Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree

Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight
by Jay Barbree [Biography Armstrong]

Neil Armstrong - the first man to step on the moon. This is not a story of Armstrong's lifelong flight from the police, as a friend jokingly questioned. Rather, this covers his training, his career as a pilot in the Korean War, his NASA career, and his life after he left the space program. There is excellent background on all the Mercury and Gemini flights, and most of the Apollo flights, as well as some of the Soviet flights. We meet most of the astronauts and some of the cosmonauts. We also get a full five enthralling chapters on Apollo 11's historic flight to, and return from, the moon. There are photos on nearly every page, a good many I hadn't seen before and some are very moving. My only complaint - all the photos are black & white. When tragedy struck again, Armstrong returned to NASA briefly as Vice Chairman of the commission that investigated the Challenger accident. Barbree was best friends with Armstrong, good friends with most of the astronauts and we get some good stories. Definitely a bromance with the fliers and the space program but Barbree doesn't cut NASA any slack for its mistakes and later failures. A must-read for the space fan and I defy you to not tear up throughout the telling. -- recommended by Charlotte K. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Charlotte's Reviewer Profile and more of her reviews ]

[ official NASA Bio for Neil Armstrong ] | [ Jay Barbree on Wikipedia ]

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Nebraska's Fatal Air Crashes of WWII

Nebraska's Fatal Air Crashes of WWII
by Jerry Penry [940.544 qPen]

This book gives accounts of the hundreds of airplane crashes involving military aricraft in Nebraska during World War II. Many of these crashes were not reported by the media because they were part of training exercises and needed to be kept secret. History has overlooked the sacrifices made by these men and women. This book is dedicated to all of them. The amount of research that went into this book is incredible. I was most impressed with the photographs, the eyewitness accounts, and the detailed maps of the crash sites. This book would appeal to anyone with an interest in aviation history or World War II. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Nebraska Voices of World war II: Nebraska Veterans in the Great War by Ted Larson, Wings Over Nebraska: Historic Aviation Photographs by Vincent Goeres, or the extensive Air Force Base Lincoln microfilm collection of clippings related to Lincoln's historic airbase.] -- recommended by Kim J. - Bennett Martin Public Library


[ Jerry Penry's official Nebraska Air Crashes web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.