The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space

By Eugene Cernan

• Eugene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. When he stepped back into his spacecraft, Apollo 17, in December of 1972, another human would not venture to the moon, much less feel its surface for the remainder of the 20th century, and most likely well into the 21st century.
  
  Cernan tells the story of how he became an astronaut, his three fights into space, and finally his culminating achievement - his 3-day stay on the surface of the moon. It is an intriguing story, which gives insights into the many perils of space exploration, the stringent qualifications and training of the astronauts, the tremendous personal and professional sacrifices made, and finally the unique toughts and feelings of one who has actually cavorted and explored the moon's alien surface. As an amateur sky-watcher, I already had a keen interest in space travel and moon exploration, but I think anyone with even a passing interest in space or science would find this book interesting and a good read.

• The Last Man on the Moon is a great book that offers a great depiction of his three flights: Gemini 9 in 1965 with Tom Stafford, Apollo 10 in 1969 with Tom Stafford and John Young, and Apollo 17 in 1972 with Harrison Schmitt and Ron Evans. His narrative of the Gemini 9 mission is gripping, and it is one of the closest calls in the history of spaceflight.
  
  In May 1969 he traveled to lunar orbit and took the lunar module Snoopy down to within a few miles of the lunar surface in the final dress rehersal for the Apollo 11 moon landing. Finally, Cernan and Schmitt became the last men to walk on the moon to this date with the Apollo 17 flight in December 1972. Cernan is candid in his description of his flights and other historical missions such as Apollo 11 and Apollo 13, and offers some new information about the famous flights.
  
  He stays away from technical data, and devotes his time to telling a thoroughly engrossing account of his three flights and the space race in general, with the feel of a story recalled among friends.If you want to get more information regarding the scientific data obtained from Apollo 17, you should read "Exploring the Moon" or "To a Rocky Moon."
  
  And in the last chapter, Cernan devotes a lot of time to sentimental feelings about our future destiny in space and inspiring young people in this country to take up the challenge. Cernan has always attempted to unite the passion of future space explorers.
  
  When stepping off the lunar surface on Apollo 17, he said this, "As I step off the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, I'd just like to say what I believe history will record, that America's challenge of today will forge man's desiny for tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17." With that, he returned to the lunar module Challenger with his crewmate, professional geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, and blasted off from Taurus-Littrow.
  

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

By Gene Kranz

• Gene Kranz was a flight director for most of the U.S. manned space program, and was on duty for some of the most critical events - including the first moon landing, and, of course the Apollo 13 accident.
  
  In "Failure Is Not an Option," Kranz tells the story of Mission Control from the begining (he wrote some of the intial procedures manuals) through the Space Shuttle program. He shows how the ground controllers developed into a team, not only with each other, but with the astronauts on board the spacecraft.
  
  Kranz may not be the most polished writer, but this is a first-person account from someone who helped make history. One of the things I really liked about the book is that Kranz not only took detailed notes during the missions (that was his first flight assignment), but he held on to them and used them to provide a more detailed account than I have seen before of the key missions from the perspective of Mission Control.
  
  He doesn't pull punches, and he's not afraid to admit mistakes, and this gives this book an air of honesty that you don't always find in an autobiography.
  

• Gene Kranz provides the reader with a remarkably vivid account of what it is like to be behind the scenes of Mission Control.
  
  From the initial procedures he wrote for the Mercury program, to the clipped voices of controllers working a spacecraft contingency to the sometimes abandoned way they let off steam off-console, Mr. Kranz brings you an accurate and very readable account of the MCC.
  
  From my own experiences of 20 years in the MCC, this book provides a very personal glimpse in how we continue to work. For the reader who remembers growing up with the highs and lows of the space race, this book will rekindle all the emotions of the time and fill in many of the blanks that can only come from an insider such as Mr. Kranz.
  
  "Failure Is Not An Option" should be required reading for any one currently working at the MCC, and for anyone wanting to learn more about what it took to put a man on the moon.
  

Quantitative Chemical Analysis

By Daniel C. Harris

• When I was an undergraduate student, the reference text was Chimie Analytique Generale by Gaston Charlot (which is quite an antique, completely unexplained, but problems are OK). But when I really needed a clearly explanation, no other book could match Harris.
  
  It's clear, yet fully explained, and it's miles better than any Quantitative Chemical Analysis book (e.g. Skoog, Christian, among many others). It covers not only "classic techniques, e.g. titrimetric techniques acid-base equilibria, gravimetric methods, titrimetric analysis by complex with EDTA, among others.
  
  But it can also be adapted to Instrumental Methods courses (but, at some point, some additional material must be supplemented).Thanks to that book, I happened to learn quite a lot, and I used it for 4 semesters in Analytical Chemistry. If you don't like this one, you probably won't like any other Quantitative Chemical Analysis textbook.
  
  Now that I'm a practicing chemist, I'm still amazed that this book has never abandoned my desk because is an excellent reference work. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Analytical Chemistry.

• One of the best written textbooks in any area of chemistry. Here is a measure of the quality of this book. When I was in the graduate school, most of our research group owned a copy of Harris and we kept it on our shelves for handy reference.
  
  We had all purchased it as undergraduates but kept it because we LIKED it and found it so darn useful. It is an excellent general reference for anybody whose work involves chemical analysis. The tables of acid dissociation constants and redox half-potentials are some of the most extensive you will find any textbook.
  
  When I first started teaching, I used Skoog & West on the basis of my predecessor's recommendation. However, during my first semester, I found myself constantly referring to Harris because of its clear explainations and good examples.
  
  In the second semester, I conducted a head-to-head competition with students reading a chapter on the same material from both Harris and from Skoog. The overwhelming student preference was for Harris and I have used it in my classes ever since. Readers who don't like Harris aren't going to be happy with any analytical chemistry textbook.
  

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!