Review by New York Times Review
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, by James Comey. (Flatiron, $29.99.) In this impassioned memoir, the former F.B.I. director calls the Trump presidency a "forest fire" that is seriously harming the country. The central themes Comey returns to are the toxic consequences of lying and the corrosive effects of choosing loyalty to an individual over the rule of law. GOD SAVE TEXAS: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State, by Lawrence Wright. (Knopf, $27.95.) This longtime resident of Texas examines the complexities, contradictions and sheer goofiness of his state, arguing that it heralds America's future. THE SPACE BARONS: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, by Christian Davenport. (Public Affairs, $28.) The new space race involves a number of competitive and highly ambitious entrepreneurs who want to make their mark by taking us into orbit. Davenport's narrative, filled with colorful reporting and sharp insights, explores this new frontier. SHARP: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, by Michelle Dean. (Grove, $26.) Dean, a journalist and critic, considers 10 influential women writers, including Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt, Nora Ephron and Pauline Kael, teasing out their affinities: a taste for battle and intellectual honesty. AWAYLAND, by Ramona Ausubel. (Riverhead, $26.) A melting mother, a Cyclops with a dating profile and other fanciful characters inhabit Ausubel's latest collection of stories, many of which revolve around family life, here depicted as both life-giving and treacherous. WRESTLING WITH THE DEVIL: A Prison Memoir, by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. (The New Press, $25.99.) Ngugi spent nearly a year in prison in 1978 for writing a play in his native language that threatened the Kenyan government. This is the story of how he maintained his creative energies even while suffering the indignities of his detention. THE BEEKEEPER: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, by Dunya Mikhail. (New Directions, paper, $16.95.) In 2014, ISIS abducted thousands of ethnic Yazidi women and children in Iraq. Mikhail, a poet and journalist, profiles the beekeeper who helped rescue some, delivering a searing portrait of courage. CENSUS, by Jesse Ball. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.99.) As he explains in the preface, Ball wrote this quietly dazzling father-son road-trip novel - a tribute to his brother, Abram - because he wanted to capture "what it is like to know and love a Down syndrome boy or girl." THE FUNERAL, written and illustrated by Matt James. (Groundwood, $18.95; ages 4 to 8.) This picture book takes a refreshing, child'seye view of the funeral of an older relative. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 6, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
Strap in, you dreamers of space travel, you lovers of invention, you admirers of the unquenchable thirst for exploration, for here is a book that will thrill you to your core. It's the story of four billionaires primarily Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, but also Richard Branson and Paul Allen who have been pouring money into the still-in-its-infancy industry of private space travel. It's a wonderful story, a thrilling adventure of literal and metaphoric highs and lows, based on interviews with the billionaires but encompassing a much broader range of reporting. Davenport catches us up in the breathless excitement of these men who are trying to launch the biggest start-up in the history of the galaxy. But this is no puff piece; the author faithfully records the heartbreaking failures and the struggles to overcome serious opposition (from the U.S. government, among others). This is, too, a story of ego and the aggressive pursuit of number-one status, and the author does a fine job of capturing the personalities of these famous men. A big story, told through its vividly evoked small details.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Washington Post journalist Davenport (As You Were) tells the story of four billionaires who are each trying to build a commercial spaceship: Elon Musk (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), and Paul Allen (StratoLaunch). Each has a distinct vision of how to get to space and what to do once they arrive. Musk believes his company will transport people to Mars in the next decade. Bezos aims for people to live aboard space stations or ships in the solar system. Branson's goal is for customers to pay to visit space for a short time each trip, while Allen seeks to build a large ship so he can later deploy smaller satellites into space. Davenport interviews each of the billionaires and some executives, telling their stories in an entertaining way as he intertwines the men's accomplishments. His descriptions of the launches, landings, successes, and failures are thrilling. Includes a time line of major events and a listing of notes. VERDICT Fans of space travel, NASA, and engineering ingenuity will find this book highly engaging.-Jason L. Steagall, -Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An enthusiastic account of the pursuit of "a holy graila technology with the potential to dramatically lower the cost of space travel."The United States no longer has a manned space program, and the government has not shown any immediate plans to fund another. However, a quartet of billionaires has stepped in to fill the void, writes Washington Post space and defense staff writer Davenport (As You Were: To War and Back with the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard, 2009) in this well-researched account of the efforts of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Paul Allen. "If NASA, or Congress, or any president wouldn't stand up as John F. Kennedy did in 1961 when he promised to send a man to the moon within a decade," writes the author, "then this class of entrepreneurs would attempt it." First off the mark, in 2000, was Amazon's Bezos, whose startup is building a reusable rocket for suborbital flights; the first manned launch is scheduled for 2018. Microsoft billionaire Allen invested in SpaceShipOne, which, in 2004, became the first privately funded manned craft to reach space. Virgin's Branson took over to develop SpaceShipTwo, which will carry paying passengers on suborbital flights in a few years. Since founding SpaceX in 2002, Tesla's Musk, "the brash hare" in this race, has focused his attention on Mars. His privately built reusable rockets regularly supply the Space Station; soon they will deliver astronauts, and he has announced plans to fly men around the moon this year.Readers frustrated at the trickle of news from China (the only nation with an active manned space program) will thrill at this lucid, detailed, and admiring account of wealthy space buffs who are spending their own money, making headlines, producing genuine technical advances, and resurrecting the yearning to explore the cosmos. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
