library & Museum on 12 November 2024, drawing on items from the collection such as Saint-Exupéry’s watercolours for The Little Prince, about time, memory, creative work and the philosophy in children’s books. From the official Morgan Library & Museum channel.
Frequently asked questions about Maria Popova’s books
How many books has Maria Popova written?
Eight books carry her name, all on this page: two long works, Figuring (2019) and Traversal (2026); the picture books The Snail with the Right Heart (2021) and The Coziest Place on the Moon (2025); The Universe in Verse (2024); the card deck An Almanac of Birds (2025); and two books she co-edited, Leave Me Alone with the Recipes (2017) and A Velocity of Being (2018).
What are Maria Popova’s books in order?
Leave Me Alone with the Recipes (2017, co-edited), A Velocity of Being (2018, co-edited), Figuring (2019), The Snail with the Right Heart (2021), The Universe in Verse (2024), An Almanac of Birds (2025), The Coziest Place on the Moon (2025) and Traversal (2026).
Where should I start with Maria Popova?
With Figuring, her first long book and the clearest example of how she works. If you want something short first, try The Universe in Verse, fifteen illustrated essays each paired with a poem.
What is Maria Popova’s most famous book?
Figuring (2019). It entered the New York Times bestseller list at number five, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology and was a finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
What is Figuring by Maria Popova about?
It follows a chain of linked lives across four centuries, from Johannes Kepler to Rachel Carson, by way of Maria Mitchell, Margaret Fuller, Harriet Hosmer and Emily Dickinson. Most of them are women, several queer, and the book is about how their private relationships shaped their public work in science and art.
What is Maria Popova’s newest book?
Traversal, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on 17 February 2026. It is her second long book, braiding together the lives of figures such as Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.
Does Maria Popova write children’s books?
Yes, two: The Snail with the Right Heart (2021), illustrated by Ping Zhu, the true story of a snail whose shell coiled the wrong way, and The Coziest Place on the Moon (2025), illustrated by Sarah Jacoby. A Velocity of Being (2018), which she co-edited, is addressed to young readers too.
What happened to Brain Pickings?
Nothing closed: on 22 October 2021, its fifteenth anniversary, Popova renamed Brain Pickings as The Marginalian, saying the old name had become ill-fitting. The archive moved with it.
Was Brain Pickings criticised for affiliate links?
Yes. In 2013 critics pointed out that the site described itself as ad-free and funded by reader donations while also earning commission from Amazon affiliate links; one blogger estimated the income at several hundred thousand dollars a year. Reuters and PandoDaily covered the debate, and Popova then added a disclosure of the affiliate income to her donation page.
Where is Maria Popova from?
She was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and graduated from the American College of Sofia in 2003 before moving to the United States to study at the University of Pennsylvania. She has lived in Brooklyn since 2010.
Footnotes
- Maria Popova — Wikipedia
- Traversal — Southern Bookseller Review
- 2020 Carnegie Medal winners and finalists — The Writer
- The Universe in Verse — Hachette Book Group
- An Almanac of Birds — McNally Editions
- The Coziest Place on the Moon — Enchanted Lion Books
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The richest relationships are often those that don’t fit neatly into the preconceived slots we have made…”
— Maria Popova, Figuring (2019)
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