An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything Paperback – April 14, 2015

In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, former CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield shares a variety of tales from his extensive career both on and off the planet, as well as the personal philosophy that helped him through it all.Hadfield is the kind of individual that you want as role model your children. His work ethic is exemplary, and he emphasizes the critical nature of ongoing personal education and development as key to his success. Don't determine your self worth based on where you end up, he says, but on the effort you will put in to get there. If something is worth doing, it is worth committing to and doing well, regardless of the payoff. Perhaps not revolutionary ideas in and of themselves, but backed by the life story of someone who has embraced these principles and embodied them. Hadfield's career is a feel good story for anyone who believes in the power of hard work and education.While An Astronaut's Guide spends a lot of time on the author's attitudes and ethics, it's by no means a self help book. The text is also a candid biography, giving great insight into the years of development that went into building the career of a star (no pun intended) astronaut. Hadfield reminisces on his youth, his time as a military test pilot, and his many additional years training at NASA before ever reaching space. We learn how the intense commitment involved can affect personal relationships and family dynamics. It becomes clear that today's select few astronauts represent, in many ways, the pinnacle of humanity: it's a lifestyle that demands levels of intelligence, dedication, and both physical and mental training that very few of us could hope to successfully achieve.Chris Hadfield first reached fame several years ago through a series of educational and entertaining social media postings made from the ISS. We learn that these were motivated by his love of the space program, and, with the help of his son back on Earth, he wanted to do his part to boost public awareness and interest. The videos became a hit and internet stardom followed. I'm the kind of person who finds any story about life beyond Earth hard to pass up, simply for the curiosity and wonder they evoke. From the vastness of the cosmos to the minutia of how to brush your teeth successfully in zero gravity, it's all fascinating stuff, and Hadfield, who flew on three separate occasions, brings these anecdotes in spades. The same attitude that lead him to educational social media carries through in his writing, and we're gifted with numerous stories that run the gamut from the profound and enlightening to the humorous. The author is consistently candid about the astronaut experience, and these sections proved particularly hard to put down.All in all, it's difficult not to recommend this book. If you're already a fan of space travel, or the space program, you will receive a bevy of stories and insights from a man who spent decades at NASA and commanded the ISS. And if you aren't a space enthusiast yet, you might just be one by the end. But even without all of the fantastic anecdotes, Chris Hadfield is still an eminently likable and admirable personality with a lot of unique life experience to share. Worth reading whether you're an aspiring astronaut, or just aspiring to become a more enlightened human being.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is a solid memoir on Hadfield's ascent as an astronaut. Space travel and aviation is about managing risks.Yet as an advice book, the takeaways are simplistic at best. Work hard. Stay focused. Be patient.Hadfield should be grateful that his wife didn't pack up and leave with the kids after one too many training missions away from home. He concedes that he's benefited from millions of dollars of government training and a supporting cast of thousands. This contrasts with modern private sector employers who invest the bare minimum in their "human resources".

OK, I admit it - I'm something of a space junkie. As an engineer, I have been fascinated by accounts of the US space program during the 60s and the extremely fast pace of space technology development. On a more personal level I was less than two months old when STS-1 inaugurated the Shuttle era, and as a kindergartener I witnessed the Challenger disaster in my school classroom. I begged my parents to send me to Space Camp. As a child I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going into space, but as I got older I realized that was unlikely to ever happen - that hasn't stopped me from having an interest in both manned and unmanned space exploration. I have my own DVD copies of From the Earth to the Moon, When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions and In the Shadow of the Moon, and have read several astronauts' memoirs including Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space by John Young, The Last Man on the Moon by Gene Cernan, and Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeremy Kluger. What is lacking thus far in the astronaut memoir genre is much in the way of writing from Shuttle-era astronauts.Enter Chris Hadfield. He is everything you'd expect of a Canadian astronaut; a quietly competent team player and family man who wanted to become an astronaut from the age of 9 when he watched the first moon landing. In 21 years with the CSA/NASA, Hadfield was a mission specialist on two Shuttle flights and commanded the ISS before his retirement, and held a variety of positions within the astronaut office when not training for a mission. Commander Hadfield became perhaps the most social media-savvy astronaut ever, with a huge following on Twitter and Youtube. Our 3 year old still asks to look at Commander Hadfield's videos taken on the ISS, and loves what she calls "the space song" - Is Somebody Singing, the collaboration between Hadfield and the Barenaked Ladies, which was billed as the first song debuted from space.An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is an enjoyable read about Hadfield's early life, his years as a fighter pilot and test pilot, his selection in the Canadian Space Agency's second group of astronauts, and his training for three missions in space. The book is written in a conversational tone and does not shy away from the risks and rewards involved in being an astronaut and the stresses it sometimes placed on family life. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about life as an astronaut during the Shuttle/ISS era.