Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

With continuing budget cuts and the mothballing of the space shuttle program, the final frontier feels farther away than ever before. But if, like me, you’re someone whose sense of wonder and love for all things space has been tempered by disappointment and the meddling of mediocre government minds, do not despair.

Endurance will restore some of that wonder to you, even as it explores the current state of the US space program. Because Scott Kelly, a man who spent a full year aboard the International Space Station, will serve as your ambassador, reintroducing you to the wonders, travails, triumphs, and possibilities beyond Earth.

This book covers the last decade or so of NASA affairs and developments in space in incredible detail: Russian Soyuz vehicles serving as transport to the ISS, the introduction of Space X supply runs (and the hardships when those rockets blew up), and the twin study done with he and his brother (whose results were only recently announced).

Factor in brutally honest personal insights — including hearing about his sister-in-law, Gabrielle Giffords, being shot — along with beautiful photography and in-depth exploration of the day-to-day nuts and bolts of living in space, and this is a one-stop-shop to rekindle hope of what could be.