A sublime scrapbook tribute to an unexpected career in orbit.
A debut memoir focuses on a venturesome Southern farm boy who fulfilled a lifelong dream to explore space as an astronaut.
From his earliest days, decorated military veteran and retired astronaut Bridges had an undeniably adventurous spirit. His book, split into three sections, first explores his quest to learn everything about space travel during an inquisitive youth, then his full immersion in the NASA program, and, finally, his emergence as a key leader in numerous Air Force interstellar projects. Beginning at age 5, the author displayed a lively imagination and explorative spirit as he scoured the forests around his suburban Georgia home in search of bears and buried treasure. Born during World War II, Bridges writes fondly of his early life as the son of a registered nurse mother and a father formerly enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Though the family was preoccupied with work, this aspect afforded the shy author and his sister, Eva Mae, many opportunities for “testing boundaries” even after they relocated to his beloved grandparents’ tobacco farm. In high school, Bridges developed an affinity for science and engineering, marveling at how Soviet space explorers launched an artificial satellite into an elliptical low Earth orbit. With his family’s immense support, he decided to pursue a career in space travel: “I didn’t care how improbable that might be. I saw it as my great adventure.” His strenuous years training at the Air Force Academy provide plenty of stories of camaraderie, cadet scandals, and his marriage to his first love, Benita, in 1967 (they are still together). After flying fighter jets in the Vietnam War, he saw his career trajectory soar, spanning intensive training in pilot school with rocket-powered aircraft, working at the Pentagon, and becoming a NASA astronaut candidate.
In his early 40s, after raising two children with his wife, Bridges accepted a prestigious offer to pilot the Challenger Spacelab 2 shuttle mission in 1985. This climactic event becomes the memoir’s capstone and is narrated in exacting detail, providing a riveting account of his time manning the craft as it shot into space despite a terrifying episode of engine failure. His career would climb even higher in the Air Force before the author retired in 1996. Though the impressively written book needs no embellishment, Bridges’ story is further enhanced with generous personal photographs illustrating the many pivotal moments of his momentous career. There are shots of Bridges immersed in a water buoyancy spacewalker simulator; near the combat jets he piloted; with the Spacelab 2 crew; and during his stint as an Air Force major general, perhaps his crowning achievement. In this obvious labor of love, Bridges, at 79, reflects on a life lived to the fullest, with many dreams accomplished and countless boundaries and obstacles conquered. While he shares a somewhat overwhelming amount of detail throughout his impassioned self-portrait, what will resonate most with readers of all ages is the author’s fearless spirit and perseverance in achieving seemingly insurmountable goals. Even readers with just a casual interest in space travel and interstellar exploration will find much to savor in this admirable, inspiring, and heartfelt account. The memoir proves that with enough drive and determination, anything is possible.
A sublime scrapbook tribute to an unexpected career in orbit.Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63107-042-6
Page Count: 446
Publisher: Heart Ally Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
An engaging, revealing look at the wild world of the Wu-Tang Clan and beyond.
A memoir from one of hip-hop’s most inventive stylists.
As a member of the Wu-Tang Clan and throughout his solo career, Dennis Coles (b. 1970), aka Ghostface Killah, has been one of the most creative rappers in the game. In this deeply personal text, the author narrates his life story through 15 of his songs. It’s a testament to the richness of his rhymes to see him communicate the same thoughts and feelings in a handful of couplets as he does in a full chapter of prose. Sure, Ghostface offers more context and details in each chapter, whether he’s writing about the struggles of his youth that inspired “All That I Got Is You” or his time selling drugs in “Poisonous Darts,” but that is also a little too straightforward for such a creative artist. Ghostface occasionally uses graphic-novel techniques to make some points, and he turns over the narrative to friends and colleagues to make others. There is no sanitizing of his history here. Ghostface is frank about his drug use, his arrests and time in jail, and his health issues—especially how his diabetes can affect his performances and creativity. He also takes time to educate people about the problems in the music industry, what Islam means to his life and his art, and the impact of slavery and racism on hip-hop and America. “My ancestors used to get whipped, and the rest of the slaves had to sit out there and watch them get whipped until they died,” he writes. “When I watched George Floyd die, it felt like that.” His expansive thoughts on any number of topics are fascinating whether you follow hip-hop or not. The book is vividly designed, featuring pull quotes, sidebars, and color photos.
An engaging, revealing look at the wild world of the Wu-Tang Clan and beyond.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781250274274
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Chronology, photographs and personal knowledge combine to make a memorable commemorative presentation.
Jackie Kennedy's secret service agent Hill and co-author McCubbin team up for a follow-up to Mrs. Kennedy and Me (2012) in this well-illustrated narrative of those five days 50 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Since Hill was part of the secret service detail assigned to protect the president and his wife, his firsthand account of those days is unique. The chronological approach, beginning before the presidential party even left the nation's capital on Nov. 21, shows Kennedy promoting his “New Frontier” policy and how he was received by Texans in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth before his arrival in Dallas. A crowd of more than 8,000 greeted him in Houston, and thousands more waited until 11 p.m. to greet the president at his stop in Fort Worth. Photographs highlight the enthusiasm of those who came to the airports and the routes the motorcades followed on that first day. At the Houston Coliseum, Kennedy addressed the leaders who were building NASA for the planned moon landing he had initiated. Hostile ads and flyers circulated in Dallas, but the president and his wife stopped their motorcade to respond to schoolchildren who held up a banner asking the president to stop and shake their hands. Hill recounts how, after Lee Harvey Oswald fired his fatal shots, he jumped onto the back of the presidential limousine. He was present at Parkland Hospital, where the president was declared dead, and on the plane when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in. Hill also reports the funeral procession and the ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery. “[Kennedy] would have not wanted his legacy, fifty years later, to be a debate about the details of his death,” writes the author. “Rather, he would want people to focus on the values and ideals in which he so passionately believed.”
Chronology, photographs and personal knowledge combine to make a memorable commemorative presentation.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3149-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
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