DISTANT ENCOUNTERS is a fascinating, very readable account of the unfolding drama of the Voyager spacecraft travels to Jupiter and Saturn in the late 1970's. Some coverage of the preceding Pioneer flybys is also provided. You can almost feel the emotions of the JPL engineers as they simultaneously battle frustrating technical problems with the spacecraft and experience the triumphs of some of the greatest scientific returns in the history of planetary exploration. Nontechnical, sometimes humorous, and quite informative regarding the status of space exploration during this time in history, this book proves that an engaging account of unmanned space technology and exploration can be written for the general reader.

I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.