Berman, Bob

Beyond Berman's fan base, popular science readers who don't mind frequently interspersed unrelated commentary will appreciate the otherwise straightforward narrative of the physics underlying a variety of astronomical catastrophes. For more concentrated popular works on cosmology, see Brian Cox's Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos and Stuart Clark's The Unknown Universe: A New Exploration of Time, Space, and Cosmology.

Like other books that focus on common but often murky topics (for instance, Mark Kurlansky's Salt, Mary Roach's Stiff, and Donald Canfield's Oxygen), this is a great option for those curious about history, theories, and function of everyday things.

Fans of Berman's columns will enjoy this book, though serious students of astronomy may find it frustratingly lax, since Berman's big claims are not backed up with references to any peer-reviewed literature or reproductions of the charts and graphs he mentions in passing. Recommended for popular science collections only.