Scott Kelly (1) (1964–)

Overall, this is nowhere near my favorite astronaut autobiography. (For that, you should go to Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire.) As a biography, there are aspects of Endurance that I felt were lacking. But I suspect that these gaps were intentional in order to spare Kelly or others some embarrassment. And in terms of literary style, this is nothing spectacular. However, as a perspective piece on what it means to be an astronaut and the unique experiences and perspective that brings, the book was satisfactory. I especially found Kelly's epilogue warm and touching.
[Audiobook note: Kelly reads this himself. On the one hand, there's certainly something to be said for hearing an autobiography in the author's voice. But on the other hand, Kelly is not particularly expressive, delivering a rather monotone performance. Also, the sound quality is rather tinny.]… (meer)

A coffee table book full of photographs astronaut Scott Kelly took in and from space. There's a section featuring images of life aboard the ISS and other pictures from his mission there, and one of lovely images of Earth showing its curvature, often with glowing aurora or with parts of the ISS also visible, including some space selfies in front of the station's cupola windows. But the bulk of it is made up of what Kelly calls "Earth Art": color-enhanced images of strikingly complex or varied terrain on the Earth's surface, some of which do look rather like abstract art. It's beautiful stuff, well-presented, although the accompanying text is fairly sparse, so don't expect any long explanations abut the geology of what you're looking at.

I have several books of Earth-from-space photographs now, and I never, ever seem to get tired of them. It really is an amazing planet we've got here.… (meer)