In the early 1980s David Levy—writer, amateur astronomer and Society board member—joined Eugene Shoemaker and his wife, Carolyn, to search for comets from an observation post on Palomar Mountain in Southern California. Their collaboration would lead to the 1993 discovery of Shoemaker-Levy 9, with its several nuclei, five tails, and two sheets of debris spread out in its orbit plane. A year later, Levy would be by the Shoemakers' side again when their comet collided with Jupiter. Not only did this collision revolutionize our understanding of the history of the solar system, but it also offered a spectacular confirmation of one scientist's life work. As a close friend and colleague of Shoemaker (who died in 1997 at the age of 69), Levy offers a uniquely insightful account of his life and the way it has shaped our thinking about the universe.

Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Broadway Books (Random House), 2003, ISBN: 0-7679-0817-1, $27.50

In chapters like "How to Build a Universe" and "Muster Mark's Quarks," Bryson reveals what he learned from the world's foremost experts in the fields of archaeology, paleontology, physics, biology, astronomy, math, chemistry and other demanding disciplines. After countless hours spent in their offices, labs, and field camps, he had absorbed more than enough information for a "wry-yet-lyrical" history of this intriguing place we call home. From the Big Bang theory to the rise of man, it's a look at how curious thinkers of the past and present have come to understand Earth and its place in a vast universe.

Gavin Weightman
Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution
Da Capo Press, 2003, ISBN: 0-306-81275-4, $25

The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania" — brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device one Guglielmo Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked...it just did. And no one knew how far these radio waves could travel, until 1903, when a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the king of England flashed from Cape Cod to Cornwall clear across the Atlantic. Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-and a captivating tale of science and scientists, business and businessmen. There are stories of British blowhards, American con artists-and Marconi himself: a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.

Anton Vamplew
Simple Stargazing: A First-time Skywatcher's Guide
HarperCollins (in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution), 2006, ISBN: 0-06-084994-0, $16.95

The book begins with a getting-started section and then moves through the northern and southern hemispheres. Full-color illustrations and clear, informative text. Sources for further reading and a glossary of terms.

Richard Wolfson
Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified
W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, ISBN: 0-393-05154-4, $24.95

Physicist Richard Wolfson explores the ideas at the heart of relativity and shows how they lead to such seeming absurdities as time travel, curved space, black holes, and new meaning for the idea of past and future. Drawing from years of teaching modern physics to nonscientists, Wolfson explains in a lively, conversational style the simple principles underlying Einstein's theory. Relativity, Wolfson shows, gave us a new view of space and time, opening the door to questions about their flexible nature: Is the universe finite or infinite? Will it expand forever or eventually collapse in a "big crunch"? Is time travel possible? What goes on inside a black hole? How does gravity really work? These questions at the forefront of twenty-first-century physics are all rooted in the profound and sweeping vision of Albert Einstein's early twentieth-century theory. Wolfson leads his readers on an intellectual journey that culminates in a universe made almost unimaginably rich by the principles that Einstein first discovered.

Paul Kurtz, Ed.
Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the World’s Leading Paranormal Inquirers
Prometheus Books, 2001, ISBN: 1-57392-884-4, $27

Issued on the 25th anniversary of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) this book brings together personal statements by the leading skeptics of the world. CSICOP, the first major organization of skeptics on the contemporary scene, is worldwide in scope and all of the articles are original and written especially for this collection. Contributors include Martin Gardner, Jean-Claude Pecker, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye.

Steven J. Dick
Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000
Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81599-1, $130

As one of the oldest scientific institutions in the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory has a rich and colorful history.ˆà It was initially founded as the Depot of Charts and Instruments in 1830, and in 1944 it became the first national observatory of the United States, analogous to the famous observatories at Greenwich and Paris.ˆà It remained the only U.S. national observatory until the 1950s.

This volume is, first and foremost, a story of the relations between space, time and navigation, from the rise of the chronometer in the U.S. to the Global Positioning System of satellites, for which the Naval Observatory provides the time to a billionth of a second per day. It is a story of the history of technology, in the form of telescopes, lenses, detectors, calculators, clocks and computers over 170 years. It describes how one scientific institution under government and military patronage has contributed, through all the vagaries of history, to almost two centuries of unparalleled progress in astronomy.

Neil de Grasse Tyson
The Sky Is Not the Limit
Prometheus Books, 2004, ISBN: 1-59102-188-X, $18 (paperback edition)

From Chapter 1: "It was a dark and starry night...I felt as though I could see forever. Too numerous to count, the stars of the autumn sky, and the constellations they trace, were rising slowly in the east while the waxing crescent moon was descending into the western horizon....Forty-five minutes of my suspended disbelief swiftly passed when the house lights came back on in the planetarium sky theater....I had been called. The study of the universe would be my career, and no force on Earth would stop me. I was just nine years old, but I now had an answer for that perennially annoying question all adults ask: 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' although I could barely pronounce the word, I would tell them, 'I want to be an astrophysicist.'" The Sky Is Not the Limit, now available in paperback with a new preface and other additions, is the story of Neil de Grasse Tyson's lifelong fascination with the night sky that eventually led him to become the director of the Hayden Planetarium.

Norman Davidson, Foreword by E. C. Krupp
Sky Phenomena: A Guide to Naked-Eye Observation of the Stars
Lindisfarne Books, 2005, ISBN: 1-58420-026-X, $25 (paperback)

Sky Phenomena leads readers from the stars as seen from Earth, through the Sun, Moon, and various planets to the Copernican revolution, to comets and meteors, and to the sky of the Southern Hemisphere.

The text includes mythological and historical aspects of the subject and has numerous exercises for the student. The final chapter is a unique collection of poetry related to the stars from ancient India to modern times. Appendices include future astronomical events, technical data, materials and publications, and a comprehensive glossary of astronomical terms.

Vivian White, ASP Astronomy Educator
Slooh Kids Activity Book, Volume 2
Blue Storm Productions 2008, $19.95,
http://www.slooh.com/kids_gifts.php

Each Slooh Kids activity book includes 14 celestial objects located in the Northern and/or Southern Hemisphere. It’s easy to launch, explore, and learn with the whole family. Learn about space then go see it LIVE using your Slooh mission card. All you need is Internet access to connect to three observatory site locations. Learn how to plan missions and remotely control the telescopes. Take pictures, print out, and paste in your book. Take mission notes. Explore space day & night. Listen to Live SkyGuide Audio. Great educational product for kids!

Joseph M. Boyce
The Smithsonian Book of Mars
Smithsonian Institution Press, November 2002, ISBN: 1-58834-074-0, $34.95

From 1985 to 2000 Joseph Boyce provided scientific leadership to NASA as its Mars exploration program scientist. Beginning with Mariner 4 in 1965 and continuing through the 2001 Mars Odyssey probe, each spacecraft sent to Mars yielded fascinating new discoveries (how did those "canals" come to be?) and occasionally overturned earlier findings — especially when trying to answer NASA's ultimate question, "Are we alone?" The search for life on Mars seemed to be over after the 1976 Viking mission, but in 1997 scientists announced that they had found possible traces of ancient life in the ALH84001 Martian Meteorite, sparking furious debates in scientific journals. That controversy is precisely why Boyce finds Mars so endlessly fascinating — you just never know.

Joseph M. Boyce served as NASA's program scientist on fourteen flight programs. In recognition of his scientific contributions to space exploration, the asteroid 1978 VQ5 was named Boyce in his honor.

Nigel Hey
Solar System
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, distributed by Sterling Publishing, 2002, ISBN: 0-304-35994-7, $24.95

New information from robot probes and telescopes has exploded old ideas about our celestial Neighborhood -- and these recently verified facts are now illustrated in amazing photos. Look at rainfalls of diamonds on Neptune; dust storms stirred by 6000-mph winds on Jupiter; or Saturn's 30 moons. View everyday occurrences on Venus that would be life-ending catastrophes on earth, and close-ups of long-ago river systems on Mars. Each planet appears in realistic paintings, with introductions by leading scientists.

Giovanni Caprara
The Solar System
Firefly Books, 2003, ISBN: 1-55297-679-3, $24.95

This comprehensive reference explains the origin of stars and the sun and extensively covers each planet. Illustrated with spectacular photographs and meticulous color diagrams. Key sections cover: The solar system and the sun; Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto; and Minor Bodies: comets, asteroids and meteorites. A detailed directory of web sites direct readers to relevant sources of information.

Peter Grego
Solar System Observer's Guide
Firefly Books Ltd., 2006, ISBN: 1-55407-132-1, $17.95

A practical introduction to our "corner" of the universe. Aimed at users of binoculars and small to medium telescopes, Solar System Observer's Guide describes how to observe not only the planets but also the moon, sun, comets, meteors, asteroids, and all other celestial objects found within our Solar System. Each chapter is devoted to a different object and explains how and when to find the object, how to observe it, what to expect to see, and how to record observations. Photographs, sketches, and digital images by both amateur and professional astronomers illustrate the book's pages. Suitable for use in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Serge Brunier
Solar System Voyage
Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN: 0521807247, $40

In the last few decades, the exploration of our solar system has revealed fascinating details about the worlds that lie beyond our Earth. This lavishly illustrated book invites the reader on a journey through the solar system. After locating our planetary system in the Universe, Brunier describes the Sun and its planets, the large satellites, asteroids, and comets. Photographs and information taken from the latest space missions allow readers to experience the lunar plains scarred by asteroid impacts; the frozen deserts of Mars and Europa; the continuously erupting volcanoes of Io and the giant geysers of Triton; the rings of Saturn and the clouds of Venus and Titan; and the powerful crash of the comet Shoemaker-Levy into Jupiter. Serge Brunier is chief editor of the journal "Ciel et Espace" and a photojournalist. His previous books include Space Odyssey (Cambridge, 2002), Glorious Eclipses with Jean-Pierre Luminet (Cambridge, 2000), and Majestic Universe (Cambridge, 1999).

David Ellyard & Wil Tirion
The Southern Sky Guide
Cambridge 2008, ISBN: 978-0-521-71405-1, Paperback $27.99

This unique and accessible book provides a handy reference to the skies visible from the countries of the southern hemisphere for both amateur astronomers and casual observers. World famous astronomical cartographer Wil Tirion has teamed up with television astronomer David Ellyard to provide detailed charts of the southern sky throughout the year and clear explanatory text. For this new edition, the text has been thoroughly revised and new charts created to illustrate the legends behind the main constellations of the southern sky. Planet positions are provided up to 2010.

Valerie Wyatt and Matthew Fernandes
Space: Frequently Asked Questions
Kids Can Press, 2002, ISBN: 1550749730,  $6.95, Paperback.

How did the universe form? What would it be like to walk on the moon? Is there life on other planets? Find the answers to these questions and many more in this creative and amusingly illustrated kids' guide to the universe. Featuring the popular Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format often used on the Internet, along with out-of-this-world activities and a great many amazing facts, this book provides curious kids with all the information they need to fill in the blanks about space.

Giancarlo Genta and Michael Rycroft
Space, The Final Frontier?
Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN: 0-521-81403-0, $29

What future possibilities for space travel are the most likely to succeed? What are the greatest challenges and advantages of space travel for humankind? What are the potential moral and ethical implications of our space explorations? Space, the Final Frontier? imaginatively illustrates the possibilities that the exploration and subsequent exploitation of space opens up for humankind. Giancarlo Genta and Michael Rycroft delve into the factors that encourage space travel and speculate on the future of human expansion into space, including: the value and importance of having humans in space; the human exploration and colonization of our solar system; robotic exploration of the outer planets, their satellites and asteroids; the future possibility that humans may leave our solar system; the prospects and implications of our meeting other intelligent beings in space; the likelihood, consequences, and benefits of future space technologies.

Serge Brunier
Space Odyssey: The First Forty Years of Space Exploration
Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN: 0521813565,  $40, Hardback.

In only forty years space exploration has become one of humanity's preeminent achievements. Space Odyssey: The First Forty Years of Space Exploration follows the greatest moments of this saga and tells the tale of the four hundred men and women who have been into space.

The journey begins with the pioneers of life in space, those first humans sent into Earth orbit and the legendary crews of the Apollo missions. It continues abroad the Mir space station, where we are invited to share the intimate life of its Russian, American, and French inhabitants as they walk on the ceiling and sleep on the walls. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the adventure advances with the International Space Station.

This approximately 10"x14" edition is filled with beautiful photographs, many taken by the astronauts themselves.

Steve Kortenkamp
Space Probes
Capstone Press, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-4296-0063-7, $15.95

For the very youngest readers. An overview of space probes past, present and future.

Philip S. Harrington
The Space Shuttle: A Photographic History
Browntrout Publishers, 2003, ISBN: 0-7631-7063-1, $19.95

From the Introduction: "...The Earth was created from a cloud of interstellar gas and dust over four billion years ago. Everything we know, everything we see, and everyone who has ever lived is made from material that was first formed inside ancient stars billions of years ago. Perhaps that is why our drive to explore space is so strong, for in a sense, each of our astronauts is leading our way home." The Space Shuttle captures the visual history of the 110 missions aboard six different shuttles.

Robert Godwin, Ed.
Space Shuttle: STS Flights 1-5 (The NASA Mission Reports)
Apogee Books, 2001, ISBN: 1-896522-69-6, $21.95

On 12 April 1961, a Russian missile had propelled 10, 395 pounds into space using 1.1 million pounds of thrust. Gagarin flew 25,000 miles in 108 minutes. Twenty years later, on the same day, two astronauts climbed aboard the fully fueled and integrated Space Transportation System. On this day 180,000 pounds would ride atop 7.7 million pounds of thrust. However, this crew would be landing on a runway after travelling over a million miles in a little over 54 hours. This book explores the Space Shuttle through the test flight stage and on to its first operational flight. Comprising rare NASA documents and a CD-Rom with documentary footage of the first five Space Shuttle Flights.

Michel van Pelt
Space Tourism: Adventures in Earth Orbit and Beyond
Cambridge Planetary Series
Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0-521-83603-4, $110

The face of space travel is changing rapidly. A growing number of well-funded and technologically savvy organizations are privately developing and testing new kinds of space vehicles. Aside from the issues of passenger safety and comfort, even relatively modest flights to the edge of space will require a lot more investigation and testingòÀÓof reusable spacecraft, of efficient and safe propulsion and guidance systems, and of training and conditioning regimens for potential space travelers. Still, the development of a viable space tourism industry is already happening. The book includes a brief history of human space flight, highlighting the challenges and opportunities faced by astronauts and cosmonauts over the last forty years. From the front lines of industry and government research centers, it reports in technical detail on experiments in space flight that are currently underway and also discusses the attitudes of governments and key NGO organizations toward private space travel.

Jose Wudka
Space-Time, Relativity, and Cosmology
Cambridge University Press, 2006, 0-521-82280-7, $55

Provides a historical introduction to modern relativistic cosmology and traces its historical roots and evolution from antiquity to Einstein. The topics are presented in a non-mathematical manner, with the emphasis on the ideas that underlie each theory rather than their detailed quantitative consequences. A significant part of the book focuses on the Special and General theories of relativity. The tests and experimental evidence supporting the theories are explained together with their predictions and their confirmation. Other topics include a discussion of modern relativistic cosmology, the consequences of Hubble's observations leading to the Big Bang hypothesis, and an overview of the most exciting research topics in relativistic cosmology.

J. S. Bell
Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, 2/e
Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0521818621/0-521-52338-9, $75/$34.99

One of the leading expositors and interpreters of modern quantum theory, John Bell is particularly famous for his discovery of the crucial difference between the predictions of conventional quantum mechanics and the implications of local causality, a concept insisted on by Einstein. Bell's work has played a major role in the development of our current understanding of the profound nature of quantum concepts and of the fundamental limitations they impose on the applicability of the classical ideas of space, time, and locality. This book includes all of John Bell's published and unpublished papers on the conceptual and philosophical problems of quantum mechanics, including two papers that appeared after the first edition was published. All the papers have been reset, the references put in order, and minor corrections made. Includes a short preface by the author for the first edition and also an introduction by Alain Aspect that puts into context John Bell's enormous contribution to the quantum philosophy debate.

Paul Dickson
Sputnik: The Shock of the Century
Walker & Company, 2001, ISBN: 0-8027-1365-3, $28

On October 4, 1957, as "Leave It to Beaver" premiered on American television, the Soviet Union launched the space age. Sputnik, all of 184 pounds with only a radio transmitter inside its highly polished shell, became the first man-made object in space; while it immediately shocked the world, its long-term impact was even greater, for it profoundly changed the shape of the twentieth century. Washington journalist Paul Dickson chronicles the dramatic events and developments leading up to and emanating from Sputnik's launch. Supported by original research and many recently declassified documents, Sputnik offers a fascinating profile of the early American and Soviet space programs and a strikingly revised picture of the politics and personalities behind America's fledgling efforts to get into space. Read an excerpt from this book in the Mercury E-zine.

Roger E. Bilsteinv
Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles
University Press of Florida, 2003, ISBN: 0-8130-2691-1, $39.95

A classic study of the development of the Saturn launch vehicle that took Americans to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. The Saturn rocket was developed as a means of accomplishing John F. Kennedy's 1961 commitment to reach the Moon before the end of the decade. Without the Saturn V rocket, with its capability to send as payload the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules—along with support equipment and three astronauts—more than a quarter of a million miles from Earth, Kennedy's goal would have been unrealizable. Stages to Saturn not only tells the important story of the research and development of the Saturn rockets and the people who designed them but also recounts the stirring exploits of their operations from orbital missions round the Earth testing Apollo equipment to their journeys to the Moon and back.

William Tyler Olcott
Star Lore: Myths, Legends & Facts
Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN: 0-486-43581-4, $21.95

Originally published in 1911, the same year William Tyler Olcott helped found the AAVSO, Star Lore recounts the origins and histories of star groups, as well as the stories of individual constellations: Pegasus, the winged horse; Ursa Major, the Greater Bear; the seven daughters of Atlas known as the Pleiades; the signs of the Zodiac; and minor constellations such as the ship Argo, the Giraffe, and the Unicorn. Fifty-eight black-and-white images include classic photographs of the actual stars as well as scenes from their related myths as portrayed by Rubens, Watts and other artists. This edition features a new Introduction by Fred Schaaf, an extensive Appendix and Index.

Philip Harrington
Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories, 3/e
Wiley, 2002, ISBN: 0-471-41806-4, $19.95 (paperback)

In this revised and updated edition of Star Ware, the essential guide to buying astronomical equipment, award-winning astronomy writer Philip Harrington analyzes and explores today's astronomy market, offering point-by-point comparisons of everything you need. Whether you're an experienced amateur astronomer or just getting started, Star Ware, 3/e will prepare you to explore the farthest reaches of space with:

Extensive, expanded reviews of leading models and accessories, dozens of new products, to help you buy smart; a clear, step-by-step guide to all aspects of purchasing everything from telescopes and binoculars to filters, mounts, lenses, cameras, film, star charts, guides and references, and much more; eleven new do-it-yourself projects for making unique astronomical equipment at home; easy tips on maintenance, photography, and star-mapping to help you get the most out of your telescope; lists of where to find everything astronomical, including Internet sites and Web resources; distributors, dealers, and conventions; and corporate listings for products and services.

Fred Watson
Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope
Da Capo Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-306-81432-3, $24.95

The history of the telescope is a rich story of human ingenuity and perseverance involving some of the most colorful figures of the scientific world – Galileo, Johnnes Kepler, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, George Ellery Hale, and Edwin Hubble. Stargazer, written by one of the world's top astronomers, brings to life the story of these brilliant, if sometimes quirky, scientists as they turned their eyes and ideas beyond what anyone thought possible. It lucidly and compellingly reveals the science and technology behind the telescope and its enormous impact in unveiling the mysteries of the universe.

Robin Scagall
Stargazing with a Telescope, revised edition
Firefly Books Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 1-55407-027-0, $14.95 (paperback)

Stargazing With a Telescope is a practical guide that demystifies the process of buying a telescope. The features and benefits of the different types of viewing instruments are evaluated in straightforward terms, and the color illustrations help to clarify the choices. Equipment covered includes:

• Binoculars: a range of choices for astronomers at any level

• Refractors: classic telescopes that are easy to use and maintain

• Reflectors: sophisticated instruments that allow night sky photography

• Catadioptrics: compact telescopes that are gaining popularity.

The book provides brand names and model numbers and the general advice applies to all brands, not just those covered. Lens size, focal lengths, focal ratios and much more is explained with clear diagrams and non-scientific text. Also covered are suitable accessories such as eyepieces, filters, mounts and supports, and suggestions for photography through the telescope, and choice of camera and film types. Useful tips are provided on setting up and using any telescope as well as a review of objects to look at with different sizes of telescope. There is also valuable advice on how to instantly spot misleading labels on low-end telescopes and a dedicated website (http://www.stargazing.org.uk) to find out about new instruments on the market, more comments on those covered in this edition, and reader feedback.

Fred Schaaf
The Starry Room: Naked Eye Astronomy in the Intimate Universe
Dover Publications, 2002, ISBN: 0-486-42553-3, $12.95 (paperback reprint of the edition originally published by John Wiley & Sons, 1990)

This book, a collection of essays describing the features of the night sky, tells beginning sky-watchers how to find and where to look for these celestial objects. Possessing a keen knowledge of the optimum ways of viewing astronomical phenomena with the naked eye, author Fred Schaaf passes this information on to readers, describing such special sights as an eyelash-thin moon, a shooting star, streaking comets, and a lunar eclipse. Most of these observations require no telescopes or other equipment, not even perfect sky conditions or long periods of special training. The Starry Room explains when and where to look for constellations and planetary conjunctions, meteor showers, rainbows, and halos. No particular knowledge of astronomy is needed to understand the book and most technical terms are explained as they appear in the text. Foreword by Chet Raymo and a glossary at the end defines terms and concepts.

Seymour Simon
Stars
Smithsonian/HarperCollins, 2006, ISBN:0060890002, $16.99

Award-winning science writer Seymour Simon has teamed up with the Smithsonian Institution for new updated editions of his acclaimed long running series of photo-essays. Matching full-color, full- and double-page-spread-sized light and radio photographs of nebulas, galaxies, and sundry deep-space phenomena with two or three paragraphs of explanatory text.

Steve Tomecek, Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Stars
National Geographic "Jump into Science" Series, 2003, ISBN: 0-7922-6955-1, $16.95

What are stars made of? Where do they go in the daytime? How far away are they? A boy and his bike-riding dog take readers on a stellar journey to answer these and other intriguing questions. Along the way, children discover that our sun is a star and that stars of many sizes and colors twinkle throughout the universe. Simple text and whimsical art introduce the science of stars, explaining concepts such as brightness, distance, and why stars appear to move across the sky. Then patterns in the stars come to life dramatically in the form of lions, bulls, and people in the various constellations.

Iain Nicolson
Stars and Supernovas
DK Publishing, 2001, ISBN: 0-8794-8160-X, $12.95

From a new series on space by DK Publishing in conjunction with the BBC. Stars and Supernovas traces the development of stars from their formation until their ultimate demise. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Clifford Pickover
The Stars of Heaven
Oxford University Press, 2001, 0-19-514874-6, $27.50

The author of over 28 books on such diverse topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, and astronomy, to human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction, Clifford Pickover now tackles a range of topics from stellar evolution to the fundamental and awe-inspiring reasons why the universe permits life to flourish. In The Stars of Heaven, he leaps from black holes, red giants, brown dwarfs, white dwarfs and Cepheid variables, to neutron stars and pulsars through a fictional dialogue between futuristic humans and their alien peers.

Vincent J. Martinez and Enn Saar
Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution
Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2002, ISBN: 1-58488-084-8, $75

Over the past decade, statisticians have developed new statistical tools in the field of spatial point processes. At the same time, observational efforts have yielded a huge amount of new cosmological data to analyze. Although the main tools in astronomy for comparing theoretical results with observation are statistical, in recent years, cosmologists have not been generally aware of the developments in statistics and vice versa. Statistics of Galaxy Distribution describes both the available observational data on the distribution of galaxies and the applications of spatial statistics in cosmology. It gives a detailed derivation of the statistical methods used to study the galaxy distribution and the cosmological physics needed to formulate the statistical models.

Michel Cassé
Stellar Alchemy: The Celestial Origin of Atoms
Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN: 0-521-82182-7, $30

Why do the stars shine? What messages can we read in the light they send to us from the depths of the night? Nuclear astrophysics is a fascinating discipline, and enables connections to be made between atoms, stars, and human beings. Through modern astronomy, scientists have managed to unravel the full history of the chemical elements, and understand how they originated and evolved into all the elements that compose our surroundings today. The transformation of metals into gold, something once dreamed of by alchemists, is a process commonly occurring in the cores of massive stars. But the most exciting revelation is the intimate connection that humanity has with the debris of exploded stars.

Kristine Larsen
Stephen Hawking: A Biography
Prometheus 2007, ISBN: 1591025745, Paperback $16.95

Stephen Hawking is arguably the most famous physicist since Albert Einstein. His decades-long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), combined with his singular brilliance as a cosmologist, has fascinated both the public and his colleagues in science. In this engagingly written biography, Kristine Larsen, a physicist and astronomer herself, presents a candid and insightful portrait of Hawking's personal and professional life. Avoiding the hero-worship sometimes found in popular works on Hawking, Larsen emphasizes that Hawking is first and foremost a scientist whose work has made significant contributions to our understanding of the nature and origins of the universe. Writing in nontechnical language for the lay reader, Larsen clearly explains Hawking's complex scientific accomplishments, while telling the story of his challenging life.

Michael White & John Gribbin
Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, 2/e
Joseph Henry Press, 2002, ISBN: 0-309-08410-5, paperback, $17.95

During his thirty-plus-year career, Hawking has arguably done more than anyone to break down the walls of our understanding of the origin and nature of the Universe. In Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, White and Gribbin arrive at a greater understanding of the man himself. This second edition includes the very pressing and timely facts about Hawking's theories on time travel, which were not even introduced when the original edition came out. It also charts both the personal highs and lows experienced by the man referred to as "the most famous scientist since Isaac Newton."

John W. Freeman
Storms in Space
Cambridge University Press, January 2002, ISBN: 0-521-66038-6, $27.95

The story of the mysterious region between Earth and the Sun where violent storms rage unseen by human eyes. The author discusses the similarities between storms on Earth and in space, and goes on to describe the causes and effects of space storms, and how they can be monitored by satellites and from observatories on earth. The forecasting of space storms is presented, along with prospects for improved models in the future and a unique interview with a professional space weather expert.

George Pendle
Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons
Harcourt, 2005, ISBN: 0-15-100997-X, $25