Kurt Gödel. The genius of metamathematics (Q2170477)

This biography of Kurt Gödel is written for a wide audience with a limited mathematical background. It concentrates on various aspects of Gödel's life (his childhood in Brünn, the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, studying in Vienna, health issues, and his emigration to Princeton via the Trans-Siberian Railway) and explains his mathematical achievements in layman's terms. The biography is written in a clear and readable style and is very well researched. I was particularly impressed by the author's familiarity with all things German. The appendix of this book contains a list of publications by Gödel, about Gödel, an extensive list of references and an index. I strongly recommend this biography to anyone interested in the life (and the work) of Kurt Gödel, whose incompleteness theorems spelled the end of Hilbert's program.