Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space

Book Description

Almost Heaven tells the stories of the remarkable women who have bravely met two challenges: the risk of space travel and the struggle to succeed in a man's world. From Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Sally Ride in 1983 to Kalpana Chawla and Lauren Clark on the last flight of the Columbia, these women made history. Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles brings the women of space to life in this fascinating book, describing what motivates them, the pioneers who paved the way for them, and how their presence in the astronaut corps changed NASA. Setting her story against the background of the Cold War and the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Kevles takes us from Cape Canaveral to Star City in Russia and back. She describes the years of rejection before women were allowed to train as astronauts in the U.S. space program and the problems that female cosmonauts encountered in the U.S.S.R. Kevles talks to the first women chosen by NASA to be astronauts in 1978 and to many women who have followed them. These women, she shows, have not only broken down barriers to join the most exclusive men's club in the world--the space program--they have become players in the greatest adventure of our time, the human exploration of space. This paperback edition includes Kevles's thoughts on the 2005 Discovery mission and other recent developments in the space program as well as her reflections on the role of female astronauts today, and perhaps tomorrow.

Customer Reviews:

Buy the paperback, not the hardback........2006-06-29

I've just read the paperback version of this book, with all the comments people posted here about errors in the hardback printed out and by my side (thank you for posting them). It looks like they were all fixed for the paperback edition - great to see when a publishing house takes notice like that.

The revised paperback version of this book is an excellent, absorbing read which I highly recommend!

Incredibly well written. Horribly researched........2005-06-14

Kevles is a remarkably good writer. Both this book and "Naked To The Bone" are amongst the best in making science writing accessible, readable, and relevant to social mores. She's damn good.

But I ended up throwing this book across the room a few times in frustration. The fact checking was, frankly, lousy. There were so many elementary mistakes (the date of the Apollo 11 moonlanding wrong in a SPACE book, fer crissakes?) that it ruined an otherwise compelling read.

Puzzling........2004-02-03

I am surprised just how much is wrong in this book. I am even more puzzled by the unquestioning support given to it by luminaries such as John Klineberg and Mary Ellen Strote. While a writer on health and fitness topics should not be expected to have a thorough knowledge of space history and know how many errors this book contains, I would have thought that Klineberg, former director of Loral and the Goddard Space Flight Center, would have read it a little closer and spotted the many errors. It's puzzling to see how many glowing reviews this book is receiving despite its deep flaws.

great story with a few glaring gaffes.......2004-01-27

Let me start by adding that I just received my copy of this amazing story a couple of weeks ago, and was awed by it. Quite a wonderful read about a most amazingly hidden aspect of the space program.

Okay, several have previously stated that there are no major technical errors in the book. On page 46, when describing Skylab, she notes that the pace station was 17 cubic feet, divided into two separate levels. Since the trunk of my Jetta is 13 cubic feet, I decided to check this out with NASA. Skylab had a habitable volume of 12,700 cubic feet. That is a major error that can not go unnoticed.

If this book is republished, I hope this type of minor error gets corrected. If not, poor editing will continue to diminish an otherwise important topic and marvelously crafted tome.

A good book? Almost........2003-12-13

This is an interesting book with a lot to say on the subject of women astronauts. On the whole, the events and the people involved in them are very well summarized, far better than many other books in fact. There are some wonderful little vignettes into how the 1978 women astronauts were integrated into the Texas social scene, which were very well observed. Pat Cowings, often overlooked as the first woman to undertake serious astronaut training directed by NASA (though she was never selected as an astronaut), gets her correct place in history at last. It also puts the FLAT medical tests in their correct place as a minor footnote in space history. It lists the womens' movement accomplishments and the changes they brought as interesting background, not allowing the politics to overtake the human story. The misreading of S. Christa McAuliffe's respected place in Concord's educational community hits a minor jarring note, but overall Holtzmann Kevles is a very accomplished writer, gets the facts straight and tells an interesting story very well.

Having said that, I really do wish that "friends of the author" would not make postings on these pages and pretend that the book is error-free. Wishing the mistakes weren't there does not make them disappear. The copy I picked up (from a book store, not a pre release copy) has all the errors that other reviewers have been kind enough to post here for the edification of the prospective purchaser (and, let's hope, the author and publisher). A simple read would find them. Just as examples, the misinformation on Lebedev is on page 87, the misdating of the first shuttle launch on page 94, the error about the last woman to Mir on page 163, spelling NASA's name wrong on page 252, Cobb's name wrong on page 253, Chaffee's name wrong on page 221, and the howling error of the wrong date of the Apollo 11 moon landing in the book's very first paragraph. I noticed another mistake also, on page 141 - Helen Sharman, like all other cosmonauts, was fitted into her space suit before her bus ride to the launch pad, not afterwards as Holtzmann Kevles believes.

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The Darkness:Permission to Rock!: The Unofficial Book

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HWYIVS

Book Description

The Darkness have ascended rapidly into the top rank of the music and media scene and have got everyone talking, from Rolling Stone, Blender, Spin, and MTV to David Letterman. Their many fans include teenagers, older serious rock-music fans and high-spending late-twenty-somethings, nostalgic for the guitar-rock of their youth. The Darkness: Permission to Rock! details the band's early days as gigging musicians right through to their current trajectory towards superstardom and huge critical acclaim and their experiences 'breaking' America, illustrated throughout with fantastic shots of this hard-rocking, technicolor band.

Book Description

Say "body modifications" and most people think of tattoos and piercings. They associate these mainly with the urban primitives of the 1980s to today and with primitive tribes. In fact, as this fascinating book shows, body mods have been on the scene since ancient times, traceable as far back as 1.5 million years, and they also encompass sacrification, branding, and implants. Professor John Rush outlines the processes and procedures of these radical physical alterations, showing their function as rites of passage, group identifiers, and mechanisms of social control. He explores the use of pain for spiritual purposes, such as purging sin and guilt, and examines the phenomenon of accidental cuts and punctures as individual events with sometimes profound implications for group survival. Spiritual Tattoo finds a remarkable consistency in body modifications from prehistory to the present, suggesting the importance of the body as a sacred geography from both social and psychological points of view.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent information for anyone considering a tattoo!.......2006-03-02

I found Rush's research and presentation of information to be extremely interesting and well-presented. However, the real value of this book for me was in the suggestions for dealing with psychic and physical pain.

As I had my own tattoo work done, I used many of Rush's suggestions and techniques on breathing, relaxation, and "embracing the pain."

Prior to getting my tattoo, many of my peers described their own experience with the pain of tattooing in terms of bravery "it didn't hurt at all" or annoyance "it is really irritating."

By properly channeling the pain--rather than fearing, putting up with, or obsessing about it, however, I found the entire tattooing process to be so much more pleasant, profound, and meaningful. I can truly say that I felt serene throughout the entire three-hour experience.

I highly recommend this book for people interested in experiencing tattooing on all levels-the intellectual, the emotional, and the spiritual.

A history which is gruesome at times, but always revealing.......2005-11-05

Works of body art have traditionally reflected rites of passage, served as group identifiers, and made people confirm to a cultural code and social standard outsiders rarely understand, so it's timely that cultural anthropologist John Rush examines different processes and procedures of radical physical alternations in different cultures, from branding to tattooing and self-inflicted pain. Spiritual and social concerns are gathered into a history which is gruesome at times, but always revealing.

Provocative and compelling reading.......2005-08-11

I read numerous books on tattooing prior to my own adventure but Spiritual Tattoo tops them all. Dr. Rush presents some very interesting information about tattooing and scarification in ancient societies, concluding that the behavior is very, very ancient and is probably analogous to marks naturally acquired. Purposes include rites of passage, group identity, and in more recent time, the use of tattoos and scars by governments to mark the body for control purposes. What I found most interesting is the procedure he details for using pain to purge limitations and traumas in history. As our monotheistic religious myths focus on pain and suffering, this work fits right in! I also enjoyed the connection he made between tattooing, yoga, chakras, and spirituality. There also appears to be a great deal of coding in the book, which relates to this book's sequel, The Twelve Gates. For example, in the page headings for Chapter Five, Trauma is spelled Trama--Dr. Rush is saying he "takes U (you) out of your trauma." This is a very readable work that will appeal to a wide audience. I'm looking forward to The Twelve Gates.

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Acrostic Puzzle Book/50 Puzzles
Thomas H. Middleton
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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The New York Times Acrostic Puzzles Volume 8 (New York Times Acrostic Puzzles)

ASIN: 1879957124

Book Description

Tackle that endless paper flow with creative filing tips, clutter-busters, and workable action plans. Start today! Manage your desk and papers. Keep clutter away permanently. Avoid paper backlogs.

Customer Reviews:

A bit disappointed.......2004-09-13

I was so excited for this book to come! I couldn't wait to read it. I have to admit that now after reading it, I am a bit disappointed. While it is quick and easy to read some of the information is extremely basic and elementary and I considered about half of the book to be a waste of my time (but hey, what's 25 minutes in the grand scheme of things?). I did however find some of the tips very helpful and practical. For instance, the book helped me recognize situations when it's okay to throw things away, something I never do. Overall, a good read with some helpful ideas. Just be prepared to skip over the stuff that you already know, and be able to apply the general deatils to your specific needs.

Quick Start.......2002-07-20

I was able to read this book in one night and still had time to make a game plan for tackling the organization project at the office for the next morning. There were a few ideas that were easy to implement; some so simple I can't believe I never thought of them before. (The Tickler Files!) After two work days, I had changed my work process enough to feel better, and thus have some relief. Not to mention, on day two, my director stopped mid-sentance when she saw the top of my desk and praised me for how clean and organized I was.

This book is a great place to start for some easy, immediate results. However, I need much, much more on PDA's, e-mail, case management, and paperwork flow. The success I had from the small investment of time here will keep me motivated to move on to books tackling the larger picture.

Great book to get you started.......2001-09-30

I was totally disorganized and swamped with paper everywhere. This book was one of 3 I bought and was the first one I read. It is easy to read and follow, and it brought order and gave me confidence to start my umpteenth effort to get organized. Absolutely recommend it to anyone who is in need of a kick start to getting organized.

Practical and simple to follow methods.......2000-09-04

This book is well organized. It offers practical and simple to follow methods. If you don't want to spend a lot of time reading, but to take action getting organized, this is the book to read.

Immensely practical; a one-time life experience.......1998-10-03

I ran into the first edition of Oganizing Your Workspace at a time when I needed to get my work habits reorganized. It was full of very simple, almost obvious suggestions on how to get out of grid lock, and how work in a focused way. It takes some "humility" for a "seasoned executive" to read through a book like this, but for me it paid off many times over.

Organizing Your Work Space:a Guide to Personal Productivity (A Crisp Fifty-Minute Book)

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Organizing Your Work Space:a Guide to Personal Productivity (A Crisp Fifty-Minute Book)
Odetta Pollar
Manufacturer: CrispLearning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TSHQ50

Product Description

The benefits of being organized, how paper backlogs develop, manage your desk and paper and keep clutter away permanently.

Customer Reviews:

Thought provoking.......2005-09-21

This study by Till really makes a Mozart lover re-think some of the ideas or preconceptions he had about the opera's.
The author doesn't approach the opera's as a musicologist might do (no musical analysis or musical examples) , but analyses the literary and philosophical contents of each work very carefully. It offers a lot of background and really tries to capture the essence of each piece separately.
Really strong is the part about Don Giovanni, where Till argues that the introduction of the divine is not simply a remnant of the old Molière-play, but is in fact one of the central elements of Enlightened thought. It shows convincingly that Mozart nor his audiences had any sympathy for Don Giovanni (unlike most people today) and that he is not at all a free-thinking liberal who willingly says no to God. This goes to the heart of the opera and reveals to us that even today, this opera is poorly interpreted by directors and scholars alike.
The most disappointing part of the book is perhaps the chapter on Die Zauberflöte. This is the only opera which Till has trouble explaining some of the oddities involving Enlightened thinking in connection with this opera. He doesn't develop the Masonic context as well as one should expect and that's a pity, since Mozart's central message of universal respect regarding other peoples religion, thoughts and lifestyle is so tremendously important, especially today!
However, Till does a good job putting Mozart's work in there proper philosophical and cultural context and really makes his reader consider aspects that never before occurred to him.
The book is really well written, has excellent structure and is thought provoking. For this price, you cannot miss!

Brings it all together.......2000-08-13

The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, Josephinian reforms, and Mozart converged upon Vienna in the 1780s to produce perhaps the most intensely creative epoch in the history of the human race. Till takes you there and serves it all up as has no other author I have read. The wealth of information here is too great to be absorbed in one reading, but just as one continues to enjoy Mozart's music with successive exposures, so may one expect re-reading of Till to be informative and pleasurable.

Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas.: An article from: Notes

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Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas.: An article from: Notes
Thomas Bauman
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Online Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 1994. The length of the article is 2955 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas.
Author: Thomas Bauman
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1994
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v51 Issue: n1 Page: p74(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The War on the Poor counters attacks on the poor in the same lively, accessible style that made The New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy a cult classic. Using charts, graphs, and political cartoons, The War on the Poor presents topics including middle-class welfare, "family" values, child support, teen poverty, the minimum wage, the underclass, orphanages, health, hunger, corporate welfare, block grants, private charity, work requirements, and incentives. It includes a comprehensive resource list of addresses and phone numbers of activist groups, lobbying organizations, information sources, and media contacts.

Customer Reviews:

Worthless.......2006-04-29

What could be easier than a refutation of the canards of right wing opponents of social programs like Rush Limbaugh and other rightist commentators of the 1990s? Not much, but the authors fail at this easy task.

Their method is to take some right wing comment, and present irrelevant statistics that seem to vaguely have something to do with the claim and act like it refutes it.

Look at page 68, for example. As the "myth" they quote some right wing commentator saying that the federal government has never run a successful job training program. Under "reality" they basically agree, but say its because the programs don't receive enough funding. Rather than myth and reality, these are two compatible statements. The same technique is repreated over and over and over and over.

There are a few articles tacked on at the end, mostly uninformative and uninteresting.

Interesting Subject, Poor Analysis.......2001-04-20

The War on the Poor is an interesting subject and somewhat provides evidence against certain myths about the poor, welfare, health care, children, teen mothers, balancing the budget, the minimum wage, etc. It is set up in a Myth/Reality format where two pages are dedicated to each myth and then the reality of the issue is argued with statistics. Unfortunatley, frequently the statistics have nothing to do with the myth or faulty conclusions are reached from the information given. In someplaces, the book seems to even contradict itself. It has tons of picture but little text, so if you are looking for something REALLY short to read, this is it. It is very readable, easy to skim, and probably can be completely read in about an hour or so.

Even with its many faults, it is still a thought provoking book, and a good starting point into the more liberal economic issues. However the book is now somewhat out of date, so it would not make a great reference book.

Be warned: The authors seem to be incredibly biased in their feelings toward the poor, where in their attempts to get across the idea that we should not blame the poor and be sympathetic to the poor, they go really far in the other direction, making it seem like it is entirely societies' fault and being poor cannot be helped at all (and they really scrape for statistics to back up this extreme view).

Objectives met by authors.......2001-01-25

The objective of this book seems to have been to provide a bullet presentation regarding the issue of poverty, those on welfare and alternatives. Despite the fact that the reader may disagree with it's assertions and conclusions, one cannot argue that the authors did a good job in meeting their objectives. The book is written in such a way that the lay person can clearly understand points being made. Although there is always some compromising of the "facts" when presented in a simplistic way, it nevertheless meets its objectives. The best part of this book is how it attacks the myths surrounding the issues of poverty and welfare. It seems that those who did not like this book would not like ANY book that expressed the idea that poverty is primarily caused by societal forces not individual indolence. But of course, it makes them feel a lot safer thinking the latter, because if only indolent people become poor, than they can't possibly ever be poor.

not terribly insightful.......2000-03-27

The difficulty of any book of this sort is the same that plagues any attempt to hold up statistical inequalities of one form or another and draw certain conclusions from them. What's more bothersome about this book, however, is it's tone. Page after page we are treated to notion that the reason there is suffering in the world is because those who don't agree with the ideology of the authors are cruel, uncaring, unfeeling, or just plain stupid. The assertion incessantly implied is that their ideological adversaries are "not merely in error, but in sin." It makes all their arguments difficult to take seriously.

Charles Murray takes much of the same foundations underlying this book to draw opposite conclusions, and manages to do it in a way that is more analytical and unemotional - and certainly more persuasive. Perhaps the intentions of the authors wasn't to persuade, but to solidify and inspire those already in their camp. But if their intentions were the former, they failed miserably in writing a "polemic" that seems more childish than thought-provoking.

The Silenced Finally Get a Chance...........1999-03-06

I read this book for my Race, Class, and Gender course in college in which we deconstructed the institutions of our "fabulous" society to see what was really happening behind the scenes of democracy. "The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual" was a fantastic resource in doing so. The working class and welfare recipients in our society are silenced and horribly labeled, treated as the "under class". "Rightists" and "fundamentalists" and "Rush Limbaugh Junkies" (for lack of more insulting terms) have created a society where we are made to believe that individuals are solely responsible for their "plights". It's time these people take a course in sociology to understand that there are multiple factors in the existence of the "poor". And it's too bad that the "evil republicans" have to be displayed in this book as just that, but it's time they realize that bully, right wingers are outnumbered and will lose. Maybe that's childish, but it's also childish to claim a group of people are lazy and able to succeed in our society by "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps", which many right wing, republicans tend to do. This book is full of fabulous statistics, which are clearly not created for the sole purpose of sales...take a course in class sociology...the statistics will amaze you. And all that bulls**t you've been fed will make you laugh.

The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual. (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense

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The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual. (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense
John Stamm
Manufacturer: Economic Affairs Bureau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00096LP8Q
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Dollars & Sense, published by Economic Affairs Bureau on July 1, 1996. The length of the article is 736 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual. (book reviews)
Author: John Stamm
Publication: Dollars & Sense (Newsletter)
Date: July 1, 1996
Publisher: Economic Affairs Bureau
Issue: n206 Page: p40(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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