Download or read book The Astronaut Wives Club written by Lily Koppel and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-11 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the true story of the women who stood beside some of the greatest heroes of American space travel in this New York Times bestseller that delivers "a truly great snapshot of the times" (Publishers Weekly) that inspired a limited TV series on ABC! As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons. Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; JFK made it clear that platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was his favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived with a secret that needed to stay hidden from NASA. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, providing one another with support and friendship, coffee and cocktails. As their celebrity rose--and as divorce and tragedy began to touch their lives--the wives continued to rally together, forming bonds that would withstand the test of time, and they have stayed friends for over half a century.
Download or read book Far Side of the Moon written by Liisa Jorgensen and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The decades-long love story of a NASA commander and the leader of the Astronaut Wives Club Far Side of the Moon is the untold, fully authorized story of the lives of Frank and Susan Borman. One was a famous astronaut—an instrumental part of the Apollo space program—but the other was just as much a warrior. This real-life love story is far from a fairy tale. Life as a military wife was beyond demanding, but Susan always rose to the occasion. When Frank joined NASA and was selected to command the first mission to orbit the moon, that meant putting on a brave face for the world as her husband risked his life for the space race. The pressure and anxiety were overwhelming, and eventually Susan's well-hidden depression and alcoholism finally came to light. Frank had to come to terms with how his "mission above all else" mentality contributed to his wife's suffering. As Susan healed, she was able to begin helping others who suffered in silence from mental illness and addiction. Discover how Frank and Susan's love and commitment to each other is still overcoming life's challenges, even beyond their years as an Apollo commander and the founder of the Astronaut Wives Club.
Download or read book The Astronaut s Wife written by Stacey Morgan and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A true story about making the most of your one incredible life. Stacey Morgan kissed her husband goodbye before he donned his space suit on July 20, 2019, and headed to his waiting Soyuz rocket. With an overwhelming mix of pride, excitement, and terror, she and her children held hands and watched the rocket ignite and lift off for a nine-month mission aboard the International Space Station. This is the story of the astronaut’s wife—a journey full of unexpected twists and turns. While the love of her life orbited the Earth, Stacey was about to embark on a knock-your-socks-off adventure right here at home. This season would be different from any Stacey had experienced before. The risks were greater, the loneliness was deeper, and the stress was more intense. Filled with as many unique challenges as surreal opportunities, this deeply meaningful season taught her rich lessons about preparing for any mission or adventure life throws at you rediscovering your fun side when you’ve been trapped in survival mode too long trusting God when you feel weak or alone choosing hope in the face of fear and uncertainty Containing behind-the-scenes glimpses into a side of space flight that most of us will never experience, The Astronaut’s Wife is a funny, poignant, and meaningful exploration of living life to the fullest—no matter where you roam.
Download or read book Homeward Bound written by Emily Matchar and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation into the societal impact of intelligent, high-achieving women who are honing traditional homemaking skills traces emerging trends in sophisticated crafting, cooking and farming that are reshaping the roles of women.
Download or read book The Red Leather Diary written by Lily Koppel and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A world straight from the pages of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel . . . An extraordinary story about coming of age . . . and discovering who you are.” —Parade Rescued from a Dumpster on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a discarded diary brings to life the glamorous, forgotten world of an extraordinary young woman . . . Opening the tarnished brass lock of a red leather diary found in the basement of a New York City apartment building, New York Times writer Lily Koppel embarked on a journey into the past. Compelled by the hopes and heartaches captured in the pages, Koppel set out to find the diary’s owner, a 90-year old woman named Florence. Eventually reunited with her diary, Florence ventured back to the girl she once was, rediscovering a lost self that burned with artistic fervor. Joining intimate interviews with original diary entries, The Red Leather Diary is an evocative and entrancing work that recreates the romance and glitter, sophistication and promise, of 1930s New York, bringing to life the true story of a precocious young woman who dared to follow her dreams. “Melds three life-affirming subjects—Florence Wolfson’s journal of life in 1930s Manhattan, Koppel’s discovery of it in a Dumpster decades later, and the meeting of the two women—into one enchanting memoir.” —Elle “[An] amazing story . . . A highbrow fairy tale . . . Much of the book’s emotional power derives from the drama of an old woman reclaiming a past that was almost lost to her . . . Koppel writes with flair.” —Chicago Tribune
Download or read book The Right Stuff written by Tom Wolfe and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2008-03-04 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Wolfe at his very best" (The New York Times Book Review), The Right Stuff is the basis for the 1983 Oscar Award-winning film of the same name and the 8-part Disney+ TV mini-series. From "America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek)--a breath-taking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the true heroism and courage of the first Americans to conquer space. " Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers, that made The Right Stuff a classic.
Download or read book Come Fly the World written by Julia Cooke and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2021 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A lively, unexpected portrait of the jet-age stewardesses serving on iconic Pan Am airways between 1966 and 1975"--
Download or read book Inventing the American Astronaut written by Matthew H. Hersch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-10-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who were the men who led America's first expeditions into space? Soldiers? Daredevils? The public sometimes imagined them that way: heroic military men and hot-shot pilots without the capacity for doubt, fear, or worry. However, early astronauts were hard-working and determined professionals - 'organization men' - who were calm, calculating, and highly attuned to the politics and celebrity of the Space Race. Many would have been at home in corporate America - and until the first rockets carried humans into space, some seemed to be headed there. Instead, they strapped themselves to missiles and blasted skyward, returning with a smile and an inspiring word for the press. From the early days of Project Mercury to the last moon landing, this lively history demystifies the American astronaut while revealing the warring personalities, raw ambition, and complex motives of the men who were the public face of the space program.
Download or read book Sally Ride written by Lynn Sherr and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive biography of Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, with exclusive insights from Ride’s family and partner, by the ABC reporter who covered NASA during its transformation from a test-pilot boys’ club to a more inclusive elite. Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space. A member of the first astronaut class to include women, she broke through a quarter-century of white male fighter jocks when NASA chose her for the seventh shuttle mission, cracking the celestial ceiling and inspiring several generations of women. After a second flight, Ride served on the panels investigating the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disintegration that killed all aboard. In both instances she faulted NASA’s rush to meet mission deadlines and its organizational failures. She cofounded a company promoting science and education for children, especially girls. Sherr also writes about Ride’s scrupulously guarded personal life—she kept her sexual orientation private—with exclusive access to Ride’s partner, her former husband, her family, and countless friends and colleagues. Sherr draws from Ride’s diaries, files, and letters. This is a rich biography of a fascinating woman whose life intersected with revolutionary social and scientific changes in America. Sherr’s revealing portrait is warm and admiring but unsparing. It makes this extraordinarily talented and bold woman, an inspiration to millions, come alive.
Download or read book A Discovery of Witches written by Deborah Harkness and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle. “A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People). Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now, and Shudder! Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Time’s Convert.
Download or read book The Mercury 13 written by Martha Ackmann and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2004-07-13 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For readers of The Astronaut Wives Club, The Mercury 13 reveals the little-known true story of the remarkable women who trained for NASA space flight. In 1961, just as NASA launched its first man into space, a group of women underwent secret testing in the hopes of becoming America’s first female astronauts. They passed the same battery of tests at the legendary Lovelace Foundation as did the Mercury 7 astronauts, but they were summarily dismissed by the boys’ club at NASA and on Capitol Hill. The USSR sent its first woman into space in 1963; the United States did not follow suit for another twenty years. For the first time, Martha Ackmann tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America’s space race against the Soviet Union. In addition to talking extensively to these women, Ackmann interviewed Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and others at NASA and in the White House with firsthand knowledge of the program, and includes here never-before-seen photographs of the Mercury 13 passing their Lovelace tests. Despite the crushing disappointment of watching their dreams being derailed, the Mercury 13 went on to extraordinary achievement in their lives: Jerrie Cobb, who began flying when she was so small she had to sit on pillows to see out of the cockpit, dedicated her life to flying solo missions to the Amazon rain forest; Wally Funk, who talked her way into the Lovelace trials, went on to become one of the first female FAA investigators; Janey Hart, mother of eight and, at age forty, the oldest astronaut candidate, had the political savvy to steer the women through congressional hearings and later helped found the National Organization for Women. A provocative tribute to these extraordinary women, The Mercury 13 is an unforgettable story of determination, resilience, and inextinguishable hope.
Download or read book Breaking the Chains of Gravity written by Amy Shira Teitel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible story of spaceflight before the establishment of NASA. NASA's history is a familiar story, one that typically peaks with Neil Armstrong taking his small step on the Moon in 1969. But America's space agency wasn't created in a vacuum. It was assembled from pre-existing parts, drawing together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer. In the 1930s, rockets were all the rage in Germany, the focus both of scientists hoping to fly into space and of the German armed forces, looking to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. One of the key figures in this period was Wernher von Braun, an engineer who designed the rockets that became the devastating V-2. As the war came to its chaotic conclusion, von Braun escaped from the ruins of Nazi Germany, and was taken to America where he began developing missiles for the US Army. Meanwhile, the US Air Force was looking ahead to a time when men would fly in space, and test pilots like Neil Armstrong were flying cutting-edge, rocket-powered aircraft in the thin upper atmosphere. Breaking the Chains of Gravity tells the story of America's nascent space program, its scientific advances, its personalities and the rivalries it caused between the various arms of the US military. At this point getting a man in space became a national imperative, leading to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, otherwise known as NASA.
Download or read book Fastpitch written by Erica Westly and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A League of Their Own for the softball set” (Lily Koppel, bestselling author of The Astronaut Wives Club), Fastpitch is hidden history at its most intriguing—the tale of the forgotten beginnings of one of the most popular and widely played sports today. Softball is played by tens of millions in various age groups all around the world, but the origins of this beloved sport (and the charismatic athletes who helped it achieve prominence in the mid-twentieth century) have been shrouded in mystery…until now. Fastpitch brings to vivid life the eclectic mix of characters that make up softball’s vibrant 129-year history. From its humble beginnings in 1887, when it was invented in a Chicago boat club and played with a broomstick, to the rise in the 1940s and 1950s of professional-caliber, company-sponsored teams that toured the country in style, softball’s history is as varied as it is fascinating. Though it’s thought of today as a female sport, fastpitch softball’s early history is full of male stars, such as the vaudeville-esque Eddie Feigner, whose signature move was striking out batters while blindfolded. But because softball was one of the only team sports that also allowed women to play competitively, it took on added importance for female athletes. Women like Bertha Ragan Tickey, who set strikeout records and taught Lana Turner to pitch, and her teammate Joan Joyce, who struck out baseball star Ted Williams, made a name—and a life—for themselves in an era when female athletes had almost no prospects. Softball allowed them to flourish, and they in turn inspired a whole new generation of athletes. Featuring eight pages of captivating, vintage photos and compelling, well-researched historical commentary, this “fun and entertaining read” (Billie Jean King) chronicles softball’s unique history as well as its uncertain future (as evidenced by its controversial elimination from the 2012 Olympics, and the mounting efforts to have it reinstated). A celebration of this distinctively American game and the role it plays in our culture today, Westly has written “a must-read for anyone who loves the sport” (Jonathan Fader, author of Life as Sport).
Download or read book Star Dust written by Emma Barry and published by Penny Bright Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A divorcee searching for her new normal gets tangled up in the Space Race—and the astronaut next door. Houston, 1962 Anne-Marie Smith wanted normal: a loving husband, two beautiful kids, and a well-kept house. But when she catches her husband cheating, she decides that normal isn’t worth it. Now in a new city with a new job, she’s trying to find her new normal—but she knows it doesn’t include the sexy playboy astronaut next door. Commander Kit Campbell has a taste for fast: fast cars, fast planes, and even faster women. But no ride he’s ever taken will be as fast as the one he’s taking into orbit. He’s willing to put up with the prying adoration of an entire country if it will get him into space. But Anne-Marie and Kit’s inconvenient attraction threatens both normal and fast. As the space race heats up, his ambitions and their connection collide and combustion threatens their plans… and their hearts. space race romance, astronaut hero, divorced heroine, military romance, 1960s romance, mad men romance, moon race romance, navy officer hero, aviator hero
Download or read book The Last Man on the Moon written by Eugene Cernan and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Apollo 17 commander and NASA veteran, “an exciting, insider’s take on what it was like to become one of the first humans in space” (Publishers Weekly). Eugene Cernan was a unique American who came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of space flight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to the moment when he left man’s last footprint on the moon as commander of Apollo 17. Between those two historic events lay more adventures than an ordinary person could imagine as Cernan repeatedly put his life, his family, and everything he held dear on the altar of an obsessive desire. Written with New York Times–bestselling author Don Davis, The Last Man on the Moon is the astronaut story never before told—about the fear, love, and sacrifice demanded of the few who dare to reach beyond the heavens. “Thrilling highlights . . . a book not just about space flight but also about the often-brutal competition that went on between the US and the Soviet Union.” —Washington Times “A fascinating book.” —Charlotte Observer
Download or read book Taking Off written by Jenny Moss and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Clear Lake, Texas, a group of astronauts has begun training for the Challenger mission. Among them is a teacher named Christa McAuliffe, the woman chosen to be the first teacher in space. When Annie meets Christa, she is fascinated by her determination and courage. Following Christa's NASA journey through the news, Annie sees that Christa seems to be an ordinary person, like Annie herself, and yet Christa is reaching amazing heights-like flying on the space shuttle. Feeling so inspired, Annie is devastated when the shuttle launch turns to tragedy. But Annie must remember that Christa would have wanted her to keep reaching for her dreams, despite any obstacle.
Download or read book A Man on the Moon written by Andrew Chaikin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The authoritative masterpiece" (L. A. Times) on the Apollo space program and NASA's journey to the moon This acclaimed portrait of heroism and ingenuity captures a watershed moment in human history. The astronauts themselves have called it the definitive account of their missions. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail. A Man on the Moon is also the basis for the acclaimed miniseries produced by Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon, now airing and streaming again on HBO in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.
