A smooth delivery of the nit and grit behind the success of the Hubble.
A retired astronaut’s memoir of that most celebrated eye in the sky, the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble has only improved with age, being inherently maintainable in design and open to innovation since its deployment in 1990. Though it was ridiculed when its initial photographs were unrefined, it has since been fixed and upgraded multiple times, with amazing results. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was on the shuttle involved in deploying the Hubble, and she spent years on the design and capabilities of the telescope. Her motives for writing this book were to bring to light the practical reality of tending to a telescope in orbit and to show what it took in terms of experimentation—tools, support equipment, operating procedures, etc. She also wanted to sing the praises of the engineers and astronauts who invented, produced, and tested all the maintenance features of the telescope. As a participant in and observer of the events, Sullivan had a prime seat to the thinking that goes into what makes something maintainable: “able to be sustained or restored to proper operating condition.” She clearly describes the taxing innovation and training involved, which included such rigors as reliability analysis, predictive maintenance modeling, and basic principles of human factors engineering in assessing every dimension of every component on the telescope. In the process, she delves into the history of the space shuttle, chronicling its many highs and the lowest of its lows, the Challenger tragedy of 1986. As a participant, it was Sullivan’s job to embark on a space walk to the telescope should anything go awry during its deployment, and she spent years in preparation for such an event. Throughout the narrative, her easy hand with details and infectious enthusiasm make for a winning combination.
A smooth delivery of the nit and grit behind the success of the Hubble.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-262-04318-2
Page Count: 248
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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