"Version: 20220901"--Title page verso.Includes bibliographical references.1. Introduction -- 1.1. The discovery of accreting binaries -- 1.2. Celestial laboratories of extreme physics -- 1.3. Structure of this book2. Astrophysical basics for single stars -- 2.1. Concise stellar evolution -- 2.2. Fundamental properties of compact objects -- 2.3. Reviews, catalogs and references3. Astrophysical b…