A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts

By Andrew Chaikin

• I was born nearly 15 years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Despite that, I have a deep interest in the early manned space program. "A Man on the Moon" is by far the best book about early space flight that I have read. I am not a woman of science.
  
  In fact, almost all technical jargin is way over my head. My interest lies mainly in the lives of the astronauts- I want to know who they are. This book does two things I love: 1. it focuses mainly on the lives of the astronauts, and 2. it explains the science and technical aspects in a way I understand.
  
  I've read many of the astronauts's auto/biographies, and they are, of course, biased. Chalkin gives the facts in a well written and interesting way. While in the spirit of Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff," "A Man on the Moon" is much easier for a modern audience to follow.
  
  The Tom Hanks miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" was based on this book, and for any fans of that I strongly suggest this book as a suppliment to the movie. Just fantastic.
  

• I've read this book numerous times since the first hardcover edition in 1994, and I never fail to learn something new. While there on many books on Apollo that a serious enthusiast should read, this is easily the SINGLE best book yet written.

  Chaikin is the only person to interview all 12 moonwalkers and get their personal feelings about everything from astronaut & crew selection, training, peer relations and best of all; orbiting and walking the moon. This is not a technical or scientific history, but an account of how the astronauts FELT about their entire Apollo experiences. You can easily "walk in their shoes" and "see through their eyes" with this book.

  He writes in a way all persons can understand, and simplifies the engineering and scientific aspects so you can understand what the astronauts were dealing with. Not only does he avoid getting bogged down in techical speak, but actually makes the technical parts fascinating to learn!

  If you want a good summary of Project Apollo, I'd recommend three books:

  "To A Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration" - by Don Wilhems. This is the science side of the story, and quite fascinating!

  "Full Moon" by Michael Light. A beautiful coffee table book with pictures that take your mind to the moon. With this you can almost see what the astronauts did!

  And lastly, and most important of all, this book. . ."A Man on the Moon." It will almost make you feel like you were the fourth crewman.

  The three together will give you the best sense of what happened at that fascinating time in history!