An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Executive Summary: This book was pretty interesting at times, but got a bit annoying at others. 3.5 stars.

Audiobook: I'm always leery about authors narrating their own books, but in the case of nonfiction I think it's generally a better track record. Mr. Hadfield does a fine job. Nothing fantastic, but I don't really want fantastic in non fiction anyways. If nothing else he knows best what he was feeling during the various events he described in his book.

Full Review
I picked this up on a deal at some point or another. I was interested in reading it, but not exactly itching to read it. I finally gave it a shot because I needed a short book to fill in time between my last book and new release I'd been eagerly waiting for. So this fit the bill nicely.

I (like many people I imagine) first learned of Chris Hadfield when his Space Oddity cover from the ISS went viral. As a reader of a lot of sci-fi, I don't pay nearly as much attention to our actual space program as probably should. He did a pretty good at bringing public attention to it, at least for a little while.

I think the most interesting parts of this book were the anecdotes leading to Mr. Hadfield becoming an astronaut, and the stories around his time on the ISS. Some of the stuff in between got a bit slow at times.

As the title would indicate, this book is as much of a personal life philosophy book as it is a biography about an astronaut. It was some of the life philosophy stuff that got tiring after awhile. It's not that I disagree with his sentiments, but I feel like those things aren't as easy to apply to your life if you're not a highly successful individual like Mr. Hadfield has been.

Overall I found the book pretty good. I'd have liked some more detail of his first two trips to space and a bit less about his personal philosophy on life, but it was an enjoyable enough listen.