I would rate this book 5 stars for the chapter about sunsets alone. 

However, I think what is just absolutely so poignant about this book and my love for it, is Green often is writing something I have personally thought before. It is insanely comforting to see thoughts you’ve had be turned into words that truly mean something. 

The chapter in Halley’s Comet is an instance of this. I often think through history by life spans. We are only 3 human lives removed from the civil war, and it is only 3 human lives removed from the revolutionary war. So we are only 6 human lives removed from the founding of our country. And YET so much occurs in those spances. With his chapter, Green says he thinks this way as well, and expands that thought process to viewing history through the comet. It felt relieving (idk a better word for the feeling) to see someone think and feel similarly to myself in many of these moments. 

Another fantastic part of this book is the continued discussion of human amazingness and togetherness while also criticizing humans and all of the bad things we do. It is refreshing to see a nuanced view that is REAL. Green says there are days he feels despair beyond comprehension, and days he feels all the light in the world. He feels awe looking at geographical features and he feels the smallness of himself in those moments too. Humans, individuals are capable of much more than just being good or bad, or any other binary that has been constructed. Green does an amazing job of demonstrating that here. We are all things good and bad, in the afterward he ends by saying we are the Earth. 

I give the Anthropocene reviewed 5 stars, despite there being no dragons.