I suppose my my lack of postings here you can figure that I'm not much of a reader.
I mainly read non-fiction. But the one I just finished took my emotions from 'out-loud-laughing' in public places to tears as the author discussed his dreams and hurts. Not the usual emotions for this sometimes rather detailed and boring area. The book is "
Riding Rockets" by Astronaut Mike Mullane. I can't help but think about his remarks about the way NASA fumbled their management duties and endangered so many with the launch of the Shuttle only hours away. Once again, with warnings about fixes that haven't been made.
Mr. Mullane is a rare military 'flyboy' in the Astronaut field. I think he is one of the very few military members ( until recently, anyway ) to not be a pilot. Part of the interesting story is his superb work in every field he tried, but his complete lack of confidence that he would ever succeed! He attributes all his success to his parents and his wife ( who he admits he married for the wrong reason! ). He was in the same Astornaut class with the first women, a sex he said he had no idea how to actually work with.
That leads to many extermely amusing episodes! There are many things that may shock sensitive readers; there are really only a handful of curse words, but the dialog is quite frank and is mostly male oriented. He claims women may come from Venus and most men from Mars, but
all pilots come from the planet "AD" ( Arrested Development ).
I highly recommend the book if you have any interest in the early Shuttle era. It's still only hardback, however. ISBN:
0743276825
