The book begins with a brief history of biogenesis, a word that Rauchfuss prefers to use rather than phrases like “origin of life” or “emergence of life.” The first chapter brings the reader from the ancient Greeks up to the present when we are seeing a nearexponential growth of our knowledge. Here he makes an effort to define life, always a difficult task, but succeeds as well as any. The book then steps through nine basic concepts that must be taken into account to understand biogenesis, with a chapter given to each. For instance, Chapters 2 and 3 describe the origin of galaxies, stars and planets, and Chapter 4 discusses chemical evolution, which is central to our ideas about life’s beginnings. The material is presented at a level that can be understood by students in an introductory chemistry course. The next six chapters present facts and concepts underlying protein and nucleic acid functions in modern cells, with constant references to how these relate to biogenesis. In Chapter 10 Rauchfuss brings it all together to describe the evidence for the first forms of cellular life. This chapter is a nice example of how Rauchfuss tries to present information in a clear and interesting manner. For instance, there is considerable controversy about the evidence related to the first life on the Earth, which is based on isotopic analysis and microfossils, and the controversy is presented along with the scientists on both sides of the argument. In the last chapter and epilogue, Rauchfuss gives an overview of astrobiology, which in fact is the unifying theme of the book, and raises a series of unanswered questions that are a guide to the major gaps that still remain to be filled by experiments, observations and theory.