You Are Here (Around the World in 92 Minutes) by Chris Hadfield
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
During Chris Hadfield's five month mission being Commander of the International Space Station he orbited the earth 2,597 times & took about 45,000 pictures. In You Are Here, he presents close to 150 of his favorite shots.
The book is organized by continent and within each section, Hadfield presents a wide range of photographs - deserts, forests, bodies of water, cities at night, just to name a few. Each photo is accompanied by some sort of description - ranging from a simple descriptor of what/where the location is, to a more in-depth background of what we are looking at & how a particular land formation came to be. Some pages also contain fun & whimsical comparisons as to what a particular bit of earth looks like - like the brain-y hills in Paraguay with an eerie coloring that reminded Hadfield of something Frankensein might create or the channels & docks in Melbourne that seem to form the upper body of a dinosaur (the legs and tail of a t-rex are included below the picture to complete the image for the reader).
I have to say, this is an impressive collection & I often found myself saying "that's so cool" (out loud) as I turned the pages. It is a great illustration showing how impressive, beautiful, and diverse this planet is. I think the following excerpt from An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth really sums up what Hadfield presents in You Are Here:
"The windows of a spaceship casually frame miracles. Every 92 minutes, another sunrise: a layer cake that starts with orange, then a thick wedge of blue, then the richest, darkest icing decorated with stars. The secret patterns of our planet are revealed: mountains bump up rudely from orderly plains, forests are green gashes edged with snow, rivers glint in the sunlight, twisting and turning like silvery worms. Continents splay themselves out whole, surrounded by islands sprinkled across the sea like delicate shards of shattered eggshells." page 1, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
This is my thirteenth book read for the 8th Annual Canadian Book Challenge.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and being Prepared for Anything by Col. Chris Hadfield
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Col. Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut who has been on three separate space missions. He has had an impressive career, but I had not become aware of him until his months as Commander of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013. During this time my teacher friends often shared videos on social media of Hadfield demonstrating experiments & "normal" everyday activities in space, culminating with his popular performance of "Space Oddity" from space.
The book, written after Hadfield's final ISS mission, is broken up into four main parts. First, in the Introduction, he describes the path he took to becoming an astronaut (one does not simply become an astronaut, especially if one is Canadian). The other three sections describe the experiences of preparing to launch into space, living in space, then returning from space & integrating back into life here on earth. Throughout the book, Hadfield gives insights into how many of these experiences have influenced and taught him other life lessons.
This book was definitely an interesting read for me. I'm sure part of that had to do with the fact that I've always been intrigued & fascinated with the space program. But I also think that Chris Hadfield's style of writing had a lot to do with it too. His determination is inspiring & his stories are entertaining - he really kept me turning the pages.
"Square astronaut, round hole. It's the story of my life, really: trying to figure out how to get where I want to go when just getting out the door seems impossible. On paper, my career trajectory looks preordained: engineer, fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut. Typical path for someone in this line of work, straight as a ruler. But that's not really how it was. There were hairpin curves and dead ends all the way along. I wasn't destined to be an astronaut. I had to turn myself into one." page 2
This is my eleventh book read for the 8th Annual Canadian Book Challenge.
