apatrick's review against another edition
3.0
This is pretty interesting, but at the end, I really wished Kelly had talked more about his life after returning to Earth. Maybe he'll write a follow-up. I'm not that interested in his life before the year-in-space experiment, but I guess everyone wants to tell their story. I was surprised that being a twin didn't feature more heavily in his writing, but I suppose he probably wanted to preserve his brother's privacy. Too bad he didn't feel the same way about his ex-wife. She comes out looking pretty terrible, but he looks even worse for portraying her as pretty terrible.
Anyway, aside from all that, the space stuff is pretty cool. It's a great conversation starter -- would you ever go up in space and why or why not? I think I'm a little bit terrified of ever leaving the planet, even just to orbit it.
Fun fact: because NASA was Kelly's employer, they couldn't actually ask him to participate in a study with his twin brother on how that much time in space would affect his genes. Once he talked about the possibility at a press conference, though, it could proceed. For me, that's an interesting intersection of privacy laws and science.
Anyway, aside from all that, the space stuff is pretty cool. It's a great conversation starter -- would you ever go up in space and why or why not? I think I'm a little bit terrified of ever leaving the planet, even just to orbit it.
Fun fact: because NASA was Kelly's employer, they couldn't actually ask him to participate in a study with his twin brother on how that much time in space would affect his genes. Once he talked about the possibility at a press conference, though, it could proceed. For me, that's an interesting intersection of privacy laws and science.
fsuarez's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Equal parts heartfelt and informative. It was fascinating reading about Scott’s journey to becoming an astronaut as well as having a first hand account of the many things we do not know about and do not see on the ground.
jupiterheathen's review
4.0
Audio book this time! Dry performance, but doesn't take away from the content. I still felt inspired.
elysareadsitall's review
3.0
I expected to love this book because I love reading about space, and I found this one on a list of best books about space. However, I struggled getting through it and continued not finishing it. I ended up turning it up to 3x speed to get through it. Scott Kelly reads the audiobook, and he just didn't seem excited. The writing and his voice are both just straightforward, which was odd. The book isn't written sequentially, which I found confusing because it lessened the emotional impact of much of his story.
oregon_colette's review
5.0
I liked this book! We listened to the audio book during our drive-time commute, and after we were done, we talked it up to everyone we met.
The story was well constructed, well written, and well narrated. I learned a lot about the International Space Station (something that, frankly, I had hardly paid attention to before reading the book), and I enjoyed learning about Scott's life.
The story was well constructed, well written, and well narrated. I learned a lot about the International Space Station (something that, frankly, I had hardly paid attention to before reading the book), and I enjoyed learning about Scott's life.
casehouse's review
3.0
3.5 stars. The book alternates between two timelines - Kelly's life story and the story of the year in space. Maybe it was just because I listened to the audiobook version, late in the book when the author was discussing various space missions, I had a harder time keeping the timelines straight. Overall, this gave a pretty informative view of life on the international space station.
baronessekat's review against another edition
4.0
A good, solid memoir/accounting of a man's drive to become an astronaut, achieve that dream and go on to become the record holder of the American to spend the most accumulated time in outer space.
Overall I enjoyed the book, learned something, and found myself wishing the United States got back on track with it's aeronautics agencies. I loved sitting in front of the TV watching the Space Shuttles go up and return.
If I had any criticism of this book was that I did the audio, read by Mr. Kelly and he kept pronouncing a name that I assume is Sergei and he kept pronouncing it as Sir Gay. I could hear the space and let me say the visual I had for that person was probably no-where near what the real man is like.
Overall I enjoyed the book, learned something, and found myself wishing the United States got back on track with it's aeronautics agencies. I loved sitting in front of the TV watching the Space Shuttles go up and return.
If I had any criticism of this book was that I did the audio, read by Mr. Kelly and he kept pronouncing a name that I assume is Sergei and he kept pronouncing it as Sir Gay. I could hear the space and let me say the visual I had for that person was probably no-where near what the real man is like.