Interesting read and very interestingly done book, that I think should be a must read for every school, with the topics this book talks about.
Worth a look!

Fascinating insight into our planet. There is still plenty we don;t know about Earth, so any book covering our collective home is an interesting read to me! I particularly enjoyed chapter 3 with it's emphasis on water and how it got here. The author's are right, now that we know how much water our planet contains (roughly), the planet should be called Water! Lol. Anyone interested in out planet and how it works, even the armchair enthusiast, will find this book an interesting read. The reader will find it raises many more questions along the way- more to ponder intellectually! Good book!

Unexpectedly enjoyed this brief look at our home planet, which we inhabit but probably don't think about as much as we should. Thi book makes the reader appreciate it from two different perspectives, that of a scientist and a medievalist, in an exchange of letters.
Review of an advance digital copy from the publisher.

Earth (Object Lessons) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Lindy Elkins – Tanton is a discussion of the planet we live on. Cohen is Professor of English and Director of GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute at George Washington University, USA. He is the author or editor of 11 books, including Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman, Elemental Ecocriticism: Thinking with Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Elkins-Tanton earned her B.S. in Geology, M.S. in geochemistry, and Ph.D. in geology, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was a professor at MIT and she was recruited to the directorship position at Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Her appointment as Director of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Science took effect on July 1, 2014.

Bloomsbury Academic presents an interesting twist in their presentation of the earth in the object lesson series. In this series, an English (Ph.D.) medievalist and a geologist discuss earth through letters, meetings, Skype, and email. In another twist, the two people had not previously met and in what may be a surprise to some the woman is the scientist and the man the English professor. What evolves through the correspondence is a unique mix of science and the humanities as they merge with the human element.

The conversations tend to compliment each person’s field. The science is detailed enough for a general discussion and the humanities add to the physical and emotional experience of the observable earth. There are exchanges of ideas in explanations of science, history, and folklore. The two professors develop a friendship that grows throughout the exchanges. The famous photograph, The Blue Marble, from the Apollo 17 mission is mention more than a few times. It is reminiscent of astronauts impressions of earth from space– no national borders and a fragile oasis. To the nonscientists, there is a beauty captured in the image and a feeling of awe.

Image result for blue marble photo

Perhaps the point of this object lesson is that we all share this earth and we are all different but we share common experiences. There are points of interest to both science-minded and the art-minded. Something to learn for everyone and a reminder for all. It is a book as much about earth as it is of human understanding of the plant both through science and art. A nice experiment in writing and presenting information.

A wonderful conversation between different disciplines that shows just how much the sciences and humanities really have in common withe each other. The concepts covered, the vast scales of time and space, and how humans understand them, are discussed thoughtfully and with a view to understanding each other.

Really enjoyed this book.

The authors muse upon our Earth through letters written to each other. They touched upon history, philosophy and also their daily lives, in order to piece together what it means to live in this planet we call home: how can we define our short lives upon something so immensely old, something so difficult to describe.
The tone of this book is quiet, warm, poetic. This is something best read with families, for it challenges us to think out of our busy lives. Or you can read it alone, with a hot cup of drink in your hands.
*I got a free copy in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley

Sadly I'm going to have to DNF this book as I thought it would be an interesting, short factual history of the moon but it's just letters and thoughts between the two authors about the moon which is definitely not what I wanted and it made the book more conversation and philosophy than geology or physics - albeit really boring, repetitive philosophy!

I loved the sound of Earth by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton (one of the Object Lessons series published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic). Object Lessons is an essay and book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things - however, this book takes a different approach to the others. We don’t often consciously think of the earth as an object, and certainly it seems incongruous listed among the other objects in the series – Bookshelf, Egg, High Heel, or Tumour for example. Earth is more philosophical than factual, a thoroughly human depiction of the Earth in the form of letters between a planetary scientist and a medievalist.

It is rare to find a truly co-disciplinary approach to any subject, but the form of this book – a back and forth of letters/skype/FB messages between Elkins-Tanton and Cohen – allows viewpoints equal weighting of disciplines while creating an interplay of ideas. Both share a fascination with the wonder of the pale blue dot we call home, and it is a pleasure to ‘eavesdrop’ on their correspondence, which is increasingly personal as a friendship develops. This book really helped me to visualise the beauty and complexity of the Earth as they examine it from different scales and perspectives, veering off into asides on beauty, perception, creativity and the imagination. The writers describe this as a “little book about an impossibly large subject”, albeit a subject every reader will view with fresh eyes for having read it. I was expecting more facts, less philosophy (although there are some science bits) but this is my favourite of the Object Lessons series I have read so far.

Another volume in the wonderful Object Lessons books, a series of short books about everyday things. For me personally this wasn’t one of the most interesting, being more philosophical than factual. In the form of a protracted epistolary conversation it raises questions about humanity’s relationship with the earth, and how we view it. It felt as though I were eavesdropping on a conversation between two scientists who were talking slightly above my head. My problem, perhaps, rather than the book’s, but as I’ve enjoyed many of the others in the series, this one was a bit disappointing.

I think this odd little book sums itself up well enough: "This entire book is a reflection of the ways that humankind constantly grapples with whatever is in front of it, with whatever object there is.”
I was expecting something more along the lines of a treatise on the earth or maybe a defense of ecostudies, but this book is messy; it constantly switches between genres and modes, and it is much more centered around humans than I thought it would be. Is that a bad thing? No. Do I have more questions than answers after reading this? Yes, and I’m glad. I could see this as a perfect object to close read the first week of a grad seminar or something to anchor an undergrad class.

I expected Earth to be a scientific book / essay, it actually is more a philosophical reflection about the relation between Earth and its inhabitants, expressed mostly as a epistolary exchange.

I did not find it engaging, I would have preferred a different structure / content.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

This was my Valentine's day read. What greater love story is there than between humans and their home planet. Earth is taken for granted, abused and expected to be there forever, just taking it. Ok, so this isn't that sort of book, no sarcasm. This is more of a philosophical discussion set in an epistolary form about how humanity might feel about the world around them and why. Philosophical in a way that there questions are answered with questions, leaving reader to ponder them if they are so inclined. There is actually some science here, which is what I was hoping for, but it is primarily philosophy. Decent enough for a quick read and by far strongest in the Object Lessons series, which, while conceptually intriguing, has been dramatically disappointing. Thanks Netgalley.