Photo: Piccadilly Circus London, UK Sunday 5 June 2022 Credit: The Author

1. Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey Into Space by Stephen Walker 
   
   This was an enormously interesting book as it covers the space race from the Soviet perspective from the early days of the cosmonaut program to an incredibly detailed account of Yuri Gagarin's historic first voyage into space. This is a must-read for any space buff. (✶✶✶✶✶)
   
   
2. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe 
3. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Monroe
   
   Another couple of books to add to the "Why did I not read these sooner?!?" shelf. Randall Monroe of XKCD fame brings his brand of science nerd humour to answering wild hypothetical questions in What If? for example: 
   
   If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color?
   
   —PETER LIPOWICZ
   
   And giving hilarious advice in How To. Both are wonderful reads and in print are full of Monroe's trademark black and white illustrations (✶✶✶✶✶)(✶✶✶✶)
   
   
4. The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke
   
   I'm interested in alternative energy and energy conservation, while Bakke's book gives some nice overviews and insight into the current state of affairs and our energy future this book sadly feels like a "magazine article's worth of material stretched into a book" to paraphrase a Good Reads reviewer. I'd like to find another book on this topic that's a bit more well researched and less stretched for time. This book regains some points for being from 2016 (aeons ago!) and calling to light issues that we are just in the last few years beginning to see the biggest impacts of. (✶✶✶)