Transportation/Space
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's intimate account of her first journey to the International Space Station, to which she returns in 2022, as commander of Expedition 68a--only the fourth woman to command the ISS, praised by Scott Kelly for its "incredible detail and great writing." Two hundred days orbiting Earth on the International Space Station. Five years working and training with the aerospace community across the world. A lifetime of choices leading to the stars. These are the components of Samantha Cristoforetti's dream, a dream she invites us to share in this intimate account of an astronaut's journey to space. She views the triumphs and disappointments of that journey with a poet's eye and a philosopher's mind--and an engineer's gift for detail that brings each experience into sharp focus. With Cristoforetti as our guide, we're called to become "apprentice astronauts" and experience the world anew through the visor of a space suit's helmet. Bonding with crew members to tackle challenges as a team, lifting off from the launchpad in a roar of engines, discovering the strange wonders of weightlessness, seeing Earth with a fresh perspective after a bittersweet return to solid ground . . . all these moments and more reveal what it really takes to escape our planet's gravity in pursuit of a goal.
A New York Times Bestseller * An Amazon Best Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Time Best Book for Summer Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed--until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice. Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes--and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Exhilarating." --New York Times Book Review "Riveting." --People "Keith O'Brien has brought these women--mostly long-hidden and forgotten--back into the light where they belong. And he's done it with grace, sensitivity and a cinematic eye for detail that makes Fly Girls both exhilarating and heartbreaking." --USA Today The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s -- and won Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit. Fly Girls recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky. O'Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high-school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue-blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men -- and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all. Like Hidden Figures and Girls of Atomic City, Fly Girls celebrates a little-known slice of history in which tenacious, trail-blazing women braved all obstacles to achieve greatness.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924. 1st edition. Edited by Frank Shay; decorations and woodcuts by Edw. A. Wilson; introduction by William McFee. Signed by illustrator. No dust jacket; blue boards with teal spine; inlaid white paper label with title and illustrations on front cover; orange paper label with title and decoration on spine; boards scuffed; corners bumped and worn; spine head pulled and frayed; spine edge near front cover faded and has two water spots; illustrated endpapers; gift inscription in ink on ffep; front hinge weak; text clean and bright. G