Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space Review

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(More customer reviews)Craig Ryan accurately captures the type of person my brother was. Criag Ryan's research for this book was extensive and the result is truthful.

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Locked in a desperate Cold War race against the Soviets to find out if humans could survive in space and live through a free fall from space vehicles, the Pentagon gave civilian adventurer Nick Piantanida's Project Strato-Jump little notice until May Day, 1966. Operating in the shadows of well-funded, high-visibility Air Force and Navy projects, the former truck driver and pet store owner set a new world record for manned balloon altitude. Rising more than 23 miles over the South Dakota prairie, Piantanida nearly perished trying to set the world record for the highest free fall parachute jump from that height. On his next attempt, he would not be so lucky. Part harrowing adventure story, part space history, part psychological portrait of an extraordinary risk-taker, this story fascinates and intrigues the armchair adventurer in all of us.

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Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a well-written, entertaining book. I read it mostly due to my interest in sea-faring and the "age of sail," as the author terms it. However, I found myself enjoying it just as much for the story it tells about the gradual discovery of a cure for a disease that crippled sea-faring nations for centuries. Particularly enlightening is the story of the bureacracy, the British Admiralty, that stubbornly ignored the potential cure, even as it suffered tremendous losses for its ignorance, and how vital privilege and influence is in challenging and changing such an establishment. The book's only minor flaw is that it focuses primarily on one country, Britain, without elaborating on how or why France or Spain failed to find a cause and a cure. I would recommend it highly.

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Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer (Railroads Past and Present) Review

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(More customer reviews)An excellent piece of work about one of the US' most brilliant engineers who has been pretty much under the radar for generations. Sprague belongs on the same stage with Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse as one of those key geniuses that brought the world into the era of electricity and high speed transportation. What they did for their time was as amazing as what electronics has done for our time. And nothing they did has been obsoleted by new discovery or invention, it's only been improved on. Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer (Railroads Past and Present)

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Frank Julian Sprague invented a system for distributing electricity tostreetcars from overhead wires. Within a year, electric streetcars had begun toreplace horsecars, sparking a revolution in urban transportation. Sprague(1857--1934) was an American naval officer turned inventor who worked briefly forThomas Edison before striking out on his own. Sprague contributed to the developmentof the electric motor, electric railways, and electric elevators. His innovationswould help transform the urban space of the 20th century, enabling cities to growlarger and skyscrapers taller. The Middletons' generously illustrated biography isan engrossing study of the life and times of a maverick innovator. (2010)

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The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing Review

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(More customer reviews)Just over one hundred years ago, a disease called yellow fever periodically ravaged cities in both the United States and Cuba. But despite the best efforts of doctors and scientists, no one had discovered the source of the devastating illness, or the cure. Determined to put a stop to the outbreaks and save future generations from harm, a team of army doctors set out for Cuba to face the disease head on.
Working with a Cuba physician, this team conducted experiments on human subjects, so devoted to their cause they included themselves in some. Even when the results suggested their best guesses were wrong, they pushed forward. One doctor eventually gave his life to the fever, but not before he'd started the rest of the team down the right path, to finally determine the cause of the illness and eliminate it.
THE SECRET OF THE YELLOW DEATH tells the story of those doctors in a straight-forward narrative style that will appeal even to readers who are not generally fond of non-fiction. The urgent need to understand the disease, and the risks the team and their volunteers take to gain that understanding, make the book at times as suspenseful as any work of fiction. Jurmain also clearly explains the scientific facts, and includes many photographs and illustrations to bring this time in history to life.
Recommended to anyone interested in science and medical mysteries.
Reviewed by: Lynn Crow

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