Review of the hardback: 'If you want a comprehensive guide to the science of variable stars, you can't go wrong with a book written by John Percy, a world authority on variable star observation.' BBC Sky at Night Magazine Review of the hardback: '... tightly written, and frequently interspersed with figures and graphs, the book contains an enormity of fact and discussion ... a foremost authority on Variable Stars, and is a marvellous repository of information. As such it is an ideal textbook for a serious student, or a reference book for the amateur astronomer.' Astronomy & Space Review of the hardback: '... the book achieves its aim of providing an overview of variable-star astronomy, and given the size of the field this is no mean feat. It comes with an excellent index ...' The Observatory Review of the hardback: 'It seems likely to me that Understanding Variable Stars was written with the American Association of Variable Star Observers members in mind. ...It is certainly the most up-to-date readable description of the various types of starts and what is known about each. ...Basically, if you observe variable starts, you should read and probably own this book. Thank you, Dr. Percy!' American Association of Variable Star Observers Bookstore Review of the hardback: 'In this beautiful book, John Percy, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, describes in detail the wide range of variable stars and their study. After a touching memory of Janet Mattei (1943-2004), director of the AAVSO for thirty years (and G. B. Lacchini UAI Award 1995), with whom Percy shared a long season of collaborations, the author describes the ... development of the variable stars, doing well to understand how technology has, over time, changed the conditions of observation, accuracy, and reduced mass of data. ... The book is well documented and full of charts, drawings and images. Each chapter has a specific and very accurate bibliography.' Astronomia