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The Sky at Night
The Sky at Night
Oct 6, 2024 2:38 AM

Author:Sir Patrick Moore,Chris North

The Sky at Night

Celebrating the 55th anniversary of The Sky at Night, this book collects and answers questions sent in by viewers. With sections on the solar system, the bizarre and unexplained, space missions, and more, this is an exciting journey into space for the novice astronomer and the lifelong stargazer alike. Discover how scientists work out the gravity of planets, what the 'Great Attractor' is and the basic principles of space navigation. Learn how to start observing the sky, what event inspired Patrick Moore to take up astronomy, and just how many of his cats are named after celestial bodies.

From comets to black holes and Orion to eclipses, The Sky at Night is the ultimate introduction to the wonders and mysteries of the universe.

Reviews

Outstanding... What marks it out is not the scale or urgency of the trauma, although I read the first chapters at such a pace that I almost had to remind myself to breathe. It is the writing. It sparks and crackles with a dark energy... The writing is not just intense, but intelligent... In Shock stands above other patient memoirs.

—— James McConnachie , The Sunday Times

Tense, powerful and gripping... her writing style is often nothing short of beautiful - evocative and emotional.

—— Adam Kay , The Observer

In Shock is both an enthralling page-turner and a haunting call to arms for the medical profession to practice with greater kindness, compassion and humility. Awdish captures beautifully how and why doctors, against our best selves, can lose sight of our patients in furious pursuit of the diagnosis, the save, the cure. Anyone – doctor or otherwise – whose life has been touched by illness will be transfixed by this deeply moving tale of catastrophic illness and everything it teaches us.

—— Rachel Clarke, author of Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story

Awdish looks at the way we practice medicine with a combination of love and outrage. She writes beautifully about the secret, shameful feelings many doctors feel they have to hide and she shows us how we might do better. After reading this book, I feel like a different doctor.

—— Gabriel Weston, author of Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story

A brave, powerful memoir about what it is like to be both a doctor and a patient... There is a widsom that literally comes from suffering.

—— The Times

There are few recent books to compare it to. Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, another physician’s account of illness, ended with his death. Awdish lives to tell the tale, but her cascade of medical problems is appallingly severe. Like [Adam] Kay’s, her writing is motivated by trauma, both her own and that of her medical colleagues…The dramatic story of her illness and recovery alone would make the book compelling, but in the growing genre of medical non-fiction, it is her reflections on medical practice that really stand out.

—— Dr Alexander Van Tulleken , TLS

Compelling and insightful, this story of what a doctor learns through coming close to death is packed with both action and reflection.

——
Cathy Rentzenbrink, bestselling author of The Last Act of Love

Urgent and supremely eloquent... In Shock is a book to set alongside the likes of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Direct Red by Gabriel Weston and, of course, Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air.

—— Caroline Sanderson , The Bookseller

An extraordinary memoir.

—— Daily Mail

Awdish describes her experiences powerfully... In Shock is a reminder that the sick are not subhuman, doctors are not superhuman, and that medicine needs to be human in order to truly heal.

—— Sarah Ditum , Mail on Sunday

In Shock is a notable, ambitious and welcome contribution to an emerging dialogue concerning the quality and orientation of acute hospital care.

—— Paul D'Alton , Irish Times

Awdish's book is the one I wished we were given as assigned reading our first year of medical school, alongside our white coats and stethoscopes ... dramatic, engaging and instructive.

—— New York Times

Harrowing and enlightening... This is a story of darkness and light, horror and hope. It's not an easy read, but it is a fascinating one, and highly recommended.

—— The Sunday Business Post

Had me hooked right from the start. Incredible story, and even more incredible story-telling... has had an unexpected impact on me and will change the way I practice medicine from here on.

——
Dr Ranj Singh

A compassionate and critical look at medicine and illness from both a doctor’s and a patient’s perspective... Awdish has written a unique and insightful memoir.

—— Publishers Weekly

Devastatingly perceptive.

—— Herald Scotland

This book contains some exquisite writing about nature, but it is always powerfully and insistently ground in “its cause” … A radical polemic in the tradition of Hazlitt and Cobbett

—— The Week

This is a clarion call to the country’

—— i

A new book by Mark Cocker is a major event and his latest is a work of sweeping ambition

—— UK Press Syndication

Important… ambitious… [Cocker] is a superb writer

—— Michael McCarthy , Resurgence & Ecologist

A compelling history of nature conservation and why it matters, it is worth your time

—— Land & Business

Our Place… is a work of serious and sustained advocacy – passionate and committed… elements are fused in the writing, along with many apparent digressions and asides, in a way that gives the book a richly textured feel… the argument advances on several fronts simultaneously and in more than one dimension, in a complex literary ecology matching his subject.

—— Jeremy Mynott , Times Literary Supplement

Mark Cocker… writes with superb understanding

—— Patrick Barkham , Guardian, **Books of the Year**

A lyrical and intensely personal account… an excellent and important book… a wake-up call to us all.

—— Rebecca Armstrong , Birdwatch, **Birders' Choice Awards 2018, Book of the Year**

Its breadth is startling... It changes the way you look at the world and few books tick that box.

—— Simon Mayo , Daily Express

Probably the most ambitious history book of the year. Certainly the most thought-provoking

—— Dan Jones , Evening Standard - Books of the Year

As a writer, Harari is superbly clear. He’s also a formidable polymath and a wonderfully elegant thinker... He is a brilliant analyst with a storyteller’s gift

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

I have just read Yuval Noah Harari's book Sapiens. It is brilliant. Most likely the best - and I have read very many - on the history of humankind. I have never read anything better

—— Henning Mankell

We usually think that we are an outcome of our personal history, where we grew up, the way our parents educated us, etc. In Sapiens, Harari delves deep into our history as a species to help us understand who we are and what made us this way. An engrossing read.

—— Dan Ariely, New York Times Bestselling author of Predictably Irrational

Eloquent and wonderfully funny

—— i

This is mega-history of the best sort: sweeping but not simplistic, contemporary but not gimmicky, provocative but not contrarian. Almost everyone will want to argue with one part of this book or another, but working out which part and why will do us all good.

—— Dr Steven Gunn

For its sheer originality and intellectual stimulation, I was captivated by Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens

—— Matthew d’Ancona , Evening Standard - Books of the Year

That fellow connected an awful lot of dots in that work. I thought the book would be a dense read, a slog, with a struggle for my brain on every page. I had a highlighter ready to mark the more pavement-thick paragraphs I’d have to go back and re-ponder. Instead, I flew through it like it was a nonfiction The Thorn Birds. Does that mean I’m getting smarter?

—— Tom Hanks , New York Times

Ambitious and invigorating

—— Charlotte Heathcote , Sunday Express

Harari’s book is important reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens

—— Avi Tuschman , Washington Post Sunday

Brilliantly done and endlessly fascinating

—— Reader’s Digest

Vast and intricate... Engaging and informative

—— Guardian

A thrilling account of humankind’s extraordinary history

—— Jersey Evening Post

The book is maddeningly opinionated and insanely ambitious. It is also compulsively readable and impossibly learned. It is one of the best accounts by a Homo sapiens of the unlikely story of our violent, accomplished species

—— Michael Gerson , Washington Post

An enthusiastic and confident narrative that is relentlessly interesting from the first word to the last

—— UK Press Syndication

The most exciting book I’ve read this year

—— Rory MacLean , Geographical

One of the most talked about non-fiction bestsellers of the year... Harari is one of the very few thinkers around who’s really looking at what’s happening now. Sapiens is his attempt to tell the story of the past to understand the present: the great technological advances that we are all living through now

—— Observer

Eloquent and provocative

—— Mail on Sunday

A headclutchingly provocative account of our species from the Stone Age to the present... Stunningly ambitious and compellingly written. They call it macro-history. They’re right.

—— David Sexton , Evening Standard

Fascinating

—— Chris Skinner , Financial Services Club Blog

Unforgettably vivid language. I urge everyone to read it

—— Matthew Smith , H Edition

Contains a remarkable piece of information on almost every page and reminds us that we should be grateful to be human.

—— Matt Haig , Observer

Thought-provoking

—— Sunday Times

I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.

—— Bill Gates

Read with an open mind and you might look at life in a whole new way.

—— How it Works

A fantastic book about how homo sapiens came to conquer the world

—— Simon Mayo , Mail on Sunday

A dark and thrilling epic.

—— Rachel Hadas , Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year

I have continued to be driven bonkers by my current obsession: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, an extraordinary tome that charts the plight of the planet’s most destructive species since the dawn of time: us. Every paragraph gives you pause for thought, as it catalogues how nuts human beings really are… It may be the best book I’ve ever read; it’s certainly fascinating.

—— Chris Evans , Mail on Sunday

This doesn’t make you feel clever; it makes you feel included. It’s written so brilliantly… He’s written about the human family as a family.

—— Marcus Brigstocke , Shortlist

It's one of the best books I’ve read recently and gives an excellent overview of how our species has developed and helps us understand why and who we are today.

—— Lily Cole , Hello!

A sweeping account of the history of our species, written in vivid prose.

—— Matthew Syed , The Times

It rattles along, firing glitter-coated bullets of wisdom as it goes. If Carlsberg made professors, they’d have fashioned them thus. You’ll never have quite as much fun while learning so much.

—— Lynne Barrett-Lee , Western Mail

Reading this wonderful book feels like looking at life down the bigger end of the telescope. Its scope – which incorporates the history of our species and the question of what the future may have in store – is so magisterial, one has an increasingly godlike feeling while reading it.

—— Gavin Turk , Week

An absolute trove that everyone who wants to understand everything from human evolution to diet, religions and limited liability companies should read.

—— Sally Moussawi , Pool

Opening up a controversial topic with spirit and thoroughness, Sapiens will challenge your preconceptions, provoke discussion and, most importantly, push you to think for yourself… Bold and provocative.

—— Women's Running

A brilliant, interdisciplinary account of the past and future of our species… Some of Harari’s most interesting points are the ways in which the fundamental, unchanging traits that make us human (emotions, desires) relate to the modern world. Essential reading for any liberal arts degree.

—— Francesca Carington , Tatler

In the unlikely event you haven’t already read it and…fancy learning some cool new stuff in a fun way, I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

—— Jenny Colgan , Spectator

It’s so intense that you have to read a bit then have a rest. It has brilliant passages, such as where he argues humans became enslaved by agriculture. Vivid and invigorating.

—— Bill Bailey , Daily Express

Every now and then a book comes along that tilts your perspective on the world. This internationally best-selling phenomenon is one of them.

—— Martin Chilton, Olivia Petter and Ceri Radford , Independent, *Books of the Decade*
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