Why am I passionate about this?

My husband/co-author and I are sci-fi nerds and started getting excited about space settlements after writing two space-related chapters in our first book, Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. We spent 4 years doing research for A City on Mars and ended up with around 35 shelves of space-related books in our bookcases. About 3 of those shelves are books related to life in space, many of which are astronaut memoirs. Here are some of our favorites, picked so they span from the Apollo to the International Space Station eras!


I wrote

A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

By Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith,

Book cover of A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

What is my book about?

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away, no climate change, no war, no…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Kelly Weinersmith Why did I love this book?

For starters, I recommend everything Mary Roach has ever written. Ever since I read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers in college, I’ve made sure to grab Roach’s new books the week they’re released. Her self-deprecating sense of humor always cracks me up, and she does such an amazing job of capturing both the science and the culture of the fields she studies. 

This book is filled with incredible and fun stories you’ve likely never heard before. Why does the Japanese astronaut selection process include making 1,000 origami cranes? Why were the “walls spattered with blood” in a 1999 space station simulation? Why did the astronauts aboard Apollo 12 spend part of their homeward journey naked? Check out her book to find out! 

By Mary Roach,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Packing for Mars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can't walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set…


Book cover of Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut

Kelly Weinersmith Why did I love this book?

This book is hilarious and raunchy and is an incredible story about how social progress is made.

Mike Mullane was at NASA when the first astronaut class that included women was recruited. He was a pretty massive sexist when the women initially joined, and he details how his thoughts on working with women astronauts changed as he found the women astronauts to be eminently capable.

By the end of the book, it’s clear that Mullane could still stand to make a little more progress on the sexism front, but he has come a long way. Social progress is often achingly slow, but this is a fun story about how it sometimes slowly inches forward. 

By Mike Mullane,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Riding Rockets as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Selected as a Mission Specialist in 1978 in the first group of shuttle astronauts, Mike Mullane completed three missions and logged 356 hours aboard the Discovery and Atlantis shuttles. It was a dream come true. As a boy, Mullane could only read about space travel in science fiction, but the launch of Sputnik changed all that. Space flight became a possible dream and Mike Mullane set out to make it come true. In this absorbing memoir, Mullane gives the first-ever look into the often hilarious, sometime volatile dynamics of space shuttle astronauts - a class that included Vietnam War veterans,…


Book cover of Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys

Kelly Weinersmith Why did I love this book?

While researching our book, Zach and I read dozens of astronaut memoirs. I hate to say it, but most of them were incredibly dull. Astronauts are brilliant and hard-working, but that doesn’t necessarily make them good writers. Many of their books are filled with technical details that must only be interesting to fellow engineers.

This book stood out to me because Collins is a genuinely incredible writer and storyteller. Collins was one of three astronauts aboard Apollo 11 and was the only one who didn’t get to touch down on the Moon. 

By Michael Collins,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Carrying the Fire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Reissued with a new preface by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 journey to the moon

The years that have passed since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon in July 1969 have done nothing to alter the fundamental wonder of the event: man reaching the moon remains one of the great events―technical and spiritual―of our lifetime.

In Carrying the Fire, Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the drama, beauty, and humor of that adventure. He also traces his development from his first flight experiences in the…


Book cover of Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space

Kelly Weinersmith Why did I love this book?

Lynn Sherr is a reporter, and was a friend of Sally Ride. Between knowing Ride personally and her many interviews with Ride’s partners, family, and friends, Sherr was able to write a remarkably in-depth biography of a person who largely avoided sharing personal information publicly.

I learned a lot about Ride I didn’t previously know, like the fact that the US’s first woman astronaut was also LGBTQIA+! She was a trailblazer on so many fronts.

By Lynn Sherr,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sally Ride as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The definitive biography of Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, with exclusive insights from Ride’s family and partner, by the ABC reporter who covered NASA during its transformation from a test-pilot boys’ club to a more inclusive elite.

Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space. A member of the first astronaut class to include women, she broke through a quarter-century of white male fighter jocks when NASA chose her for the seventh shuttle mission, cracking the celestial ceiling and inspiring several generations of women.

After a second flight, Ride served on the panels investigating the…


Book cover of Endurance: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

Kelly Weinersmith Why did I love this book?

I wanted to end the list with a book that gives a sense of what life in space is like now. Scott Kelly spent a year aboard the International Space Station, returning to Earth in 2016.

Being an astronaut is undoubtedly an incredible experience, and I envy those who have had the chance to look down on the Earth from space. But Kelly’s biography makes clear that the bulk of an astronaut’s day is not comprised of these moments of euphoria.

Lots of time is spent on tasks like maintaining the space station and running experiments, and life in a cramped station orbiting Earth in the void isn’t all fun and games. Carbon dioxide levels get high and give you headaches; from time to time, someone needs to tamp down the poop in the space toilet, and it’s hard to be physically separated from loved ones, especially when something catastrophic happens, and you can’t be there to help.

It’s a great, realistic look at what it’s like to live in space. 

By Scott Kelly,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Endurance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*As featured on BBC Breakfast, Radio 5Live and Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2*

From the Nasa astronaut who spent a record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station - what it's like out there and what it's like now, back here. Enter Scott Kelly's fascinating world and dare to think of your own a little differently.

As soon as you realize you aren't going to die, space is the most fun you'll ever have...

The veteran of four space flights and the American record holder for most consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things…


Explore my book 😀

A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

By Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith,

Book cover of A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

What is my book about?

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away, no climate change, no war, no Twitter, beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it?

Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, this book investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. 

Book cover of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Book cover of Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
Book cover of Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys

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Interested in astronauts, NASA, and space horror?

Astronauts 65 books
NASA 74 books
Space Horror 28 books