Entertaining and important … Elegantly written and full of surprises

Clever and entertaining … when it comes to describing a complex idea clearly, Poole is one of the best writers around.

Always entertaining and often eye-opening

Fascinating … Poole confirms his standing as one of our liveliest and most thought-provoking writers on science and technology.

Steven Poole’s book is full of fascinating stories … It’s a treasure trove for people who like to begin stories with “Did you know that…?”

It is testament to the author’s narrative skill that this whirlwind of discovery doesn’t end up in a pile of papers scattered across the floor … Among the greatest compliments you can give a book is that it helps you to see things differently.

For those interested in influencing change, whether in business, science or culture, Poole’s perspective is an invitation to reexamine the discarded or discredited as part of today’s – and tomorrow’s – creative mix.

Rethink is a book that both informs and makes the reader think and rethink (and occasionally argue with the author). It’s even fun . . . I consider that a winning combination.

[A] fascinating compendium of new ideas that aren't new at all

Shows what we can learn by considering obsolete ideas from a new perspective

Poole has enlightening things to say

A longhaul airline pilot whose vision is unexpectedly poetic and romantic...what stood out for me was that sense of wonder up there...a rather lovely book

A poet of the skies to rival St Exupéry... an author of real distinction with a genuinely poetic sensibility as well as a memorable turn of phrase... a perfect voice for a glorious subject... This really is a very good book

...both a manual for infrequent flyers (wherein the physics and metaphysics of time and space are for once essayed in a perfectly straightforward manner) and a skilful meditation on the glories of traversing the earth at the helm of mankind's greatest technological achievement that - yes - flies from the page

Poets are pilots of a kind, teaching us to navigate the world anew; Mark Vanhoenacker is a pilot with the spirit, the wide-open eyes, the rare feel for beauty and discovery of an accomplished poet. Imagine Henry David Thoreau reflecting on the wonders of the lights of Oman as seen from the cockpit of a 747, and you begin to have something of the fresh magic of this exceptional debut. This is a work for anyone who longs to learn how to see again, and to live.

Part autobiography, part travelogue, part prose poem... a powerful antidote to the conventional belief that the romance of flight has been lost in the modern age of mass transit

A refreshingly meditative perspective on a life in the clouds

Packed with eloquent insight into a high-flying world

Read it, and you’ll find yourself requesting a window seat every time you fly

A joyful and inspiring book that will change the way you think about travel

This endlessly surprising, strikingly original book is a hymn to the wonders of [Vanhoenacker’s] working life

For nervous fliers – and those jaded by airport security and the other tiresome rituals of air travel – I recommend the book Skyfaring

The mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet

A wonderfully evocative and clear-eyed account of what it’s like to criss-cross the globe for a living

If you believe that airline flying has become a monotonous, humdrum experience…then reading this book will take you to a fresh and thoughtful appreciation of the magic and excitement of flight

A masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm

Vanhoenacker is a 747 pilot with a poetic streak. The book teaches you about the physics of flight, complete with tidbits like the fact that altitude is more concept than hard fact, but the writing makes flying feel as amazing at it really is: a journey around the world while flying over it.

A superb chronicle...Vanhoenacker makes jet travel seem uncanny and intriguing all over again…[he] writes in a richly ethereal style, with the confidence of a professional who knows his subject…an elegant, nonlinear reflection on how flying in a commercial airliner—even while painfully folded in a seat in coach—can lift the soul

an exceptionally lucid and philosophically minded writer. He has spent the past several years taking notes about his life in the air and meditating on both the ethereal beauties and contradictions of flight...He reminds me of a brainy college physics major who actually wants to be a poet

A pilot’s love affair with the sky, it’s a beautifully written account of one of mankind’s greatest achievements

A great read for absolutely everyone with an interest in flying

What a great idea this is...a masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm

A fascinating book that ought to put flight in a new light for many people

Masterly, beautifully written book

Alive with the joy of everything from takeoff…to the dream-like quality of flight itself

Marvelously literate… If [Vanhoenacker’s] book had been around in the mid-‘80s, I suspect I wouldn’t have been afraid to fly in the first place

In the pages of his book…you will find yourself agreeing that “The ordinary things we thought we knew…becomes more beautiful”

Commendably, the technical aspects are outlined in a straightforward, accessible manner, while overall the book demonstrates that aviation has lost none of its appeal

A lovely memoir

For anyone who wishes to get a pilot’s insight into what it’s really like to notch up thousands of miles and hours… – you won’t find a much more passionate account than this one

[Vanhoenacker] invites readers with him on to the flight deck, describing the minutiae of flight with a degree of detail that would be nerdy were it not for the poetry of his writing

As you battle with the cramped legroom in economy class, [Vanhoenacker’s] view of aviation may just transport you

[An] elegant meditation on being an airline pilot

[Vanhoenacker] wants us to fall in love with flying again

A highly readable account, as moving as it is unexpected, of what flying means, by an airline pilot with a gift for words. Antoine de Saint-Exupery lives again

[This] airborne odyssey of a book is enthralling, from the physics of lift and the vicissitudes of flight paths to the aura borealis and the pristine sunsets. Read it and you’ll request a window seat every time you fly

This mesmerising book will make you view the world differently

Few people have captured the fascination of flying as well as U.S. journalist and pilot Mark Vanhoenacker.

Delves deeply into the magic and beauty of flight. An elegant writer with a sharp eye and a literary mind, Vanhoenacker… Writes about flight on an emotional and spiritual level, how it makes him feel to soar above the Earth while watching the landscape pass below.

He spins a curious and articulate exploration of flying.

Vanhoenacker’s calm and scrupulously composed prose style is soothing… Vanhoenacker manages to make flying seem exciting again.

A beautiful, contemplative book… What Skyfaring gives is something we need: elevation; another perspective… Normally when I find a volume where prose style and subject matter fuse so pleasingly, I tear through it in a day. Here, I found myself pausing on almost every page, as I absorbed its detail or phrasing.

Here is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers all too easily take for granted.

A writer of exquisite prose, fascinated both by the technical and mystical aspects of flight... In every line of this lovely book, there is something beautiful and strange.

This is the best book I've ever read on the subject... It's one of the best travel books I've ever read... Superb.

An unexpectedly lyrical memoir on a fascinating subject… Skyfaring will give you a delightfully fresh perspective on the wonder that is air travel.

It’s calm, poetic and riveting… Fascinating.

He writes beautifully about the strange, alien world of high-altitude passenger flights… Vanhoenacker loves flying and communicates beautifully its marvels and mysteries.

I loved this fabulous insight into the secret world of the sky.

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene