How to Astronaut by Terry Virts

How to Astronaut: Everything You Need to Know Before Leaving Earth by Terry Virts is exactly what the author describes in the subtitle. He talks about everything involved in becoming an astronaut, both now and when he was in training. Virts worked both on the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). The space shuttle program ended some time ago, so that gives you a vague idea of the timing. 

Terry Virts began his career as a fighter pilot and then later moved on to the astronaut training program. So, he knew his physics and knew how to fly, had lived with intense pressure to perform with accuracy and lived with a certain amount of risk. But, danger as a fighter pilot and its intensity level of training paled by comparison to the training to become an astronaut. 

In How to Astronaut, Virts walks readers through the process of becoming an astronaut, from learning to speak Russian (now an absolute requirement because Americans and Russians work together and the ISS missions take off from Russia) to learning to handle weightlessness, to practicing space walks. He also talks about such everyday things as the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the experiments they perform, how they exercise and why a certain amount of daily exercise is crucial to an astronaut's health, how to use the bathroom in space, how they keep clean, and (yuck) how they clean the toilet. He describes disasters that have taken place and what happens when one does (for example, the loss of a supply ship that blew up and how it impacts astronauts on the ISS). There are a lot of interesting details that I found utterly fascinating. 

Updated 11/16/21

After yesterday's news about the Russian anti-satellite missile test and the resulting scramble to safety by the ISS crew members, it occurred to me that I needed to update my review of How to Astronaut because space debris and its dangers are discussed in the book. In fact, I think I can safely say I would have been concerned about Russian aggression but otherwise probably not blinked at the news if I hadn't read this book. But, space debris is a significant danger both to the International Space Station and future hopes for space travel. Terry Virts goes into some detail about how different countries have handled such tests, the preferred method being to only do them at such a height that the resulting debris will reenter the atmosphere and burn up harmlessly. Otherwise, it remains in orbit around the Earth perpetually and because of that, the ISS has to make maneuvers several times a year to avoid debris, which could not only damage the space station but kill everyone in it. 

I also neglected to mention how Virts goes into the realities of long-term space travel (radiation danger, in particular) and why travel to Mars is plausible but what would be involved in such a mission, including the supplies necessary, the need to find a way to protect astronauts from space radiation, how such a ship would need to be assembled, and the best way to fuel a long journey. On that same note, he goes into what it would take to do space travel along the lines of what we've seen in science fiction TV and movies and why it's unlikely we'll ever encounter other living beings outside of Earth — because of the sheer length of time it would take to get to the closest potentially habitable planet. Fascinating stuff. 

And, one last thing . . . Space Force. I was dubious about the concept of the Space Force, thinking it some weird thing that the last president came up with to look cool, until someone I know explained to me that the job of the Space Force is protecting our satellites and was formerly the mission of the US Air Force but merely separated into its own unit to focus on that particular mission. Yesterday's anti-satellite missile test shows why it's necessary. Having said that, I still think it is badly named and has been poorly described to the public and that's probably the main reason so many people have scrunched their faces up and wondered aloud at why it even exists. There was not yet a Space Force, at least in the early part of How to Astronaut, but the author hinted at the fact that it might be coming. I can't say whether or not the references to a potential space force have been updated because I don't have a final copy of How to Astronaut but I did find it of interest that he knew it might be coming. 

Highly recommended - Especially recommended for fans of all things outer space/NASA and nonfiction lovers. My husband has recently met a former astronaut so I had a lot of fun telling him what I'd learned about the process of becoming and being an astronaut and he's planning to read the book soon. My only problem with the book was that occasionally I got lost in the science and felt like I was drowning in acronyms. There are far too many acronyms!!! But, that just goes with the territory if you're an astronaut, apparently. 

The most interesting anecdote, in my opinion, was one about learning to deal with zero gravity. Back in his early training days, there was still a plane that went up and arced down in a parabola to cause a few minutes of weightlessness. You may have seen Howard Wolowitz, the astronaut character from The Big Bang Theory inside the padded plane when he was doing his training. That's exactly what Virts describes; however, this type of training is no longer done in the US and the reason why is what's most interesting to me. Virts says the US had been doing this for decades and it was affordable. But, then someone decided to privatize the zero gravity training and it became, in the process, dramatically more expensive. Instead of bringing back the old program, now canned, they eliminated it completely. So, if you want to get zero gravity training in the old plane-dropping-precipitously way, you have to go to another country. 

Having said that's my favorite anecdote (it's partly because I'm of the opinion that privatizing government work is generally, although not always, a bad thing — and I have a business degree so that's the kind of thing that really piques my interest), there are a lot of entertaining and fascinating stories in How to Astronaut and I'm glad I read this book. Terry Virts keeps it light-hearted and has a great sense of humor. 

I received an ARC from Workman Publishing in 2020 and it kept moving from one TBR pile to another till I finally decided its time had come. My thanks to Workman for the ARC! How to Astronaut was published in September of 2020, so it's readily available for purchase. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Quackery by Lydia Kang, MD and Nate Pedersen

I have a fascination for medical history and Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen, is a wacky look at the way medical practitioners -- going back thousands of years -- have attempted to treat illness, often poisoning, harming, or even killing patients in the process.

The first chapter, about such wondrous techniques as "purging" (from both ends) by way of various poisonings, is by far the most stomach turning. I'm glad to say that most of the remaining chapters (opiods, water treatment, mesmerism, bleeding, etc.) are an improvement, horrifying as they may be. Except maybe the one in which people were burned in one spot to stop pain in another. Ouch.

The authors insert a bit of the gallows humor medical practitioners are known for, throughout the book. If you've got medical professionals in your family or circle of friends, you know that's pretty common. I found the use of dark humor a tiny bit annoying, at first, even though I literally laughed out loud at least once. But, I became accustomed to the writing style and eventually it didn't faze me at all.

I found a few little tidbits particularly interesting, such as the information on leeches (still used in medicine, though more sparingly - eww) and the actual story of the first "snake oil" salesman from which we get the term that describes quack cures. But, I was particularly fascinated with the general impression I got about today's quackery. Yes, we still have quack cures popping up in our modern world. But, it's interesting to note that even some of today's fast fixes and medical advice have roots in fad "cures" of another century and that while most of what's mentioned in the book failed miserably, some real, functioning cures were merely poisonous at the wrong dosages and are effective, today.

The only problem I had with this book is that all of the image captions but one (not sure why there was one exception) were written in Latin. Update: At the time I wrote this, I had no way of finding out whether or not the captions in the final print copy were English or they'd left them those annoying Latin captions in place. Fortunately, a friend is reading Quackery and she said the final print version does have English captions beneath the photos and illustrations. Whew! Thanks, Michelle!

Highly recommended for history lovers with strong stomachs - You can't be faint of heart to read Quackery (well . . . maybe you can, but you'll need to take breaks), but it's very entertaining and definitely a book I'd recommend to those who like quirky history in general, medical history in particular, and gorgeous enough to make a great gift idea. I received an ARC from Workman Publishing and the ARC is entirely printed in black and white, but the final print version is, according to the publicity info, full color. Even in black and white the illustrations are stunning so I'm planning to seek out the full color version, if only to peek inside and see what it looks like.


©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Everything I didn't review in 2016, Part 2

This will be the last post covering the books I neglected to write about in 2016. Fortunately, I kept up pretty well, in general.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote is a book that I had on my shelf for a while but had not gotten around to reading. It was my F2F book group's September selection and that gave me the nudge I needed. Since it's a classic, it was also my classic read for the month. I've attempted to watch the movie and found it bizarre and hard to follow, but I'm sure I would enjoy it, now. Holly Golightly is an interesting character, a woman who escaped her past and remade herself as a woman living off rich male companions. Her story is told from the viewpoint of a neighbor and friend. Now that I understand the character and her motivations, I think I would get the movie just fine. But, I haven't watched it, yet.

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders is a book that I happened across when I decided I wanted to own a copy of Tenth of December, a book I read and loved, also by Saunders. Honestly, it's probably the cover that convinced me to buy it. I love that cover. And, the content is every bit as fun and wacky. The inhabitants of a place called Inner Horner come into dispute with their neighbors in Outer Horner when their home suddenly shrinks and they no longer fit on the tiny bit of land alloted to them. A tiny, hilarious book that I presume is an allegory (but, honestly, I just don't know), The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil is bizarre, thought-provoking, strangely insightful, and also one of my favorite reads of the year. I'm glad I bought it; I plan to reread this one regularly.

Leveling the Playing Field: The Democratization of Technology by Rod Scher was not meant to end up in the end-of-year batch, review-wise. I think I must have not realized I hadn't reviewed it at the blog because I put up a review at Amazon when I was asked to do so. Mea culpa. By "the democratization of technology", the author means that most inventions go from being hard to acquire and expensive to cheap and widely available. He starts out with the invention of fire and then progresses to such things as books (how they became more widely available with the advent of the printing press), computers, 3D printers, The Internet of Things, and the GPS. I had particular favorites amongst the chapters; I can't say why, but the book is fascinating and very readable. A side benefit to this book is that the author described a few websites, one of which I zipped off to check out. I ended up finding a perfect Christmas gift at that website, so thank you, dear author, for that.

The View from Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior is an e-book that I purchased after reading a ton of Kendzior's tweets. There's a bit of repetition within the essays but that was not a bad thing for me because it helped clarify some of what she had to say about things like the difficulties faced by a younger generation in which the norm is quickly becoming a requirement to work an unpaid internship in order to qualify for a job and why internships and other poorly paid introductory jobs mean some fields are dominated by people who are already economically advantaged. Although I can't recall the other topics, a good portion of the essays dealt with racial and economic inequality. A very good read and it's notable that she has a doctorate in authoritarian regimes, so her tweets about the incoming Presidential administration are terrifying but informative.

Think Happy Be Happy has no credited author but is a collection of inspirational quotes, sayings, and some miscellaneous fun things like playlists. I've got a flag marking one of those, the "Fearless Playlist" with songs like "Just Say Yes" by Snow Patrol. On the opposite page it says, "'I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.' -- Louisa May Alcott " So, it's basically a little book of, as it says, "Art, inspiration, joy," very upbeat and beautifully illustrated. One of my favorite pages says, "Hell yes!" with a little devil in a burning background. It was part of the reason I chose "Yes" for my word of the year. I haven't torn that page out, yet, although I'd like to. I'm not so hot at damaging books.

I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano is just as silly as you'd expect but it has photos of cats and it made me laugh so I'm glad I finally managed to acquire a copy. I think I may have mentioned this, already, but I stood in Target and read bits and pieces of I Could Pee on This when it was a fairly new release, maybe a year old. It made me smile, so I put it on my wish list and I just finally found it at a price I found tolerable when we were visiting Kiddo, a couple weeks ago. While the guys went into an office supply store to find something to organize papers, I sat in the car reading and laughing. I'll reread this one many times. It's worth owning a few small things that are guaranteed to make you smile.

That's it! I will post my end-of-month for December (it will be brief), publish the full list of books read, and then I'm done with 2016!!

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

BOLD: A Cookbook of Big Flavors by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise

BOLD: A Cookbook of Big Flavors by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise is not a book I've sat down to read from cover to cover, although it has some very interesting historical articles interspersed (I've read "Maple Syrup: America's Own Sugar"and "Cuban Americans: Hail to the Cubans", among others ) as well as a paragraph of introductory material at the top of each recipe. However, my husband has been reading the book at night and is enjoying it immensely, I've read bits and we have taken turns flipping through to find recipes.  Since he's the cook and I'm an OCD freak, preparing meals from BOLD has become our couple time.  I sit at the bar and read the recipes to my husband while he prepares (primarily to keep him from drowning yet another cookbook or getting it filthy).  We've tried 5 recipes, so far, and all were fabulous:

Salmon with Watercress Cream, Smoked Salmon and Almonds (pp. 220-21) - We were unable to locate watercress so the cook substituted dill (he's an experienced cook and knew it would work). We'll use watercress when it becomes available. We're watching for it.

Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Tangerine (p. 274) - We used clementines rather than tangerines because we already had a bowl full of them.  We ate the salmon above with the brussels sprouts.  I honestly thought it was one of the best meals I've ever eaten and the leftovers were just as terrific, even cold.  Since then, we've had both those recipes a second time.  Sorry, husband just flung them on the plate and I made the mistake of tasting the fish so this was shot in a hurry.  I was hungry.

Wine-braised Pork Tenderloin in Any-jam-you-can-grab Sauce (p. 130): We used raspberry jam and didn't have any white wine so cider served as the substitute.  I don't love pork so I had to eat my words after I scowled and said, "Ugh, that sounds awful." Again, tremendous flavor. This is a pretty complex, lengthy recipe so I would recommend saving it for the weekend.  The pork is at upper left, below.  It doesn't look like much but, oh baby . . . the taste.

Duck Legs Braised with Red Wine and Belgian Endives (p. 203): Another fairly time-consuming recipe. No substitutions were necessary. Duck is another meat that I'm not fond of; it's kind of greasy and gross, if you ask me.  You would not have known it.  I stripped that sucker to the bone.

Cuban Whitefish Chowder with Black Beans and Sweet Potato (p. 67): Chunky, gorgeous, wonderful soup.  It looks less like a chowder (which I think of as milk-based) than a soup (broth-based) but who cares.  It's delicious and gorgeous, definitely a soup worth serving at a dinner party. The one thing we thought this soup needed was more black beans, which are easy enough to add.  Husband soaked dry beans and cooked them rather than warming up canned.

We're going to keep on trying new recipes from BOLD.  While I think the recipes tend to require a medium amount of experience (judging from observation - after discussion, husband agreed it's not a book for beginners) and some are quite time-consuming, they're not lying when they use the words "big flavors". We have been extremely impressed with the results -- 5 recipes, so far, and we loved every single one.  How often does that happen?  And they tend to be really healthy recipes made from fresh ingredients, another plus.

The biggest section appears to be the meat section and the only vegetable recipe we've tried so far was the brussels sprouts recipe, which contains an Italian meat.  If you're a vegetarian/vegan, this might not be the book for you. But, I'm a veggie lover so we'll be trying a lot of the vegetable recipes and if anyone wants me to report back later, just let me know.  I'll be glad to write more, further down the line.

Highly Recommended - A rare cookbook in which every single recipe we've tried has been not just good but fabulous,  BOLD is definitely a new favorite in our house.  The only downfall -- BOLD is a paperback book with no photographs.  If we were flipping through BOLD at a store, the lack of photos might have actually stopped us from buying (my copy came from Workman via Shelf Awareness) but don't let the lack of photos stop you!  Just don't!  I cannot rave about this cookbook enough.  It's fun to read, the recipes are amazingly flavorful and they don't tend to contain long lists of difficult-to-acquire ingredients.

Judging from the piece of paper the cook has tucked between pages 224-25, it looks like we'll be trying Grilled Salmon with Spinach, Pan Broth and Crisp Ginger Topping, next.  I drool upon my keyboard at the thought.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.