Recently Read: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Author: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Genre: Nonfiction
Page Count: 222
Publication Date: 2017
Rating: 4/5

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I put in a hold for this audiobook from my library when the book first came out, and it finally came in a week or so ago at the perfect time. I have a half-hour commute to and from my school and I just couldn't take the radio anymore. I listened to this in about a week and I loved it. It is narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who of course has a lovely narrator voice, and contained just enough information about a range of topics to be interesting without being boring.

I am both terrified and fascinated by space. I took an astronomy class in college to fulfill my science credit, and I lost some sleep that semester over the scary happenings of space, but I was also so fascinated by space and the idea of humans working so hard to find the answers to the biggest questions concerning us. This book covers a range of space topics in a shallow way that makes for easy reading (or in my case listening) I did not understand everything in this book (and probably never will) but not because of the way it was presented, just because that is the nature of  the science of space. Neil DeGrasse Tyson uses beautiful metaphors and humor to make the complexities of space more manageable. This book is the perfect mix of science, theory, and antidotes. Tyson makes science sound like an art form, which I really loved. 

My thoughts and thinking about science has really changed over recent years. Past me would have turned my nose up at science as something that I just couldn't understand, relate to, or even care about. But in the past two years or so, I have begun to see the beauty and poetic nature of science; it's not at odds with art or other forms of human creation. My language and literature centered brain can in fact appreciate and understand elements of the scientific world. 

If you are interested in astronomy at any level, I recommend this book. This is a book I can see myself rereading in the future in order to experience Tyson's beautiful metaphors again as well as to receive the information again to help it stick. Listening to this book while driving to work in the dark of the early morning was a great way to start my day and has cemented my desire to pick up more audiobooks for my commute.