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Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jodi Smits, a bookseller at 

Smits said Page & Palette has been selling out of the historical novel "The Other Einstein" lately. The store's book club devoured it, and customer after customer is scooping it up. It's been a staff pick favorite since it came out last fall.

The novel tells the story of physicist Mitza Maric, the first wife of Albert Einstein. 

"It's an astonishing account," Smits said. "It's about the possibility of her contributing work on the accounts of relativity. It's the story of an unsung heroine, about fame and love and pain, and what it means to live with purpose and place and timing."

"It also gives us an insight into what their marriage was about," she said. Einstein was not always the most supportive or agreeable partner. "But she loved him dearly and supported him completely, with everything he was doing."

Smits said the book is a remarkable reminder of how women scientists had to fight for recognition. "[Maric] had a sense of what it meant to live in that time and not be appreciated for her work solely based on the fact that she was a woman."

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Tracy Mumford

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Bookseller Jodi Smits fell in love with the historical novel that delves into the life Albert Einstein's first wife, Mitza Maric.

Bookseller Jodi Smits fell in love with "The Other Einstein," by Marie Benedict. The historical novel delves into the life Albert Einstein's first wife, Mitza Maric.

The story of 'The Other Einstein': His wife

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