Our Moon

How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are

De: Rebecca Boyle

Narrado por: Rebecca Lowman

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A riveting feat of science writing that recasts that most familiar of celestial objects into something eerily extraordinary, pivotal to our history, and awesome in the original sense of the word.”—Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World

WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • A NEW YORKER AND SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder? Or that it was essential to the development of science and religion? Acclaimed journalist Rebecca Boyle takes readers on a dazzling tour to reveal the intimate role that our 4.51-billion-year-old companion has played in our biological and cultural evolution.

Our Moon’s gravity stabilized Earth’s orbit—and its climate. It drew nutrients to the surface of the primordial ocean, where they fostered the evolution of complex life. The Moon continues to influence animal migration and reproduction, plants’ movements, and, possibly, the flow of the very blood in our veins.

While the Sun helped prehistoric hunters and gatherers mark daily time, early civilizations used the phases of the Moon to count months and years, allowing them to plan farther ahead. Mesopotamian priests recorded the Moon’s position in order to make predictions, and, in the process, created the earliest known empirical, scientific observations. In Our Moon, Boyle introduces us to ancient astronomers and major figures of the scientific revolution, including Johannes Kepler and his influential lunar science fiction.

Our relationship to the Moon changed when Apollo astronauts landed on it in 1969, and it’s about to change again. As governments and billionaires aim to turn a profit from its resources, Rebecca Boyle shows us that the Moon belongs to everybody, and nobody at all.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A compact, sparkling, fact-filled work of popular science.”—The New York Times Book Review

“I learned more about the Moon by reading this book than I have in a lifetime of study. Replete with fascinating insights into the Moon’s origins and history, but more than that, what it has meant to us, the people of Earth, Our Moon is a must-read for anyone who has looked up at the Moon in wonder.”—Chris Hadfield, astronaut, bestselling author of The Apollo Murders and The Defector

“An excellent exploration of how the moon has shaped life on Earth . . . [Rebecca] Boyle’s dexterous blend of science and cultural history is elevated by her spry prose. This illuminates.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Epic in scope—and almost poetic in its narrative beauty—Our Moon will change how you think about our planet, the Moon, and ourselves.”—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish

“Glinting with intriguing facts and fascinating connections, Our Moon reveals the astoundingly intimate relations between the closest heavenly body, the Earth, and all life as we know it. Boyle’s writing shines, shifting through time and space, science and sentiment—a luminous read.”—Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred

“In telling the tale of Earth’s oldest companion, Boyle offers an absorbing account of the human experience. Deftly written with a poet’s precision and scientific sensibility, Our Moon establishes Boyle as one of the preeminent nature writers of our time.”—David W. Brown, author of The Mission

“With a remarkable command of planetary science and human history, Boyle provides a sweeping, lyrical account of our cosmic neighbor.”—Peter Brannen, author of The Ends of the World

“This vivid and moving exploration of the Moon’s impact shows how influential the pockmarked orb has always been. Past and present collide, and science and storytelling become one, as Boyle draws Earth’s nearest neighbor closer to its inhabitants.”—Sarah Scoles, author of Making Contact

My first love was the Moon

My earliest memory is riding in the back of the car in the evening and looking at the moon following our travels. In my 10th year, men walked on the surface of the moon for the first time. The moon has inspired my thoughts and fueled my interests for a lifetime. This wonderful book chronicles a history of our nearest celestial companion and explains that my first love had effects on everything our planet is.

Beautiful historical account of mankind and the moon

I am not normally a non-fiction reader but Rebecca Boyle made this book so easy to read with her stories of humankind, sprinkles of humor, and relatability. A HUGE amount of historical research went into this beautiful account of earth’s companion. A great read.

Interesting Reflections

I value the stepwise presentation of the history of humanity’s awareness and appreciation of the moon over millennia, and the author’s deep research to uncover and assemble the facts.

Made me really enthusiastic about the moon

Made me really enthusiastic about the moon. A creative way to provide a perspective on the moon. Now I have a little better understanding of why suddenly rockets are being sent to South Pole of moon. On one level it is exciting to think people will probably be back in less than two years. I still remember the first landing and almost being bored by the last landings. I remember the Apollo fire. The moon is still worthy of study.

Praise our earthy companion!

This had all I like about science writing and culturally sensitive history all rolled up into an articulately ripping yarn about our moon through time. Hard to say what parts I liked best, but the story of Theia and the phenomenon of synestia, descriptions of what the moon smells like, the amazing features found at Warren Field, the golden moon cone hat, Crassus dying in Carrhae, Kepler’s sci-fi story, the astronauts struggling to express what they saw and felt, and the beautiful descriptions of chronobiology and geologic underpinnings of understanding float up in my memory as I write this. Thanks for the journey!

Worth a listen

The author walks readers through the human history of the moon. She shares plenty of interesting ancient mythology and stories as well as more modern human history. It gave some mention to biological and evolutionary influences of the moon, though I wished these had been a bigger focus of the narrative. Overall worth a listen.

Interesting overview of the moon

Good performance. The content was a good overview, leading you to dig deeper into topics you find interesting. I never felt that we were straying too far off theme.

History, science, philosophy and poetry

What a wonderful book. The relationship of humanity with the moon is as old as our species and very complex. I had only the most general idea about knowledge of the origin of the moon, and very little about its cultural, religious and proto-scientific history. I enjoyed the review of thought about the moon from the Middle Ages, through Copernicus, Keppler and Galileo and into the evidence-based studies of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Boyle writes a clear-eyed narrative of lunar exploration from the Apollo missions of the 60s and 70s into the dicey prospects for exploration, exploitation and international competition in the future. All of this is written with great literary style and a poetic view of where we came from long ago and may be heading.

My only reservation is about the narrator. She has excellent diction but also a regular rising-falling-rising-falling tone that - what's the right word? - lacked emotion or grip. I mostly listen to audiobooks while driving and at the gym, so I prefer narrators whose style holds my attention. This one often did not.

Still, well recommended.

Struggling to Understand What This Book Is

This book is an interesting survey of things relating to the moon, but it lacks something I can't really put my finger on. It reads more like a really long magazine article than a book. It also has a few moments where I really questioned the editorial choices. For example, near the end of the chapter on Apollo, the author just name drops Katherine Johnson. Obviously an important story, but it was so completely out of context that it felt like a random add-in.

Another thing she did was refer in passing to a "Earth rise" on the moon a few times. This doesn't happen because from any point on the Moon's surface, Earth's position relative to the horizon is more or less fixed. Getting this wrong made me question how right she got a lot of other stuff.

That said, there is a lot of interesting stuff in this book. It just takes patience to get it.

interesting and informative

performance was eccellent. book itself a little too politically correct but the authir does bring to life whst coukd jave neen a dull subject mattter.