Rocket Men

Rocket Men
By Robert Kurson
Published April 3, 2018

Why I chose this book:
I was curious about the topic and entered a giveaway on Goodreads. I won the giveaway, and am so happy that I did.

Review

I knew nothing about Apollo 8's flight to the moon before reading this, but am interested generally in space exploration. That said, this book was heart-stopping, educational, exciting, emotional, and informative. The redundancies are intentional. I want to be clear: Rocket Men was a powerful book.

Starting with the three astronauts' childhoods, the author introduces the reader to Borman, Lovell, and Anders. I felt as though I knew them well by the time they began preparing for their trip to the moon. I gained what I think is a pretty good understanding of the flight (my education leans toward the humanities side of things, not tech/engineering), and I was on the edge of my seat as I read about the most dangerous parts of that flight. Once the rocket safely launched, I could literally feel my pulse slowing down from its racing! Even though this was history and I knew that the astronauts made it to the moon and back safely, the narrative is exciting and captivating! I cannot express strongly enough how much I enjoyed reading this, and how gratifying it is to finally have some understanding of what a space flight is like! And I feel good about myself for being a tiny bit better educated about my country's history.