Moon Unit Zappa got the question a lot, particularly around the time of her and her father’s Grammy- nominated 1982 hit “Valley Girl”: “What was it like growing up with Frank Zappa for a dad?”

The eldest daughter of the quirky and unconventional musical visionary, who died at age 52 in 1993, gives the world an extended, nuanced, often funny, many times painful answer to that question in her new memoir, “Earth to Moon.”

The book’s title carries the power of her life’s journey. Her mother, Frank’s second wife Gail, often used the phrase to scold her as a child — “Earth to Moon, the earth doesn’t revolve around you” — but as Moon, now 56, matures, it comes to symbolize the grounding energy of appreciating her place on the planet. She punctuates her book with clever, space- themed sections, photos and old journal entries.

“Love yourself, love yourself, love yourself” is one of her “big takeaways.”

Moon Unit’s hurts are many. She describes a childhood wrought with confusion and disappointment, in which she acted to nurture and protect siblings Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva, even as her own big life questions remained largely unaddressed by her preoccupied father and volatile mother.

Growing up in 1970s Hollywood meant hanging with plenty of fellow celebrities, though. Actors Justine and Jason Bateman are friends, they know Michael J. Fox as “Mike” and her brother Dweezil dates Molly Ringwald (and later VJs on MTV).

Perhaps her biggest disappointment is her mother’s decision to make Ahmet and Diva “the sole and exclusive managers of all business” related to Frank after her death. Moon and Dweezil were given no rights to decisions about the family home, their father or their last name, which prompted deep soul-searching.

Moon says she remains estranged from her two youngest siblings, and for different reasons from Dweezil, but she writes that she is finding her way to healing. She is a mother, a writer, an actor, a comic, an artist, a podcaster and a “tea baroness.”

Among the things that she has learned is that growing up doesn’t end when you become an adult. She writes, “The way out is through. Make peace with what hurts and head toward joy.” — Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press

As director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, astrobiologist Nathalie A. Cabrol’s work is focused on answering the question of whether we’re alone in the universe.

In “The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life,” readers won’t walk away with a clear-cut answer. But they’ll have a newfound appreciation for the massive scientific undertaking that is moving closer toward finding one.

Cabrol writes that we’re in the midst of a “golden age of astrobiology,” and her book is an awe- inspiring and lucid primer for the general public on her field. That golden age is highlighted by images captured by the Webb telescope that have transformed the public’s understanding of the universe.

From the moon to planets that mirror settings from “Star Wars,” Cabrol takes readers on a descriptive tour of the universe and the building blocks of life that scientists continue to chase. Her writing and effort to broaden the public’s appreciation of the universe’s jaw-dropping vastness is unsurprisingly reminiscent of Sagan, the popular astronomer and namesake of the center she leads. And, like Sagan, she makes a compelling case for why we may not be alone in the universe.

She also offers a preview of future space missions that may help answer that question even further.

But, most importantly, she illustrates how understanding the nature of life in the universe may help underscore the need to address the challenges facing what for now remains a lonely pale blue dot. — Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press