Our Moon

By Rebecca Boyle

If you’ve ever looked up at the Moon and felt something ancient stir inside you, Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle will feel like a long-lost conversation you didn’t know you were missing. This book isn’t just about lunar science—it’s a poetic, richly-researched journey into how the Moon has shaped not just our nights, but our very minds.

Boyle takes us back—way back. Before Stonehenge, before cities, before even calendars. Early humans were already tracking the Moon’s phases and rhythms. One of the coolest parts was about this ancient artifact called the sky disc. The Nebra Sky Disc—a bronze-and-gold artifact unearthed in Germany, dating back to 1600 BCE. This thing looks like a cosmic cheat sheet: a crescent moon, a full moon, a bunch of stars—maybe even the Pleiades. Was it a ritual object? A teaching tool? A divine map? We don’t know, but Boyle draws us into the mystery with reverence and curiosity.

The book’s rhythm mirrors the Moon’s own cycles. There’s a chapter that dives into the Metonic cycle, that clever 19-year harmony where the solar year and lunar phases realign. Ancient Babylonians figured it out, and we’re still using its principles today in the Hebrew calendar—and even in Easter’s timing. Hindu calendar makers try to add Adhik masam to meet this 19 year old cycle. Boyle makes the math feel magical, like unlocking a cosmic code passed down through centuries of stargazers.

Boyle then moves on to how moon made us. She gives the Moon its full due as a partner in Earth’s drama. The tides, for instance—those daily pulses that breathe life into coasts and estuaries—are caused by the Moon’s tug. What blew my mind? The center of mass for the Earth-Moon system isn’t inside Earth. It’s about 1,000 miles beneath our surface, off-center like a slightly drunk celestial dance partner. That off-balance waltz drives the oceans and subtly rewires how time flows.

Of course, no lunar book is complete without the Apollo missions. But Boyle doesn’t just repeat the the standard moon landing lore. She zooms in on the Moon rocks—gray, dry, unassuming—and shows how they carry the fingerprints of violent cosmic birth. The Earth and Moon, it turns out, are made of the same stuff. Not twins, maybe, but siblings forged in fire. She even shares a tidbit about how one Moon rock traveled around the world in a diplomatic tour—an ambassador from the Sea of Tranquility.

What sets Our Moon apart isn’t just the breadth of history or science—it’s the tone. Boyle writes like she’s talking to a fascinated friend under the stars. She shares stories of lunar rituals, eclipse panic, and how the Moon was once a goddess, a god, a calendar, and a compass—all before it became a quarry for astronauts.

If you’re the kind of person who’s ever wondered why wolves howl at the Moon, or why the word “month” comes from “moon,” or whether we’d still have poetry without it—this book is for you. Our Moon is part science, part story, part love letter. And like the Moon itself, it leaves you feeling a little more aware of the ancient clock ticking above us.