Lives of the Planets

A perfect gift for yourself or your older family member! I am seriously reccomending this book for your mom or dad because I know I really needed this update on our neighbors in the solar system. Throw out what I learned in high school and college!

Taking each planet in turn, Corfield gives us the latest update on our neighbors!

He doesn't "dumb down" the information, but he makes is accessable and interesting. Not only do you get what we know NOW, but also how we know it. Interesting space "gossip", such as the Russians saw Venus as "their" planet and we saw Mars as "ours", and a good blasting to the moonhoaxers on page 99, keeps you turning the pages long after your bedtime (I stayed up late to finish it, I really enjoyed every page).

There are great photographs included, and a good history of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft programs. Including the behind the scenes stuff. I'm buying this for my mom, because she recently asked me "but why isn't Pluto a planet anymore?" Corfield answers the question with a thoughtful detailed answer that finally cleared it up for me.

I could go on and on. But for someone that needed the updated material (we've learned so much in such a sort amount of time) this book was wonderful. Over and over I kept thinking "wait, this isn't what I learned in school!" Very enjoyable.