Checkerboard Press astronomy encyclopedia Book

Written by a former university physicist, current Jesuit priest and astronomer at the Vatican, the book was interesting mostly because I'd never read anything by anyone with that mix of backgrounds. The book jumped between genres - a couple science-y chapters explaining his current work (curator of largest collection of meteorites in the world), some chapters devoted to his life story, a few chapters were his essays on topics of interest (how religious types and scientists are misunderstood by each other and the general public, drawing connections between the methods of both), an amusing chapter about whether one should baptize intelligent life from other planets. And several chapters about his adventure camping in Antarctica driving around on snowmobiles looking for meteorites.

He has an amazing life to tell (he also volunteered for the peace corps teaching astronomy in Africa) and a unique perspective. In some places, the casual folksy style grated on me a bit - and since the book was basically a collection of his talks and stories, some I loved and others I could do without.