TITLE: How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming
AUTHOR: Mike Brown
STARTED: January 7, 2010
FINISHED: January 13, 2010
PAGES: 267
GENRE: Non-Fiction / Memoir
FIRST SENTENCE: As an astronomer, I have long had a professional aversion to waking up before dawn, preferring instead to see sunrise not as an early-morning treat, but as the signal that the end of a long night of work has come and it is finally time for overdue sleep.
SUMMARY: [From Amazon.com
] The solar system most of us grew up with included nine planets, with Mercury closest to the sun and Pluto at the outer edge. Then, in 2005, astronomer Mike Brown made the discovery of a lifetime: a tenth planet, Eris, slightly bigger than Pluto. But instead of its resulting in one more planet being added to our solar system, Brown’s find ignited a firestorm of controversy that riled the usually sedate world of astronomy and launched him into the public eye. The debate culminated in the demotion of Pluto from real planet to the newly coined category of “dwarf” planet. Suddenly Brown was receiving hate mail from schoolchildren and being bombarded by TV reporters—all because of the discovery he had spent years searching for and a lifetime dreaming about.Filled with both humor and drama, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is Mike Brown’s engaging first-person account of the most tumultuous year in modern astronomy—which he inadvertently caused. As it guides readers through important scientific concepts and inspires us to think more deeply about our place in the cosmos, it is also an entertaining and enlightening personal story: While Brown sought to expand our understanding of the vast nature of space, his own life was changed in the most immediate, human ways by love, birth, and death. A heartfelt and personal perspective on the demotion of everyone’s favorite farflung planet, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is the book for anyone, young or old, who has ever dreamed of exploring the universe—and who among us hasn’t?
THOUGHTS: The Boyfriend tossed me this book after he was doing saying, "Read it. You'll like it." He was right. How I Killed Pluto is a fantastic book, and I adored every page. This book is a gift to everyone who says they hate reading non-fiction. The text may be short, but it's full of fantastic scientific information wrapped in personal narrative with bow a big shiny bow of humor.
I am SO glad I got to read a great book early in my reading year. I love everything in between this book's covers - the writing, the author, and the story. All three parts were fantabulously awesome. I always thought that books heavy on science were destined to be dry and boring. Brown proved me wrong. He lays out the story of Pluto (and how he killed it) in a straightforward no-nonsense way. How I Killed Pluto is kind of like a crash course on all the astronomy you've forgotten since middle school. Brown writes about hard science in a way that is both enjoyable and understandable. I learned so much about the universe in this book that it has caused me to seek out other astronomy stories. (I may also want a telescope now.)
Brown is a phenomenal storyteller. Not only is his writing straightforward, it is hilarious. I cackled loudly during several passages. The chapter about his behavior in reaction to his daughter's birth is one of the most enjoyable and touching series of pages I have ever read. Time and again I cracked a smile and a giggle as I read Brown's account of his life. By the end of this book, Brown seemed like a personal friend rather than an anonymous authro. He. Is. Awesome.
I never though a story of death could be so darn funny. Pluto, I miss you as a planet, but Brown killed you, and he killed you good - with great writing and humor.
RATING: 9/10 [Excellent!]
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