Buzz Aldrin

Tue., July 21, 7:30 p.m., $14, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org.

by Shaun Brady

reading/signing

Buzz Aldrin's new memoir, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (Harmony, $27), begins with what seems like the climax; by the end of Chapter 3, Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins are already home from their vacation on Earth's friendly neighborhood satellite. But that's exactly the problem — Aldrin's spent 40 years trying to come up with an encore to walking on the moon. His first stab at telling this story, 1973's Return to Earth, exposed his struggle with depression, but he wasn't quite ready to call himself an alcoholic. Aldrin's outspokenness, in contrast with Armstrong's stoic silence, has led to occasional sidesteps into bitterness over being the overlooked No. 2, but it's also made him a self-styled role model and space exploration's No. 1 advocate.