An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

I listened to this audiobook immediately after finishing the audiobook of Spaceman by Mike Massimino. Both audiobooks are narrated by the author. The two memoirs are excellent and—despite the overlapping subject matter—complementary, showing different facets of space exploration:

Mike is American and thought he was born in the wrong town to become an astronaut, whereas Chris is Canadian and thought he was born in the wrong country.

Both went to battle against the medical examiners, one for his eyes, and the other for his gut.

Mike was a civilian mission specialist, and Chris was a military fighter pilot and test pilot.

Mike spacewalked on two Hubble repair missions, but he avoided the Soyuz and never visited the International Space Station. Chris also flew the shuttle but spends more time discussing his long duration expedition on the ISS and his experience on the Soyuz.

Mike worked for NASA public relations. He is an enthralling storyteller with a rosy, endearing perception of his experiences, infusing so much meaning into every step of his journey. Chris's style is a tad less romanticized, and he uses a series of anecdotes to deliver life lessons to those of us who are earthbound.

Both books were great. Be sure to also check out Chris's viral music video of “Space Oddity” and his excellent vignettes on YouTube showing everyday human activities aboard the ISS.

Wow. Just wow. I woke up far earlier than I wanted to this morning, so I picked up one of the nonfiction books I had from the library, expecting it to put me back to sleep. Three hours later I was still awake, nearly done with the book, and absolutely enthralled. I'm not sure why I thought it would be otherwise – I'd been one of the millions fascinated with Hadfield's videos and tweets when he was Commander of the ISS. His particular voice is very clear throughout this book. In 284 pages he takes us from his childhood, through his career path to becoming an astronaut, to his 5 months in the International Space Station, and back home. Nothing felt rushed, nothing felt like it didn't get the attention it deserved. I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my favorite books of 2017 – I have several months to read more things, but this book just absolutely blew me away.

It does appeal to how I like to read about science, though. I love reading about scientists. How they worked, how they made their discoveries, the paths they took. Who they were. I'm less interested in the actual science. This is part of why I loved A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson, so much. I borrowed that book from the library and read it cover to cover, fascinated. Finally had to buy my own copy.

Hadfield took space exploration and made it accessible to everyone. According to the book, he didn't even quite realize how big of an impact he was making at first. But between tweeting pictures from the ISS, making videos of how different life was in space, and making music videos, he really did become the most well-known astronaut of our generation. I remember putting his video of I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) on repeat when it came out – and it STILL gives me chills today.

One thing he keeps coming back to in his book is his philosophy of trying to be a zero. That doesn't sound very ambitious on the surface – but what he means is you can be one of three things in a group. You can be a negative impact (a -1) a neutral impact (a zero) or a positive impact (a +1). If you try to be a +1, it's far likelier that you'll try too hard, fuck up, and instead become a negative impact. So aim to be a zero. And most of the time you'll wind up as a positive impact. I thought that was a very unique philosophy.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

No matter your chosen profession, Hadfield reminds us that it's possible to be the best you can be while lifting those around you. The tiny details about life in space are interesting and amusing, but the real meat of this book is how you can apply his story to the everyday. My favourite chapter was on aiming to be a “zero” - someone who isn't seen as a try-hard but improves themselves and those around him.

I'm never going to find myself in space but this book has helped remind me how to be a better person right here on earth.

Space Oddities. This is an intriguing look at the life of the man who became Canada's first space walker and who went viral a few years ago when he (and his son and several others) put together a music video for David Bowie's Space Oddities... from the International Space Station. Solid, enjoyable read that is even more fascinating when read close in time to other books from other former ISS Commanders, as the different tones about their jobs and the different expressions of experiences they share roughly in common are even more fascinating than this book by itself - which is still very strong in its own right. Absolutely recommended.

This was an absolutely fantastic read. Not just for the insights into life on the ISS and how being an astronaut affected Hadfield's life, but also for the insights into the mentality that astronauts bring to problem solving and how they deal with the unexpected (which, as it turns out, is a large part of the job). This was not only a great informative read but I can see myself turning to its lessons when problems arise.

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.

A must-read!

Not only it is an enlightening read about life as an astronaut, it is also an extremely inspiring and upbeat guide to life, no matter what you do, or aspire to do.

I've always admired Chris Hadfield for his work promoting space science, but now I want to listen to him talk all day about all the interesting things he has seen and done, both on Earth and in space.

A journey I must advise everyone else take!

What an inspirational read!
This isn't my usual reading material, i tend not to read non fiction and particularly don't read stuff about individuals. But I picked this up as a 99p kindle deal and was so glad I did. I found it so so interesting, and Hadfield has such an inspirational work ethic and personality.

This is a book of sage wisdom disguised to be a memoir -and it is awesome. I've read a lot of astronaut memoirs, too, and this is probably the most optimistic of them all. Hadfield's utter bewilderment at becoming an internet sensation is pretty great, considering how fresh that whole experience is. Bonus points for just being so adorably Canadian.