John Glenn: A Memoir

Just got done reading it and it's pretty awesome to see this pilot's motivation to succeed(with a lot of hurdles)

 

Sure thing His stories are captivating and never get old

 

I just got done reading "Nine Minutes Twenty Seconds" which is a true story about the crash of ASA Flight 529 (a Brasilia) in 1995. It was a wonderful read, though I sobbed through a good part of it (yeah, I'm a female). It was quite touching.

 

A Life of Flight: Forty Flights and Forty Nights aboard DC-3s to B-747s, by Captain Vincent Reilly

 

When I was 11 years (1968) old my mom gave me a book called THE BEST BOOK OF TRUE AVIATION STORIES doubleday. It was a great acquaintance to some landmark airplane books:Fighting the Flying Circus-Eddie Rickenbacker, The Spirit of St. Louis- Lindberg, Wind Sand and Stars- St Exupery, Pilot- Tony LeVier, Under My Wings- Basil L. Rowe, Fate is the Hunter- Gann, We Seven- John Glenn. All riveting chapters from the best true accounts of some some really cool airplane books. Probably read every chapter 3 or 4 times. Like many posters, I think Ernie Gann probably puts his finger on the role of what it means to be an airline captain better than anyone. Captain Rowe recalls a story (that upon reflection sounds a lot like Gann's High and the Mighty) of flying a DC-4 accross the Pacific witha runaway propeller that is pretty entertaining.

 

I highly recommend "War on the Middle Class", by Lou Dobbs. It doesnt touch much on aviation but it really does give you an idea as to what the government is doing around you and to you. Sometimes its nice to see some things outside of aviation.

"Juiced" by Jose Canesco is also something I just got done reading. Its very poorly written, he is a terrible author, but you will laugh pretty hard at how extremely self indulgent Jose really is. It makes me think that we should test pilots for performance enhancing drugs, because why can 'Sully' fly soo damn well? Clearly all the Fedex and UPS pilots who have made it to the highest levels are also juicers. During pyschomotor skill portion of their interviews they must demonstrate rollerskating 14 miles backwards in 6 minutes then bench press an MD-11.

 

"North Star Over my Shoulder" by Bob Buck. Great book about aviation during the "Golden Era" Mr Buck details his airline experience while flying with TWA in a DC3 all the way to his last flight in a 747. This book makes me wish I could be re-born and fly during this great era!

 

You know, She wrote some very interesting stuff, Fountainhead is a great read... I thought she pretty much nailed the stupidity of the blind masses... Both are great...

 

Turbulent Skies: The History of Commercial Aviation. Author: Richard R. Young

Skunk Works. Ben Rich

The Last Mission -Laurel-Leaf Historical Fiction.
This was the first large book I read as a kid in the 5th grade. I think I read it 3 times if you have a kid it is a good aviation read. Just know that there is some profanity in it.

 

If you like history, I would recommend anything by either Michael of Jeff Shaara. These are some of the books I've read, and really enjoyed.

Jeff Shaara
(WWII Trilogy)
-The Rising Tide
-Into The Fire
-The Steel Wave
(Revolutionary War)
-The Glorious Cause (It's over 600 pages I think so it should keep you occupied for a while)

Michael Shaara
-The Killer Angels (Great book about the battle of Gettysburgh, if you've seen the movie with charlie sheen and jeff daniels, that was based off this book)