How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

In August 2006, after the three generations of humans had grown up with nine planets, the solar system shrank to include just eight. Mike Brown is to blame: He's the Cal Tech astronomer whose discoveries prompted the planetary demotion. Ryan Gesell's youthful, nasal voice is a good fit for Brown's friendly, funny, and personal account of the events. You can hear Brown's pride as he revels in the joy of his baby daughter and admire the dignity with which he handled himself when a team of Spanish astronomers tried to pass off his data as their own. There's no scientific jargon or formulas here--just the entertaining reflections of a humble scientist who made one of the great discoveries of our time. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 6, 2010
Caltech professor Brown takes readers on a leisurely stroll across campus in this memoir of an astronomer's personal life and the years-long quest to locate new planetary bodies that has so occupied his attention. Tracing his life through the academic ladder, marriage, and parenthood, Brown clearly explains difficult scientific topics with humor and warmth. By focusing nominally on his discovery of Eris, the dwarf planet that resulted in Pluto's unexpected demotion, Brown ultimately pens a love letter to his young daughter, linking her development to the planetary timeline; "Stars, planets, galaxies, quasars are all incredible and fascinating things, with behaviors and properties that we will be uncovering for years and years, but none of them is as thoroughly astounding as the development of thought, the development of language..." The scientifically-minded will be particularly amused by Brown's desire for accurate statistics regarding due dates and birth dates. Deftly pulling readers along on his journey of discovery and destruction, Brown sets the record straight and strongly defends his science with a conversational, rational, and calm voice that may change the public's opinion of scientists as poor communicators.