Welcome to Litsy!

We went today to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in VA. We went to mainly get to see the Space Shuttle Discovery (since the last bill that passed wants to move it to TX). I did pick this book up for my daughter (the book selection for girls was disappointing). We were at one of the discovery stations about black holes. The young guy asked my daughter if she knew what a black hole was. She said yes & explained. He‘s like OMG you‘re exactly

This is a terrific book - a narrative nonfiction history of the Apollo program told mainly through the astronauts. The book will win over jaded resistant readers and often keep us glued. The astronauts are super smart, but also foolish and emotionally distant.

One thing that struck me was the scale of the moonscape. Pike‘s Peak sized mountains outside the landers.

My new audiobook, from 1993. Yes, I am partially listening to this because the author and I share last names.

The author goes into great detail about the history of NASA, government contractors, and astronauts. While the book is about the Challenger you learn a lot about the workings of getting all space shuttles into orbit. Once again we find out that greed and not listening to the experts is the thing that will doom a project every time. What a tragedy. Great work writing a riveting book that was never a slog to get through despite all the detail.

Probably if you are an American of a certain age you will have a Vivid memory of the day the Challenger exploded killing all 7 aboard. This book takes you through a history at NASA from the first Apollo to that awful day. He walks you through the science and the politics, the human error and hubris that lead to the explosion and what could have been done differently. Incredibly well researched and with easy to follow language and narrative.

#Read2025

I finished this last week but I‘m behind in reviews. Read for #MonthlyNonFiction2025 it was also one of my April #Roll100 picks (#16 Any Non-Fiction). It‘s an interesting juxtaposition to read this book while watching random famous people try to pass themselves off as astronauts & having Nancy Drew solve a mystery with exploding oranges at Cape Canaveral. I remember being in class (college) in the morning when they wheeled in a tv & ⬇️

Starting this one today feels serendipitous after the highly publicized "flight" this week. I have so many thoughts and feelings.

I was in the first grade when the Challenger tragedy happened and I still remember the shock of it all. I have heard good things about the this one and think it is a perfect time to read it.

My #Chatterday Saturday vibe is recovery. Another insane week at work with 2 Hilo trips & big meetings & next week is the same, so trying to catch up with myself, reading (this one is due back in 2 days) & snail mail for #LitsyLove & other returns. Also I need to post some reviews & my delinquent #5JoysFriday 💛 from yesterday as I crashed as soon as I got home from the airport last night. 😵‍💫😴

Hope you all are having a good weekend! 🤗

I‘m always interested in learning more about women who haven‘t gotten as much attention in the history books. One of The Six was Sally Ride and one was Judy Resnik, but the others are lesser known (at least to me). Astronauts are so interesting to me, but I have no desire to leave Earth! It was somewhat melancholy reading this after reading Challenger.

This book was respectful, beautifully written, exhaustively researched storytelling at its finest. Even though I knew how things were going to end up, this was still a nail-biter. I caught myself thinking, wow, I really really really hope they call off this launch… It might not seem like a glowing recommendation to say, “Read this! It gave me nightmares!” but it really is one of the best nonfiction books I‘ve ever read.