Space has fascinated authors, scientists, storytellers, and children alike. From a brief history of the moon to a collection of diverse stories connected to the stars, our Space Day reading list will deepen your love and appreciation of the cosmos.
Reaching for the Moon
A Short History of the Space Race
Roger D Launius
A history of the space race explores the lives of both Soviet and American engineers
Moon
A Brief History
Bernd Brunner
An entertaining, often surprising cultural examination of Earth’s moon, through history, science, and literature, from ancient times to the present
Mapping the Heavens
The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos
Priyamvada Natarajan
A noted astrophysicist presents a lively and accessible introduction to radical ideas and discoveries that are transforming our knowledge of the universe
Dante and the Early Astronomer
Science, Adventure, and a Victorian Woman Who Opened the Heavens
Tracy Daugherty
Explore the evolution of astronomy from Dante to Einstein, as seen through the eyes of trailblazing Victorian astronomer Mary Acworth Evershed
Dispatches from Planet 3
Thirty-Two (Brief) Tales on the Solar System, the Milky Way, and Beyond
Marcia Bartusiak
An award-winning science writer presents a captivating collection of cosmological essays for the armchair astronomer
The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill
Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America
Matthew Bowman
A gripping account of an alien abduction and its connections to the breakdown of American society in the 1960s
The Long Space Age
The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War
Alexander MacDonald
An economic historian argues that privately funded space exploration is not a new development, but a trend beginning with the astronomical observatories of the nineteenth century
Black Hole
How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled On by Hawking Became Loved
Marcia Bartusiak
The contentious history of the idea of the black hole—the most fascinating and bizarre celestial object in the heavens
We All Lose When We Fail Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors