This is a book that makes you want to go out and look up at the night sky. Buzz Lightyear would be proud.
A synthesis of the latest thinking and research on space exploration, it sets out the meaning for humanity.
Tyson is the presenter of the award–winning StarTalk podcast and author of numerous books on popular science, including Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, and Walker is the senior producer of the series. This book, linked to a special mini-season of the podcast, features astonishing astronomical photographs as well as useful explanatory illustrations. The theme is how humanity began to explore space, although there are many interesting detours into questions, including the real color of the sun, the difference between a vacuum and a void, and the formation of black holes. The authors examine each of the planets in the solar system, drawing on novel research material gathered by the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, as well as orbital telescopes. Many of these subjects have been discussed in-depth elsewhere, but deGrasse and Walker find new things to say, and they have a knack for using anecdotes to explain complex phenomena and scientific issues. They have a good time deconstructing the technology that appears in various sci-fi movies and TV shows, pointing out the problems of faster-than-light travel, the real effects of a lack of gravity, and the dangers of unregulated excursions through time. Worrying matters, certainly, but the tone is generally optimistic, and the authors clearly love the concept of space exploration. They also note that things once considered beyond the bounds of plausibility are now commonplace, and they conclude this engaging, accessible work with further optimism: "Scientific thinking always leaves the door ajar for the seemingly impossible. So perhaps we exaggerate—but only just a little—when we declare that infinity is only a moment’s pause on the way to unlimited destinations that await us.”
This is a book that makes you want to go out and look up at the night sky. Buzz Lightyear would be proud.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781426223303
Page Count: 320
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A personal ’90s music overview that is far from definitive, but nevertheless instructive and often poignant.
An oddly entertaining collection of essays that covers more than 100 songs but doesn’t really explain the decade that created them—which may be beside the point.
A senior staff writer at the Ringer, Harvilla adapts this book from his podcast of the same name, in which he outlines the importance of a song from the 1990s and then discusses it with a guest. The adaptation can be clunky, as the author looks for writing conventions to group often disparate songs and artists together under themes like “Chaos Agents,” “Villains + Adversaries,” and “Romance + Sex + Immaturity.” The way he switches gears from rapturous praise of Celine Dion to the misheard lyrics of Hole’s “Doll Parts” is as jarring as riding with a teenager driving a stick shift for the first time. Harvilla deftly moves from explaining a song’s backstory to how it connects to him or the music of the time. However, he rarely connects a song to the outside world, which may be by design. He purposefully removes Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” from everything that came after its stunning success. “What I’m saying is that sometimes you gotta let the singer be the singer and let the song be the song, and not hold its former culture-throttling ubiquity against it, nor hold its long-term unbearable biographical baggage against it,” he writes. “Empty your mind of all unpleasant and unnecessary context.” That approach doesn’t help to explain the ’90s—musically or historically—despite what the title promises. It can be forgiven, though, because Harvilla successfully captures what the ’90s felt like through his personal stories’ intriguing observations—e.g., “paging through somebody’s CD book was…like drinking beer out of someone else’s mouth.”
A personal ’90s music overview that is far from definitive, but nevertheless instructive and often poignant.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781538759462
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
