"To Know a Starry Night" is a dazzling achievement. But unfortunately, digital copies of this book do not do justice to the work of writer Paul Bogard and photographer Beau Rogers. I would have liked to hold a physical of this book copy, to know its size, the weight of paper, the depth and radiance of the photographs' colors, and their juxtaposition to the epigraphs and essays.
The writing style and photographic eloquence allow readers to perceive Bogard and Rogers' attraction to the glories of the night sky. Both make a convincing case against the pollution of the night sky. This pollution is stunningly shown in Rogers' closing photograph of San Francisco, California's Bay Bridge. Bogard closes his writing by stating that "light pollution is readily within our abilities to solve."
My favorite photograph is that of a meteor shower above Lake Tahoe, Nevada. However, my favorite essay is introduced by an epigraph taken from Kathleen Dean Moore's "The Gifts Of Darkness." In this essay, Bogard writes of his earliest memories of the night sky, the hope that he has for his toddler daughter to know some of what he has observed, his future without parents, and humans' attempt "to control," which leads to loss of the night sky and mystery.
I did not realize when beginning this book that Bogard's essays would be so personal. I expected more writing about light pollution and preservation of stary skies. Bogard's writing needs to be tighter with more organization. However, it is heartening to know that here in the United States, viewers can still find great night skies in off-the-beaten-track places like some of our western and northern National Parks.
"To Know a Stary Night' would make a fine gift for anyone interested in either light pollution of the night sky, night photography, or appreciation of a starry sky. Thank you, @universitynevadapress, for this digital ARC via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

5 🌟

It is rare that I give a 5 star rating, but well-deserved in this case. The authors inate love for the darkness and all it represents is so beautifully and eloquently written, especially regarding how he shares his knowledge and love of the stars with his tiny daughter.

As someone who is most at peace and at her happiest in the dark, i understand his concern for yet one more thing we are destroying, the night's natural light. I love nothing more than to be in the bushveld, sitting quietly in the darkness and listening to the night sounds, the birds, animals and insects that are at home in the shadows. The wind whispering sweet nothings through the trees, the haunting cry of a bush baby or the soft notes of a nightjar, all bathed in the glow of starlight and moonlight.

There are now far fewer places where you can still see a sky full of stars, sadly a situation which will only worsen with the spread of humankind. As it is, light pollution is leaving gaping, inky holes where 100 years ago millions of pinpricks of light twinkled down on us from above, constellations and comets, phases of the moon, planets being born and dying, collapsing into themselves after burning fiercely, their brilliance inspiring tales of galaxies unknown.

This would make the perfect gift for anyone who loves the solace and beauty offered by the night, and appreciates the magnificence - and importance - of a sky full of stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for my ARC.

Thanks to University of Nevada Press for the advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. To know a Starry Night is due to be published on 12 October 2021.

This book is a collection of incredible night photography mostly taken in US national parks and personal essays about the science, psychology and human perception about the night sky, natural night light and darkness. The topics range from very analytical to poetic.

I had a particular fascination with the night sky during my adolescence. I remember taking my father's old binoculars (not telescope lol, yea I know haha), a mat, blanket, a flashlight and a book to the roof of my aunt's old house where I grew up. I'd lay for hours, reading under the blanket and occasionally trying to spy the stars if the skies were clear, which was usually the case in the then-deserted Uttara neighborhood. I found this book a joy to read because so many of my old childhood emotions suddenly resurfaced with some of the more descriptive sections of the book.

I loved that I learnt so many new things too, for instance, the Bortle scale which is a numeric scale that is used to measure the night sky's brightness. I love how the author lulls you into a state of solastalgia with his speculations of the night sky from a 100yrs ago, one with less artificial light pollution and more stars. My only regret is not being able to see the physical copy of the book, because in its epub version, the photo quality is diminished as expected.

It would have been cooler, though, if I could experience the locations in real life. ✨

What an amazing book. I was originally drawn to the beautiful night sky images of To Know A Starry Night, but the writing drew me in. The combination of gorgeous images of night skies with the heartfelt ode to the necessity of the dark skies needed for these images to exist was a powerful reminder that like many things of nature, they can be destroyed by human interference. The skies will always be there, but our flooding the night with artificial light takes away our ability to see them. This book would make a great gift to anyone who loves nature.

This book felt like a warm hug from my past. As a scout, I often fell asleep by the bonfire looking up at the stars and this book was a perfect reminder of that time. I was a bit sceptical when I started reading this book, because it's not my usual kind of book, but I was drawn in before the first page was over. The photographs were unbelievable beautiful and the words were touching and sincere.
Especially the chapter about the moon touched me - when I was a kid, I was really close to my grandmother, who traveled a lot, but every time she went away, she would tell me that every night when I saw the moon, I should think of her and the fact that no matter where she was, she would see the exact same moon.
I would really like to read this book in it's physical form to really take in the pictures!

Oh, I could sit and stare at these photos for HOURS! I loved the layout and the entire feel of the book! There are some great stories that are included throughout, which just draw into the photos that are included even more.

Very well done, and amazing!

This is a beautiful book and a beautiful look at the night sky. It was hard to read in the kindle format, so I can't wait to see what it looks like when it comes out. The images are beautiful, the text was just really small. But I liked the notes and facts along with the gorgeous photos.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This review will be posted on October 4, 2021 to: https://instagram.com/amandas.bookshelf

This essay and photo book was a love letter to the outdoors! @paul.bogard covers the beauty of nature and the restorative powers of a star-filled night sky through thematic chapters, such as Darkness, Solace, and Mystery. His main focus is the encroaching sprawl of light pollution, threatening the darkness necessary for star gazing. As beautiful and poignant as the essays by Bogard were, what spoke to my heart were the striking photos by @beaurogersphoto. As someone who has spent her entire life on the East Coast, my access for real star gazing is few and far between. I couldn't help by marvel at the stunning images! But, as Bogard pointed out in the Wildness essay, looking at photos of the majestic night sky will *never* compare to the wonder of being beneath it in the wild. (He said it far more eloquently than I paraphrased.) #ToKnowAStarryNight Rating: 😊 / really liked it
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This book is scheduled for publication on October 12, 2021. Thank you @universitynevadapress for providing me this digital ARC via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely book. I, too, miss the night skies I've seen. Light pollution is causing less and less of the night sky to be observed. So sad. I loved the Blackout of 2003! It gave my daughter a chance to enjoy the night sky she had never seen! I wish all the power would go out a few nights every year so we can all see it again. Mr. Bogard's book is a reminder of what mankind is losing. Loved the photos and can't wait to see the book!

Thanks to NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for the advance review digital copy of this beautiful book. I appreciate the early read opportunity, in exchange for my review. As an aspiring astrophotographer and long-time advocate for building a personal relationship with nature, this book ticked a lot of boxes for me.

While it would be easy to label To Know a Starry Night a coffee table book and skip past the text while lingering over the photos, resist that temptation!!

Beau Rogers stunning night sky photographs emphasize key points from Paul Bogard's series of stand-alone, personal essays with titles ranging from Darkness, to Moonlight, Solace, and Fear. Some are fairly scientific, describing the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale and the importance of bright days and dark nights for our physical, mental and spiritual health. Others are deeply personal, celebrating Bogard's 15-year relationship with Lulu, his dog, or his hopes for his young daughter's relationship to darkness and the night sky.

Yes, I found myself skimming one or two of these self-contained chapters. But for others, I caught myself jotting notes in my daily planner - new-to-me facts, ideas and terms that I want to spend time pondering.

Bogard's essays also recommend other books on the topic of darkness and the nigh sky. I always appreciate the generosity of writers who include titles in the same space right in the main body, rather that forcing readers to go digging through the references buried in the back pages. Two of Bogard's recommendations made it onto my "Want To Read" list.

Final thought - buy this book in physical form. It's worth the extra cost for two reasons: 1) there are so many photographs that file size issues mean they are not in full resolution in the digital ARC I downloaded; but 2) more importantly, many of the photographs are two-page spreads that turn into split images in Adobe Digital Editions. This seriously undermines the impact of Beau Roger's carefully curated set of night sky images from across the western USA. They can only truly be appreciated in printed form.

To Know A Starry Night is a coffee table book. If you have not head of this, then they are aimed to be books that you pick up occasionally to read but they are a very good feature for you coffee table. To Know A Starry Night is probably a very good example of this.

Let’s start with the photographs. They are absolutely stunning. Each image selected for this book was just beautiful. As someone who is interested in astrophotography, I am always very happy to see a book that has stunning photos of the night sky.

What makes To Know A Starry Night a coffee table book to me is the accompanying writing. I personally did not enjoy the anecdotal writing style very fitting to how vast the photographs were. While I understand and appreciate how the night sky affects everyone of us differently, I struggled to convince myself to read the words written on the page (unless the words were the location of the photograph). I ended up having to just stop reading the accompanying text since I was finding it such a drag compared to the beauty of the photographs.

Not exactly sure what I was wanting from To Know A Starry Night, but at least I enjoyed the pictures.

Imparts knowledge without the bonus of experience. However, there are lots of tips for how to truly experience a starry night. I honestly had no idea there was a scale to measure the nine classes of darkness. This book includes beautiful night sky colors and descriptions. I appreciate the essays on the lost beauty of true darkness and the plentiful sprinkling of quotes from great classics.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

I would like to thank the authors and publisher for kindly sharing an electronic review copy of this book.

"To Know a Starry Night" by Paul Bogard and Beau Rogers is a thoughtful literary and artistic tribute to humanity, nature, and, of course, the night sky. This book contains a series of essays by Bogard on the night sky, darkness, light pollution, nature, and relationships. The essays are both philosophical and appreciative of nature. The book is easy to read and identify with since it discusses the environment that surrounds us all. It also evoked a sense of nostalgia in me as I thought back on time I have spend camping and appreciating similar locations described and photographed.. Nearly half of the book is stunningly beautiful night photographs by Rogers. Many of the pictures are from national parks in the Western United States in which the Milky Way is adroitly featured. Each time I turned a page and saw another photograph, I kept hoping that the authors would share their photography tips. I was delighted with the Afterword in which Rogers fulfilled my wish by providing his advise on night photography.

The essays and photographs were both lovely. I recommend this book to people who enjoy nighttime outdoors.

I didn’t realize when I requested to read this beautiful book that it was just an excerpt. I don’t feel comfortable providing a fair and honest review of this book without seeing at least half of the book. I was able to read/view 20 pages which included the preface, forward, introduction and a few pages of chapter one. The photographs are beautiful and the writing is well done from what I have read. I’m assuming the rest of the book will be just a good. Unfortunately, I’m only going to give 3 stars at this point, though.

Thanks for the opportunity. Best wishes for a successful book.

A truly beautiful book. ‘To Know a Starry Sky’ is a collection of incredibly photography of the night sky, taken in the USA, mostly in national parks. Alongside this is writing about darkness and the sky.

I really enjoyed reading and looking through. Multiple photographs I returned to several times. The night sky is wonderful and how often we take it for granted. It’s a sad thought to think how much we miss these days with light pollution that could be viewed 100 years ago. A book to be looked at over and over again.

I would recommend people go for the physical book as I was viewing this on my e-reader and felt the photography would have been even better on a page.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.