Average customer rating:
- Black Humor Meets The Right Stuff
- A Good Man; A Good Read
- Great Stories - Great Pilot!!!
- After the reviews, a real disappointment...
- There are aviation memoirs...
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The Wrong Stuff: Flying on the Edge of Disaster
J Moore
Manufacturer: Specialty Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 188380910X |
Book Description
Author John Moore is the "cat with nine lives" of the aviation fraternity. From his early days as a Naval Aviation Cadet he had a knack for flying but seemed to be in the neighborhood of disaster. Through two Korean combat tours, Navy test operations, his years as test pilot for North American Aviation, and the space program he was associated with many near and some real catastrophes.
Customer Reviews:
Black Humor Meets The Right Stuff .......2007-02-20
A great story of flying during the transition from the great piston powered aircraft of WW2 to the jet age.
Also a good reminder that the most dangerous words in aviation are often an engineer saying, " I have a great idea." For them the danger of the first flight is that they will choke on their coffee. Such was the case of one project to rid carrier aircraft of their landing gear and to have them land on a rubber "bed" . Somehow I get the feeling that the engineering team never spent any time at sea, certainly not on a dark stormy night.
While it lacks the polish and emotional content of Stranger To the Ground, it packs more of a flying punch. And the author also pulls no punches when it comes to the so called Tailhook incident for which senior naval aviators were punished for simply being at the same hotel. All in the name of political correctness.
A Good Man; A Good Read.......2007-01-18
Cdr. John Moore gives a unique insight into the life of a naval aviator of the 40's through the 60's. Certainly not an easy life but one filled with its share of challenges and danger. Pretentious in no way, John Moore tells it like it was. And there is the added insight into the life of a naval aviation test pilot. If you have ever tested a plane, or would like to, you can gain some insights from this book. After his naval aviation and test pilot career, Mr. Moore ran operations and testing for the Apollo program and later became mayor of Cocoa Beach (home of Ron Jon's Surf Shop). Not your typical man; not your typical book.
Great Stories - Great Pilot!!!.......2004-09-20
This was a great tale of a pilot coming of age in the early jet days, when engineering had more to do with airplanes, than marketing.
The author is self-effacing, doesn't take himself or his (actually quite impressive) career too seriously.
Loved it!
After the reviews, a real disappointment..........2003-03-26
A friend of mine has praised this book to the skies, so I bought a copy, expecting cover-to-cover laughs and revealations. Instead, what I got was a -very- disorganized, rambling series of partial recollections which were, despite the disclaimer in the introduction, the memoirs of a single pilot. Most of the stories failed to be funny in any way and were only moderately shocking.
Most irritating of all was Chapter Twelve, which dealt with the author's anger at the Tailhook scandal/witchhunt and which had absolutely, positively nothing at all to do with anything else in the book. The chapter didn't belong. It was a distraction. Had any editing been done on the book, it should have been deleted entirely.
There were some good parts, and the first two-thirds of the book would be quite nice with some serious re-arranging and reworking to present a coherent and orderly progression of events. The material about test-flying the Cutlass and the obscenely stupid FlexDeck program are must-reads, but the section on Apollo 1 adds nothing to the reams of material written about that tragedy, and the material on Mr. Moore's training runs hot and cold. As a minor note, the tendency to use technical terms without explaining them to the casual reader makes for difficult reading in some spots.
All in all, if I'd found this in a library first, I never would have bought it; now that I have it, I can't recommend it to others, but I won't be giving my copy away either.
Kris Overstreet
There are aviation memoirs..........2001-12-05
... and many of them have honored places in my library: Colonel Robert Scott's "God Is My Co-Pilot", Heinz Knoke's excellent and sadly unknown "I Flew for the Führer", Bob Hoover's "Forever Flying", Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger's "Lost Moon" (which is as much an autobiography of Lovell as a recounting of the Apollo 13 incident)...
... and then there's this book. If you go into "The Wrong Stuff" expecting another self-congratulatory throttle-jockey memoir (not that there's anything wrong with those :), you'll be sorely disappointed, because John Moore isn't the self-congratulatory throttle-jockey type. He seems frankly surprised that he survived his aviation career, and his tongue-in-cheek delight at being alive permeates the work. Somehow, this man managed to wind up involved in some of the wackiest projects in aviation history, and his wry reminiscences make this the funniest flyboy book in history. I'm just amazed, with his karma, that Moore didn't end up testing the Pogo Planes.
Highly, highly, highly recommended.
Book Description
Duke Cunningham was an All-American success story. The Midwestern boy who went off to war, became a hero, and rode his fame into Congress even bragged that Tom Cruise played him in a popular movie. But the fall of this "Top Gun" was almost as epic and just as cinematic. Today he sits in prison, branded as the most corrupt member of Congress in U.S. history.
To the public, Cunningham was a heroic family man. In reality, he was a hard-drinking, partisan bully with a lavish sense of entitlement and feckless moral compass. He partnered with rogues like Brent Wilkes and Mitch Wade, and together they hatched a grandiose plan to get rich wrapping themselves in the flag. Over time, Cunningham fed Wilkes and Wade tens of millions of dollars in vital post-9/11 contracts in exchange for millions in bribes. Their clubhouse was a yacht tied up along the Potomac River. From there, they traveled the city in limos, flew in private jets, and hosted all-night parties at posh hotels. Their funding came from "earmarks" in classified military contracts that were supposed to protect our troops in Iraq--not be squandered on booze and beautiful women, on yachts and jets.
Now, members of the team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for sending Cunningham to prison uncover new details in a story still unfolding in Washington. The Wrong Stuff chronicles Cunningham's rise and his sordid fall. It is the saga of a man who came to believe his own press clippings and developed an enormous sense of self-entitlement, a man strong enough to brave enemy fire but too weak to resist the corrupt contractors and lobbyists in the nation's capital. It is also the story of the shadowy side of Washington today. More than just the story of one crooked politician, this is an inside look at how our system allowed this to happen. The Wrong Stuff provides the context for Cunningham's misdeeds and shows that more than one man's venality was involved. Indeed, there were things darkly wrong with Washington that invited Cunningham--and others--to steal, often putting American soldiers and Marines at risk during wartime.
If you want to understand the recent outcry over congressional corruption, then you need to understand how Cunningham and his contractor friends used the government to enrich themselves. This penetrating, witty, and gossipy analysis of how they stole and how they got caught makes for a fascinating read with a lesson for all Americans.
Customer Reviews:
The problem with heroes.......2007-08-28
The Wrong Stuff is a good read on a number of levels.
It challenges our overuse of the word "hero" and forces us to be more discerning and skeptical about those we so readily put on pedestals. Apart from those few minutes over North Vietnam, a bit of luck combined with flying skill, there was nothing heroic about Duke Cunningham. Character flaws were evident in his youth. What he did in Congress should come as no surprise. As Sartre says, the end is in the beginning.
The Wrong Stuff illustrates the need for political reform in campaign finance, the legislative process of earmarks, ethics and oversight. These are dry subjects, but by putting a face -- albeit a sad and corrupt one --on the subject, the authors have penned a readable, well-understood page-turner. They have made a complex issue understandable.
And it is a good how-to book on journalism. Marc Stern broke the story by using good, old-fashioned news instinct born of experience first gained poking around the docks of the gritty Los Angeles port of San Pedro, then later the back hallways and rooms of Washington. He followed those instincts by working the phones, asking probing questions, pounding the pavement and not taking no for an answer. If you want a lesson on how to win a Pulitzer, which Stern did, this is a good place to start. He followed the Yogi Berra axiom: "You can see a lot just by looking."
Gave new meaning to the term "hubris.".......2007-08-23
I live in San Diego and bought this book at a street festival. Two of the authors (Marcus Stern and Dean Calbreath) were there and signed the book for me.
The book describes the seemingly sudden fall of Congressman and war hero Randy Cunningham. I say "seemingly" because the authors show that his crimes were the logical extensions of a pattern of behavior based on the belief that he was above rules and laws that the rest of us follow.
The book starts on Duke's best day: May 10, 1972. On that day he and Willie Driscoll shot down three enemy aircraft; this made them the first Navy Aces of the Vietnam War and they were awarded the Navy Cross. What few people knew about Duke was his demand that he be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he made this demand to his commanding officer, Ron McKeown, told him: "You ain't going to get the Medal of Honor. Here's what's going to go down: First, both of you are going to go get a haircut. Then you're going to get your blues cleaned and pressed with gold braid and make sure you've got a good shine on your shoes. And tomorrow, at ten o'clock, a grateful nation is going to heap its praise on two of its lofty heros and give you the Navy Cross. And you're going to accept them and be gracious and charming. Anything less than that and I will personally rip your [breasts] off."
From there it's off to the races. Duke's life was nothing more than a series of these events leading to Congress where he had no Ron McKeown to reign him in. As a congressman he played up the war hero image to the max, even falsely claiming to be the inspiration of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. He also found that there were people who would slip money to him in return for awarding defense contracts and this seemed to have no limit.
Duke's world started to fall apart when it was revealed that he sold his home for an inflated price to Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who earned incredible profits from Duke's earmarks. Pulling this string began an avalanche of stories that even Duke's best efforts couldn't stop. My favorite story was his call to an antique store in Maryland. Mr. Wade bought several antiques for Duke and in a pathetic attempt to cover this Duke called the manager to "remind" her that when Wade paid for it with a credit card, Duke reimbursed Wade with cash. He insisted he paid Wade $35,000 but the manager (Sandra Ellington) wouldn't buy it saying that she would remember if he gave Wade 350 $100 bills.
I liked the book and recommend it, but with two caveats. First, the book has 4 authors and it shows. They all have different writing styles and it makes the book choppy; they would have been well served if they had hired one editor to smooth over this and make the book easier to read. Second one of the authors (I'm not sure which) had a habit of making assumptions with nothing to back it up. In describing Duke's lifestyle between marriages he talked about Duke's evenings at the officer's club on base. "Cunningham...was no stranger to the police during these years. But these were different times, way before Mothers Against Drunk Driving and legislative crackdowns on drinking, long before the term 'designated driver' existed. And not many cops, either on or off the base, were about to arrest a man they knew was the Navy's only ace. Far better to just make sure he got home safely without hurting himself or others." The quotation is fine but gives no indication that Duke drove drunk or was pulled over. This would have had much more credibility if he had a quotation from a local cop who had pulled him over.
That said, it's a good read about a man who believed he was untouchable.
Duke Cunningham - Traitor to America.......2007-08-11
Don't forget, Duke was using his influence and reputation as a war hero to steer defense contracts. He was stealing from the Armed Forces in time of war, a traitor to his country and his own men.
Not only is Duke at the center of the Hookergate scandal, this ties into the US attorney scandal, as well as the indictment of Brent Wilkes and former CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. The Wilkes/Foggo debacle is apparently tied to bribery at the CIA. Google their names and "IranConta" to see how many of the characters in the Cunningham scandal go back to the Reagan adminsitration. Apparently the money laundring, drug running, and bribery network that started in the 80's took on a life of its own. While the Iraq war was still in the planning stages, they swarmed into DC and started bribing congressmen like Cunningham to get their cut of the Iraq pie in the form of sole source contracts.
What about the $90,000 in Congressman Jefferson's freezer?.......2007-08-04
The author's claim that Cunningham was a corrupt Congressman is true, but his claim that he is the "Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught" is not true. Congressman William Jefferson has been caught The FBI seized $90,000 in marked bills in Jefferson's home freezer. That cold cash is just the tip of the iceberg of the evidence against "Dollar Bill" Jefferson.
There is a major difference between Cunningham and Jefferson. Cunningham was a brave and decorated combat pilot. By contrast, Jefferson did not serve in combat and may never have served in the military at all.
This book is a one-sided hatchet job.
A Great Read!.......2007-07-02
Lily Tomlin once said no matter how cynical you are, you can't keep up. Mostly, I've viewed Congress as corrupt in those small, corrosive and bipartisan ways: a campaign donation begets wording in a bill, a vote or a visit. But, the size and scale of Duke Cunningham's pocket-bulging corruption boggles the mind. It must be read to be believed. And, the authors carefully inserted an important qualifier in their subtitle: the Most Corrupt Congressman EVER CAUGHT. All of which makes you wonder: What happened to all those promised reforms on ethics and lobbying?
Book Description
The return of a sports classic with a new foreword by the author
Finally back in print after many years, here is Bill Lee’s classic tale of his renegade life on and off the mound. Whether walking out on the Montreal Expos to protest the release of a valued teammate or telling sportswriters eager for candid and offbeat comments more about the game than his bosses wanted anyone to know, pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee became celebrated as much for his rebellious personality as for his remarkable talent. Add to the mix his affinity for Eastern religions and controversial causes, and you can see why Lee infuriated the establishment while entertaining his legion of fans.
In this wildly funny memoir that became a massive bestseller in the United States and Canada when it was first published, Lee recounts the colorful story of his life—from the drugged-out antics of his college days at USC (where he learned that “marijuana never hammered me like a good Camel”) to his post–World Series travels with a group of liberal long-distance runners through Red China (where he discovered that conservatives don’t like marathons because “it’s much easier to climb into a Rolls-Royce”). Lee also describes his minor league days, joining the Reserves during the Vietnam War, his time with the Red Sox, and the 1975 World Series. He spares no detail while recalling his infamous falling-out with Red Sox management that led to his trade to Montreal.
Full of irreverent wit, and an inherent love of the game, The Wrong Stuff is a sports classic for a new generation.
Customer Reviews:
A great baseball book! .......2006-06-13
The Wrong Stuff is a book written by former Red Sox and Expos left handed pitcher Bill Lee in 1984, about a year after his career as a major leaguer ended. It is a fairly quick read at 242 pages. What it is NOT, however, is a "typical" autobiography by a retired athlete. Lee, a California native who attended USC and now resides in Craftsbury, Vermont, instead delivers a real gem of a read.
Humor, insight, irreverence, and honesty are the bedrocks of this book, which follows Lee from his childhood in California, through high school and college, and into ranks of organized baseball. Lee is open and honest about drug use, love, sex, and his personal philosophy on life.
Lee was not a big prospect coming out of college, not like guys like Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman, both of whom he played with briefly before being drafted by the Red Sox in the 22nd round of the 1968 rookie draft. While he didn't throw that hard, he managed to get guys out by being crafty, out thinking hitters, and sometimes just by being crazy enough to believe he could do it. He headed off to pro ball without a lot of hope of making the major leagues. He figured he'd become a forest ranger when he grew up. Thankfully for him and baseball, Bill Lee never grew up.
Lee chronicles his moves through the minor leagues. During these years, he tangled with tough minor league managers (Rac Slider), met future Red Sox teammates (Carlton Fisk), and his future first wife (Mary Lou), and made bets with teammates about who could drink a gallon of milk in one sitting without vomiting (nobody). As he does throughout the book, he chronicles some games he pitched in...there's no bravado here, though...he talks about the good and the bad with the same honesty and good humor. Lee's minor league career didn't last that long, as in 1969 he was called up to the Boston Red Sox.
Once he found his way to Fenway Park (an adventure in itself), Lee appeared in 20 games in that first season, including one start. He only performed so-so, but made the team out of spring training in 1970. He only appeared in 11 games, however, because he was called up for military service. Lee has some fun talking about the absurdities of military life, but is also brutally honest about how he got preferential treatment because he was a pro athlete.
Lee pitched for Boston from 1969 to 1978, and the stories of winter ball fights, teammates, pennant races, trades, near trades, and run ins with management and coaches are all classic. He talks about the Red Sox teams from those years....moves they made, didn't make, should have made, and how he and the team did those years. Lee was a 17-game winner three times in a row from 1973-1975. He rails against the DH and talks about friendships, rivalries, and enemies, both on his team and around the league. He writes about his only All-Star selection and racism in baseball. He acquired his nickname, the Spaceman, during this time. He also experimented with drugs and alcohol, all of which he talks about openly and honestly.
The 1975 season had the Red Sox winning the pennant and going on to play the Cincinnati Reds in one of the greatest World Series ever played. Lee chronicles the season, and the run through the playoffs and the World Series. He started two games in that series, including the deciding seventh game, but did not record a win or loss. He had to leave game seven when a blister popped. The Sox bullpen coughed up the lead, and the Sox lost the series. Lee was fairly philosophical about the World Series loss, reasoning that it was great just to be part of such a great series. He spent two weeks that off-season in Red China as a goodwill ambassador, and came away with some interesting insights and stories.
Lee writes a lot about the 1976 season...a season that saw several players Lee saw as key cogs in the 1975 World Series team traded away, a brawl with the Yankees, his painful recovery, more trades in Boston, his thoughts on free agency, and a lot more. The brawl with the Yankees, who Lee and many other Red Sox flat out hated, involved Lee sustaining a major shoulder injury after being body slammed during the brawl by Yankees third baseman Craig Nettles. That year also saw the death of longtime Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. Between the shoulder injury, the death of Yawkey, and a managerial change from Darrel Johnson to Don Zimmer, Lee feels that this season was a turning point in his time in Boston, and that his days there were now numbered.
During the 1977 season, Lee and several other "renegades" bound together to form the "Royal Order of the Buffalo Heads", named after manager Don Zimmer, who the compared to the buffalo, considered by many to be one of the dumbest animals alive. Lee also pitched the first game of his career under the influence of a controlled substance that year. He got shuffled between the pen, the rotation, and the manager's doghouse. By the beginning of spring training 1978, Lee was one of only two of the five "buffalo heads", who was still around. Both assumed they wouldn't be around for long.
Lee talks about friendships with teammates like Dennis Eckersley and Bernie Carbo, and opponents like George Brett, providing some great stories. The 1978 season started out hot for both the Red Sox (led by slugger Jim Rice) and Lee, although Lee's injured arm would tire as the season progressed. Lee's first major run-in with management happened right after the trading deadline in June. When Carbo, a good friend and solid player, was sold to Cleveland for only $15,000, Lee went on strike for a day. It caused a major uproar, and got Lee into confrontations with team management. The Red Sox began to slip, and the Yankees came on hard. What had been a big division lead evaporated, and the division title came down to a one game playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox. The famous game was decided on a home run by light-hitting Bucky Dent, the Yankees went to the World Series, and the Red Sox went home. Lee, who loved his time in Boston, knew his time there was over. In December, he was traded to the Montreal Expos for Stan Papi, who would appear in only 50 games for Boston, hitting just .188.
Lee began the 1979 season on a new team (the Expos), in a new league (the National), and with a whole new roster of teammates. He was reunited with manager Dick Williams, something he was pleased with. Trouble tended to follow him, though...and in spring training, he admitted to the media that he'd been using marijuana since 1968. This caused quite a stir, including some visits from the FBI, but Lee managed to escape any real trouble. He speaks a bit more at this point in the book on his own drug use, drug use in baseball, and baseball training and the changes that were happening in that area during his career. Again, he hits all topics with humor, honesty, and insight. Lee went on to win 16 games in his first year in Montreal, and the talented team finished in second place. Even success came with its rough spots...Lee was hit by a cab while jogging in mid-season, but only missing two starts. The new teammates in Montreal provide for a whole new batch of amusing stories.
Lee could have become a free agent after the 1979 season, but without an agent, he negotiated himself a new three year deal with Montreal. The contract was probably below market for the time, especially since it included deferred money, but he said he had fallen in love with the city, and that money wasn't that important. He was not a fan of free agency, at all, considering it a bad thing for the game.
Lee had a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the 1980 and 1981 seasons both on and off the field. He hurt himself pretty badly falling from the side a friend's house (he was trying to climb up and tap on the window), and missed a lot of time in 1980. Meanwhile, his marriage was falling apart, and he and his first wife ended up getting a divorce. He had a lousy record in 1980, going 4-6 with a 4.96 ERA in 24 games.
The player strike hit in 1981, and that made for a split season. Lee's personal life continued to be topsy-turvy, with his marriage ending, and him meeting the woman who would become his second wife. Lee pitched pretty well, going 5-6 in 31 games (7 starts) with a nifty 2.94 ERA. Williams was replaced as manager during the season, however, and Lee and the other players soon found his replacement Jim Fanning, wasn't up for the job. The players held a meeting and basically decided to self-manage themselves, so that their new manager didn't cost them a trip to the playoffs. The team did make the playoffs, eventually losing to the Dodgers. Lee was married for the second time after the season.
The 1982 season began with more problems with Fanning. Fanning seemed to have it in for a friend of Lee's, teammate Rodney Scott, who had been the starting second baseman for the previous several seasons. Scott was a good field, not hit player, and Lee felt he was a key to the team's defense. Fanning disagreed, and buried Scott on the roster to begin the 1982 season. Eventually, the team released Scott. Lee again went on strike...skipping the team's game and heading to a bar, where he had three beers while watching the game. When he realized his team might need him to pitch, and not wanting to let down his teammates, he headed back to the park, reaching the clubhouse by the 8th inning.
It would be the last time in a major league uniform, in Montreal or anywhere else. He was released by the Expos on May 9th, 1982. After taking a few weeks off, Lee tried to hook up with another major league team for the rest of the season. Nobody called, and nobody returned his calls. He got more of the same as the 1983 spring training camps began.
Lee believes that he was blacklisted by major league baseball as a troublemaker. A conversation he writes about with Dick Williams seems to lend that theory some credence. Is it true? We may never know for sure...but in 1982, Lee was a 35 year old left handed pitcher who could start and relieve. He was coming off a season with an ERA of 2.94, and had a career ERA of 3.62. In baseball, left handed pitchers who can get people out are always a commodity, regardless of age. The chance that nobody in baseball had a spot for one in 1982 or 1983 seems hard to believe.
Overall, The Wrong Stuff was an excellent read...fun, controversial, enlightening, and thought provoking. Lee is one of the all time great characters in Red Sox, and baseball, history. I consider this book to be one of the top three baseball autobiographies I have read, with Jim Bouton's Ball Four and Ted Williams "My Turn at Bat".
Any fan of the game who wants some insight into the inner workings of major league baseball and one of its wackiest players will enjoy this book. Because of it's blunt discussions about drugs, sex, politics, and other controversial topics, the book is obviously not recommended for young fans of the game.
I KNEW BILL LEE. BILL LEE IS A FRIEND OF MINE..........2004-06-12
To any modern athlete who thinks of himself as an iconoclast, a funnyman, an intellectual, a wit - whether it be Jason Williams, Barry Zito, Michael Irvin, Charles Barkley, you name it, I say that I knew Bill Lee. I worked with Bill Lee. Bill Lee is a friend of mine, and you are no Bill Lee. This is no put down of those who are not the Spaceman. It is an ode to Lee. I love this character.
This is as funny a book as has ever been written about baseball. It is so unique, so California New Age, so filled with Boston baseball lore and Ruthian curse that reading it is just one big pleasure cruise. Lee is in the tradition of Casey Stengel and Rod Dedeaux, whose lineage he follows.
Lee's aunt was the main character described in "A League of Their Own". This is a guy surrounded by men's men growing up (his old man, his Uncle Grover), yet it is his aunt who taught him how to pitch. Amazingly, I know most of Bill's family, and they are Ed McMahon to Bill's Carson. His father was a straight arrow phone company exec. His aunt just smiles at Bill's buffoonery. She pitched a perfect game in the women's pro league on June 6, 1944 and, when asked if events of that day distracted her, she just said she had the ability to focus.
Recently Spaceman told an audience that "I don't believe in killing anybody, but the Unabomber had some good ideas." Like Hunter Thompson, here is a guy whose politics are the polar opposite of mine, yet I just dig the man.
If you grew up in the San Fernando Valley or Marin County, went to USC (particularly when Dedeaux coached there), or matriculated at Fenway Park, this book will tickle your jones for those memories. Lee is the closest guy I can think of (outside of George Patton) to making me think reincarnation is possible. I see him as a court jester of Camelot, always funny, always taking the minority view and making you shake your head - and smile.
I once had Bill as a guest at my home. At 6 A.M. I went to wake him, and he was gone. I looked out my window and Space was doing Tai-Kwan do with my 119-year old Chinese neighbor, a guy who probably was the emperor's body guard in 1880. I took Space to work. At a law office, I was in conference when the secretary came in yelling to "call 911. A guy's having a heart attack in the parking lot." I looked out the window. Space was doing his afternoon Tai-kwan do. I asked Space to meet me and my SC baseball buddies at the 501 Club in L.A. that night. The guys were all there, skeptical that Space would show. He showed and drank beer with us all night, filling us with stories. When a Doors song came on the juke Space announced, "My brother got stabbed at a Doors concert once." Survived. Space made nice-nice with an SC cutie, regaling her with stories about the 1968 College World Series vs. the Southern Illinois Salukis. Only Space could have captured some chick's attention with memories of the Southern Illinois Salukis. You had to be there.
Space spoke to the Orange County Young Republicans when he was running for President on Canada's Rhino ticket in 1988. The YRs were aghast at Space filling their precious speaker's rostrum until he took stage and had these buttoned-down types - and I do not exaggerate here - literally rolling in the aisles with laughter. Space in front of a crowd is up there with Carlin or Robin Williams.
These anecdotes are a typical example of what is in his autobiography. Not everybody can have the experience of spending time with Lee, but you all can get the next best thing, which is reading this book.
STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
More Scandalous than it Appears.......2002-09-13
Bill Lee's "The Wrong Stuff" looks like on the surface just to be another cut and dried quick biography of a former sports star. But after reading this, I was amazed that this book did not garner the same kind of negative attention that Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" did. Lee talks frankly about his drug use, his indiscretions with women, and his general disdain for the powers that be in baseball. If a star today shared similar revalations, I can't imagine the furror it would cause. Lee pitched a little before I started following baseball but his perspecive on things is timeless. I highly recommend this book.
Honest and Witty look at Baseball.......2002-08-24
This book along with Jim Bouton's classic Ball Four is essential for Baseball fans. His inside info on the great 70's Redsox teams and his battles with management are great. His take on free agency (against it) and the fact that he negotiated his own contracts makes him look like a godsend compared to today's prima donnas. A Great read if you can find it.
The Wrong Stuff.......2002-08-23
...Still relevant nearly 20 years later. I believe that makes this book a classic of the genre. Staccato sentences make for an easy read. Lee's retrospective is, on the surface, about staying true to ideals regarding justice and fair play. That makes the book stick today. Under it all is that while Lee is outspoken for the underdog, look at his career record. $50 million over five years is today's going price for that type of consistency. Bill may have done a heap of good with that kind of money. Party on, Uncle Charlie!
Customer Reviews:
This book was a gift to my husband........2007-09-26
My husband, Dave Bender, enjoyed the book very much and has passed it along to friends who have the same interests.
Tales well told........2007-08-13
I loved this book - it was unpretentious, genuine, and informative. Truman Smith conveys realistically what it was like for him - and it's obvious by his writing style no one "ghosted" it for him.
What it was like to live the life of an Eighth Air Force Bomber Pilot.......2007-05-12
When I purchased this book I wasn't too sure that it would be interesting. This is without doubt one of the best World War II pilot books I have ever read and I have read hundreds of them. The B-17 copilot/author is clearly a very intelligent, gifted writer who must have kept a detailled journal or the equivalent. In a most engaging way, he tells you about his day to day life, as much at the air base or on leave in London chasing girls or enjoying his friends as in the air. But he vividly and comprehensively recreates the life of his ten man crew and his flying job as well as the rest of his fighting the war but living in England on the ground experience. Picking this book up every evening at bed time brings me back into his at the war life. Really enjoyable. Fascinating. I highly reccommend this important piece of USAF world war II history. Don't worry about the title.
Excellent book by a B-17 pilot.......2006-11-26
As the son of a B-17 pilot, I have read several books on the subject. This is a very good one (another is "Serenade to the Big Bird"). I learned more about the author's experiences during his non-flying time, how he felt sure early on that he'd never survive the war, how he grew confident in his flying skills, and married a young German girl after the war (they are still married! I wrote him a letter thanking him for writing the book and she called me to thank me.)
It would make a good movie.
He captures it all........2002-09-25
One of the few things more exciting than reading Truman's book is meeting Truman himself. Yes there is a Ponca City and yes he does live there. As a veteran of our "conflict" in Viet Nam I had experienced many of the same emotions found in the book. I especially appreciated his discussions on the guilt of surving and of not doing enough. If you get a chance read the book, you won't be sorry. If you have been to war or thought about war you owe it to yourself to read this book. Thanks Mike, for introducing me to Truman, and thanks Truman, for writing the book.
Book Description
The first book-length pictorial review of aviation history told through its most creative disasters, The Wrong Stuff? is published in association with the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. It is published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of manned-flight. The Wrong Stuff? is different from other books on flight, in that it focuses on the PRE-history of flight.
The Wrong Stuff? includes biographical sidebars on the inventors, and contains over 300 archival images, including many never-before-published photos and illustrations. The book looks also at bizarre attempts at flight after the Wright brothers, giving an eye-catching new slant on a major anniversary.
Customer Reviews:
Beautifully Produced, Poorly Conceived.......2004-07-02
Phil Scott's new book is a superb collection of beautifully reproduced photographs of (mostly) obscure airplanes. Many types are covered by multiple photographs, including a number that I'd never seen in 30+ years of reading about the history of aviation. The photographs may, depending on your interests, be worth the price of the book.
The text is another story entirely
There is, to begin with, very little text. Each aircraft gets a single explanatory paragraph and a small box that lists basic information (where known) about its performance. The performance information is frequently spotty, and the descriptive paragraphs are frequently interrupted by the author's smirking asides and strained attempts at cuteness. Even given the one-paragraph-per-plane limit, the descriptions are notable for their shallowness and lack of useful information.
The text is also marred by errors. Some are subtle and ultimately trivial, like the misspelling of "Dreidecker," German for "triplane," as "dridecker." Others are glaring: To say that the X-15 was the "ancestor" (rather than "descendent") of the X-1 is either a ludicrous error of fact or an eighth-grade-level confusion of two words with related (but opposite meanings). At times, the author overreaches to make a point, as when he claims that Apollo lunar lander and the sleek silver spaceships of 1950s science-fiction both landed "tail first." At other times, as when discussing the highly corrosive fuel used to power the Me-163 rocket plane, he neglects information that would have reinforced his point. At least once, he flatly contradicts himself, disparaging the handling characteristics of an airplane that, elsewhere on the same page, he describes test pilots as praising.
The most fundamental problem with the book, however, is that it has no unifying theme or organizing principle. The title suggests a book about aircraft with fatally flawed or ill-conceived designs, and it covers many such machines. It also, however, includes a generous selection of aircraft that performed adequately but: a) Were designed for roles that turned out to be unnecessary; or b) Failed for reasons unrelated to their design; or even c) Just looked weird. The Bell RP-63 Kingcobra--a specially armored aircraft *designed* to be shot at in gunnery exercises--apparently makes the list because the concept now seems so outlandish. The assymetrical Blohm & Voss BV-141 performed well, but is (again, apparently) included to be snickered at. The famous "Vin Fiz," a Wright Model B that made the first flight across the USA in 1911, also gets an entry, but why? Apparently, because pilot Cal Rodgers crashed a lot along the way.
Shallow analysis, excessive cuteness, and nonexistent theme would be less galling if this was the first "Bad Aircraft Design" book on the market, but it is far from that. Bill Yenne's oversized "The World's Worst Aircraft" and James Gilbert's standard-sized book of the same title offer detailed history and serious analysis but *still* contain a great deal of humor. R. E. G. Davies' "Fads and Fallacies in Aviation History" takes on a variety of flawed concepts (flying cars, dirigibiles, supersonic transports, commercial flying boats), skewering sacred cows with razor-sharp technical and economic arguments. Any of the three is a far better investment, and a far better education in bad aircraft design, than "The Wrong Stuff."
Recommended (and worth two stars) *only* for those deeply interested in the pictures and willing to ignore the text.
A fun look at aviation's less-than-greatest moments.......2003-12-24
Even if you're not an airplane buff, you can't help but get a kick out of "The Wrong Stuff." What at first blush appears to be a perverse look at aviation's flakier moments is really a homage to these none-too-successful aircraft. Some of the planes -- especially the pre-Wright Brothers attemps -- look absurd through 21st century eyes. But in many instances, these aircraft actually solved important aeronautical problems, and helped the Wrights and other successful flyers. And many of the post-Wright planes were "failures" for economic or political reasons rather than technical ones. Cases in point were some of the cutting-edge WWII planes that saw limited production only because they were developed too late in the war. Or, the thinking behind the planes was sound, but the builders were too far ahead of their time to have access to the technology to make their designs a reality.
If nothing else, "The Wrong Stuff" will give the reader a smile. With lots of pictures, it's an easy book to read. At most, the reader will come away with a renewed respect for successful pioneers such as the Wrights, and all those who take risks in designing and flying new aircraft.
Superb.......2003-12-10
The writing was crisp, entertaining and informative, full of humour with a wry smile and a cutting edge. Scott really brought the little-known tales of would-be flights and fliers to life.
An OUTSTANDING book!.......2003-10-20
As a part-time flight instructor, I think that teaching at least some of the history of aviation along with the skills and knowledge required to fly an airplane makes for a well-rounded pilot. Not unlike his other two books, 'On the Shoulders of Giants' and 'Pioneers of Flight,' Phil Scott's latest book, "The Wrong Stuff," is a veritable compendium of aviation history and information that is a must-have for every aviation enthusiast and pilot . Wonderfully written, easy to read, and hard to put down, "The Wrong Stuff" is a wonderful, warm, and humorous account of all the things that went wrong leading up to the Wright Brothers' first flight, and some of the attempts made at flight by others afterward. Scott introduces these history-making people to the reader in such a way that he or she will come to know and befriend them; the reader will empathetically share the frustrations of failure-and the joys of success-as encountered by the characters in this book. I would recommend this book to anyone with even the slightest inkling of an interest in aviation; in particular, I'd recommend the book to anyone getting onto an airplane for a transcontinental flight.
I would also recommend Phil's other books: "On the Shoulders of Giants" and "Pioneers of Flight."
Book Description
On June 17, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Curiously, unlike every previous milestone in the "space race," this event did not spur NASA to catch up by flying an American woman. Though there were suitable candidates-two years earlier, thirteen female pilots recruited by the private Woman in Space program had passed a strenuous physical exam and were ready for another stage of astronaut testing-American women would not escape earth's gravity for another twenty years.
In Right Stuff, Wrong Sex, Margaret Weitekamp shows how the Woman in Space program -- conceived by Dr. William Randolph Lovelace and funded by world-famous pilot and businesswoman Jacqueline Cochran -- challenged prevailing attitudes about women's roles and capabilities. In examining the experiences of the Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees (as the candidates called themselves), this book documents the achievements and frustrated hopes of a remarkable group of women whose desire to serve their country fell victim to hostility toward such aspirations. Drawing from archival research and interviews with participants, Weitekamp traces the rise and fall of the Woman in Space program within the context of the cold war and the thriving women's aviation culture of the 1950s. Weitekamp's study sheds light on a little-known but compelling chapter in the history of the U.S. space program and the rise of the women's movement in America.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book About a Forgotten Program.......2006-06-20
The First Women in Space Program of the 1960's is an endeavor that has become all but forgotten in American history. That is until Margaret A. Weitekamp's recent book about the subject came along.
During the 1950's, there was massive resistance in U.S. government circles against any kind of a space program. There were, however, visionaries such as William Randolph "Randy" Lovelace II who promoted the benefits of a strong space program. It was not until after both the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 coupled with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 that a strong American space program came into existence.
Since the Kennedy Administration refused to countenance the idea of a women in space program, it was up to the likes of Lovelace & famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran to start a private program towards that goal. Another prominent woman in the U.S. aviation industry to support Lovelace's program was Jerrie Cobb who had passed all of the tests that had been administered to the NASA astronauts, but who had been passed over simply because she was a woman.
In the end, Lovelace's program came to naught due to a lack of funding, but the memory of it lives on in this splendid work.
An excellent piece of history.......2005-01-09
Margaret Weitekamp's book addresses a long-forgotten but recently rediscovered chapter in American history. At the height of the Space Race's Cold War fervor, a mix of private and public figures made several initial moves in the direction of introducing women to America's space program. None of these women ever really got close to becoming an astronaut due to an array of institutional and cultural constraints to their progress. They have been both lionized and marginalized by different camps over the last 40 years, with distortions and half-truths from every side. Weitekamp's book finally cuts through the clamor. It gathers an enormous array of rare and forgotten documents and details, along with oral history from the women themselves, to weave an authoritative narrative of the events. It should earn its place as a definitive work in this area.
Weitekamp's writing is precise and well-documented, with all the attention to sources and structure that academics need to be kept happy. Her focus is on gender (as befits the subject), but her work gradually yields a subtle examination of the perspectives, motives and positions of the women who confront its cultural manifestations. Like all good history, this reads like a movie waiting to happen. Jackie Cochran is the most intriguing character of the lot, with her political savvy and daredevil streak taking her from setting records on the tarmac to meetings in the Oval Office. Jerrie Cobb, the more public face of the original group of women at the climax of these events, suffered from a political naivety, but came to see the structural impediments to women perhaps more clearly than anyone. Easily the best piece of social and cultural history I've read this year.
Book Description
Jane Wheel is an antiques picker, cruising garage sales looking for items she can turn around and sell to dealers for a tidy profit. She also has a knack for finding clues and solving crimes....But her vast collection of junk has landed her in an emotional quagmire. When a school permission slip gets lost among the towering boxes in Jane's kitchen, causing her son Nick to miss a field trip, Jane vows to get rid of it all, organizing her house and, she hopes, her life. A call from detective Bruce Oh asking for help on a homicide promises a new career direction. Jane can hardly wait to investigate, until she learns the identity of the accused: it's antiques dealer Claire Oh, wife of her new partner. And the trail leads right back into the heart of her passion for other people's stuff....and into a deadly joining of old passions, new secrets, and imminent danger.
Customer Reviews:
Antiques and murder.......2004-10-28
Jane forgets to sign a school permission slip for her son. So, she vows to clean up her act and get rid of all her stuff. Easier said than done. She is an antiques picker and a packrat. While her husband and son are away at a conference, Jane begins this process by purchasing a book , "Overstuffed."
She has been trying to decide between two offers - to become an associate with Tim, her friend, in his antiques dealership or to become a consultant in a private investigations firm with Bruce Oh, a former police detective she met in previous cases.
Tim and Jane head up to a furniture restoration place. It is more like a commune. The artists live there. Jane discovers one of them face down in a stream out back. Once again she is embroiled in a murder investigation.
Bruce Oh's wife is an antiques dealer and already the suspect in a murder back home. Now she is implicated in this as well.
Can Tim and Jane, with the help of Bruce Oh undercover, discover the real murderer and how and why it was done?
During all this she has to deal with her mother and father by phone. This is not an easy task under normal situations but her father is going in for some medical tests that Jane was unaware of before. Can she handle all this and still organize her life at home?
This is a fun series to read. I really enjoy reading about Jane's adventures. She is very entertaining. Her character is very rich and detailed. The antiques world is a lot of fun to be exposed to and the author does a great job of weaving that in without bogging down the mystery.
I like that there is plenty of investigation throughout the story as well. I highly recommend this book.
Cute and charming.......2004-02-28
When her friend's wife is accused of murder, part-time antique picker, part time private detective, and part time bad-mom Jane Wheeler and her gay friend Tim set off for a fine furniture comune. Jane quickly finds another victim and an even bigger mystery. Nobody in the comune seems completely happy, but there certainly don't seem to be any reason why someone would kill. Still, two people are dead now and Jane knows that her friend's wife is innocent.
Jane's investigation turns up plenty of problems, and puts her in danger of being killed herself, but it is cryptic clues from her distant mother and strange vibes from the local residents that finally give her the intuitive leap to solving the mystery.
Author Sharon Fiffer does an excellent job portraying Jane Wheeler's troubles with stuff--she is so intent on buying stuff that her house and garage overflow and she gets so distracted she forgets to sign her son's permission slip for a field trip--and integrating it into the story. The plot line about antique furniture and faked antiques is intriguing and Sharon's research adds to the story without drawing the reader out of it.
Fiffer's writing is fresh and funny. Jane is a charming character whose problems create reader identification (who hasn't been overwhelmed by too much of the Wrong Stuff), and her concerns over reaching middle age, being a good mother, and balancing her careers all ring true. THE WRONG STUFF is the right stuff as far as light-hearted mysteries go. Recommended.
My Stuff Runneth Over.......2004-02-09
Like the Jadite and Bakelite and old linens and handwriting that Jane finds, Sharon Fiffer's "Stuff" series just keeps getting better. When we last left Jane Wheel, Kankakee saloon owners' daughter, former ad exec, Charley's not-so-estranged wife and Nick's momma, now antique "picker," sentimental "junquer," and ameuteur sleuth, she was chillin on the back porch with husband Charley, contemplating what she was going to be when she grew up. Would she reunite the family with Charley? Would she go into the picking/selling antiques/collectibles business with bestfriend since 1st grade Tim? Would she partner with retired Police Detective Oh (he of the great old ties?) Or have it all, to be a PI ("Picker Investigator?")
But can one have too much Stuff? Too many titles and responsibilities? Fiffer has invented organizing maven Belinda St. Germain, author of *Overstuffed An Addicts Guide to Decluttering* who chides and guides disciples into getting rid of their excessive Stuff before it suffocates them. Would but she were real and I could collect her books!
The title, "The Wrong Stuff," has multiple meanings as one meanders through the mystery. Fiffer sells intelligent social commentary along with another fun foray into the cozy colorful world of collectors and collectables, cleverly set up in the two prior "Stuffs."
TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer
The work of a fine writer.......2004-01-08
A friend of mine in the publishing business, an editor at one of the big houses who knows I'm a great admirer of the well-turned sentence, recommended this series to me last year and it was the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time. In THE WRONG STUFF and its two predecessor books Mrs. Fiffer has done to the "picking" subculture what was done to dog shows by Guest and Levy in the movie "Best in Show" (but in a nice way). This third installment, like the previous two, has a cast of compelling characters and a plot that keeps the reader turning the pages and thoroughly engaged with Jane Wheel and Bruce Oh as they puzzle their way to the very satisfying conclusion. And those would be reasons enough to recommend this book to anyone who loves to read.
But they are not the main reason. The main reason you ought not to leave this page before mousing over and adding this book to your shopping cart is, in a word, the writing. It's the kind of writing that can make you laugh out loud. And think hard about your own life, if you're of a certain age. It can make you hurt for characters you know exist only in your imagination and that of those others who have been fortunate enough to stumble across this wonderful series. It is, frankly, the kind of writing that many of the big names at the top of the best seller list wouldn't recognize if it bit them on the leg.
Sharon Fiffer is the best writer nobody ever heard of. Please keep 'em coming, ma'am.
Converted to a Mystery Fan.......2004-01-08
Sharon Fiffer has done it. I didn't used to be a mystery fan, but she has converted me. I've read all three books in her Jane Wheel series, 'Dead Guy's Stuff,' 'Killer Stuff,' and now 'The Wrong Stuff.' I can only hope that there will be a fourth volume soon. I read the current release, 'The Wrong Stuff,' in two days (I often spend a couple of weeks getting through a book). It was a terrific mix of mystery, humor, and character development. The main character, Jane Wheel, is molded true to life. She struggles to solve intriguing crimes, maintain her interest in collectable antiques, and devote time to family and friends. She finds it a difficult balance, and that's part of the charm of the books. Jane's mother is a hoot! Her friends, Detective Oh, and Tim, are cleverly drawn characters, and quite believable.
Most readers will readily identify with the entries at the beginning of each chapter, excerpts from an imaginary advice book called 'Overstuffed,' - about ridding clutter from your life. The quotes were so well done that, after I had read the first 200 pages of 'The Wrong Stuff,' I went online - I thought that perhaps 'Overstruffed' actually existed - and, if so, I might order a copy (I think Fiffer could develop a story line around the imaginary author). But we'll have to wait a while for that. In the meantime I hope you enjoy 'The Wrong Stuff' as much as I did.
Book Description
A mechanical killer space spider goes on the rampage in Florida. This, however, is no simple angry arachnid robbing armored cars and supermarkets. It's the adopted new brainchild of the reality-challenged head of NASA and his elite cadre of Space Cadets.
But not even Captain Kirk is aware of the nightmare that's been unleashed in the name of interplanetary exploration. An old enemy is back in action and, with a click and a whir, can morph from titanium spider into his ugly old android self. And with NASA and America's favorite horror writer in his steel-plated back pocket, he's got a leg -- or eight -- up on his true mission: destroy the Destroyer.
This time, failure is not an option.
Customer Reviews:
It's a Destroyer Foe Smack-Down.......2001-11-30
The best so far by the newest author..... Mr. Gordons is back. The Dutchman is almost back. Remo is officially Reigning Master. Elize Roote (#118's foe) is back - and it's the first face off of two of Sinanju's greatest adversaries - Roote vs Mr. Gordons . Jim has packed so much into this book it's almost dizzying. O.J gets whacked. Stephen King gets lampooned. Back in #18 when we first met Mr. Gordons , Chiun plays with a model airplane, then kills someone with it. In #125, its a model rocket ship. In #18, Remo tries to fry Mr. Gordons with a rocket engine. In #125 it's a Space Shuttle engine. Smith's apprentice (Mark Howard) is coming into his own, just as Chiun's apprentice (the white thing) has ascended to Reigning Master. Mr. Gordons survives once again.
Very Good Entry in Series.......2001-10-20
It's good to see The Robotic Mr. Gordons back, one of this series best villians. Story moved right along, some funny stuff as well.
Wildly uneven.......2001-10-19
Wildly uneven, but creative 125th entry into the Destroyer series, once again pitting Remo and Chiun against their most prolific enemy. The author does a great job breathing new life into what could have been a typical entry. He also does an amazing job with continuity and incorporating detail from previous entries.
The action is good, but some of the characterization is not the greatest. I did not believe nor enjoy the NASA threat. The coincidences also were a bit much. And I would not recommend this book to anyone who has not read the series. For the hardcore to the casual readers of the series, this is another critical novel to read with the positives far outweighing the negatives.
Customer Reviews:
The Mercury Rockets!.......2002-01-22
The book contains the memoirs of Bernice Trimble Steadman. She enjoyed an exciting career beginning with flying lessons in high school, Latter, she became a flight school instructor, ace pilot and then an airplane dealer. Finally, she became one of the original Thirteen women to pass NASA's astronaut physical, and then on to space. The book is an amazing story of bravery and personal courage, mostly told for the first time.
Average customer rating:
- A Journalistic Account of the Challenger Accident
- Choosing "romantic myth over a practical space policy."
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Challenger : A Major Malfunction : A True Story of Politics, Greed, and the Wrong Stuff
Malcolm McConnell
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0385238770
Release Date: 1986-12-02 |
Customer Reviews:
A Journalistic Account of the Challenger Accident.......2004-01-20
Published in 1987 just a year after the "Challenger" accident, this book by journalist Malcolm McConnell explores what was then known about the events leading up to the decision to launch the shuttle on January 28, 1986. Stressing the immediate causes of the accident, McConnell highlighted the pressures to launch, the objections of engineers, and the internal debates on the subject. He argued that NASA leaders caused the disaster by pressing operations officials to launch when they did so that President Ronald Reagan could mention it in that evening's scheduled State of the Union Address. Of course, this was the mission that would have as a crewmember Christa McAullife, the teach in space who had a special lesson from orbit planned for millions of school children.
McConnell's accusations made in "A Majot Malfunction" have been condemned by proponents of the Space Shuttle, especially by NASA personnel, but those complaints require more dispassionate, critical, and technically and programmatically informed analysis than has been offered. This book is certainly not the penultimate word on the subject, but it is an important statement of public understanding of the subject not long after the time of the accident.
For an analytical, and exceptionally compelling, analysis of the "Challenger" accident readers should review Diane Vaughan, "The Challenger Launch Decision" (University of Chicago Press, 1996). Malcolm McConnell's book is mostly useful as a journalistic account that offers an overview of the accident and the reasons behind it.
Choosing "romantic myth over a practical space policy.".......2003-12-20
Malcolm McConnell, a renown author and reporter at Cape Canaveral to cover the Teacher-in-Space launch, writes a revealing account of the events that led to the Challenger tragedy as well as the launch itself. Here are some of the things covered in this book:
--The controversy over the issuing of contracts to Rockwell and Thiokol in the 1970s.
--How the campaigns of Nixon and Reagan influenced events that led to the tragedy, in the latter case, why the "Teacher-in-Space" program was so important for political image.
--How employees, especially at the Marshall Space Center, were treated.
--Concerns of pilot Mike Smith days before his final flight.
--Ways in which Reagan's Sate of the Union address, the Soviet's plan to examine Halley's Comet, and Congressman Bill Nelson's insistence on being on Columbia for the 61-C mission may have contributed to the event.
--Step-by-step details on the procedures and concerns leading to the ill-fated launch. It also covers the daily life of the crew from their big press conference to the end.
Published in 1988, the book does not go too much into the aftermath of the tragedy, although it does include an epilogue that tells the fate of some of the execs connected to the launch. There are sporadic references to the Rogers Commission's findings. It is written in the clear, precise in-the-moment style of an accomplished journalist who knows his subject inside in out. There are also two sets of photos.
Books:
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time
- To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home
- Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal
- Unzipped
- US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76
- Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II
- Why Do I Think I Am Nothing Without a Man?
- With No One as Witness (Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers Novels)
- Wooden on Leadership
- A Hunger Like No Other (The Immortals After Dark Series, Book 1)
Books Index
Books Home
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- History: Fiction or Science
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