Hitting the Books: NASA's Class 8 broke color barriers and glass ceilings alike

America's first astronauts from the 1960s were all pulled from the highest ranks of the nation's military. As such, NASA's first few classes tended to conform to a rather specific demographic theme — white, male, flattop haircut you could set a watch too. By the mid-70's however, the space agency had gotten with the times and opened up the spacewalking profession to more than former Air Force and Navy test pilots. In The New Guys, author Meredith Bagby follows the exploits of NASA's Astronaut class of 1978 — "Class 8," America's first women, African Americans, Asian American, and gay person to fly to space — from the team's selection through their mastering of cutting-edge technologies aboard the Space Shuttle and their history-making orbital missions. In the excerpt below, Class 8 receives a brutal introduction to the dangers that await them. Harper Collins PublishingFrom The New Guys by Meredith Bagby. Copyright © 2023 by Meredith Bagby. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Johnson Space Center, Houston. July 1978“Hey! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!” a man screamed, then his voice cut out. Within seconds, another desperate voice cut through the static.“We’ve got a bad fire . . . !” the second man shouted in pain.“We’re burning up . . . !!!” a third howled.Then the transmission faded into nothing but static.In one of the many tiered seats in Mission Control, Ron McNair and his new classmates listened to a recording of the Apollo... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-02-12 15:30:30 UTC ]
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Religion Book Deals: November 8, 2023

A devotional on grief by the daughter of country music star Alan Jackson lands at WaterBrook; Zondervan Reflective takes a marriage expert’s exploration of misogyny in ‘Love the Women,’ and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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8 New Books About Trailblazing Women

A crop of new nonfiction books, all out this coming week, explore the lives and legacies of trailblazing women around the world, from artists and activists to novelists and scientists. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #nonfiction books #trailblazing women #coming week #novelists


8 Books to Read after Listening to the Podcast EMPIRE

After you've listened to the EMPIRE podcast, these history and historical fiction books will deepen your understanding of the subject. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-19 10:32:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #podcast empire #historical fiction


8 Queer Historical Fiction Books Set Around the World

When you hear the phrase “queer history,” how far back does your mind go? For many, there’s a sense that LGBTQIA+ history is fairly recent, starting with Marsha P. Johnson or maybe Oscar Wilde. Beyond that, we start to get into murky territory: stories of “lifelong bachelors” and “happy... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-10-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #world appeared #oscar wilde #electric literature #historical fiction


Hitting the Books: Voice-controlled AI copilots could lead to safer flights

Siri and Alexa were only the beginning. As voice recognition and speech synthesis technologies continue to mature, the days of typing on keyboards to interact with the digital world around us could be coming to an end — and sooner than many of us anticipated. Where... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-10-15 14:30:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short supply


8 Comic Book Cover Art Collections to Please Your Eyes

Sometimes, comics covers do such a spectacular job that they deserve a whole book to themselves. That's where these books come in. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-13 10:30:00 UTC ]
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How Bookshop.org has made itself a hub for indie stores and book lovers alike

More than merely the anti-Amazon, the online book retailer and Brands That Matter honoree has built its own community of devoted readers. Literary staying power can be hard to achieve: Beach reads don’t often become Penguin Classics. The three-year-old Bookshop.org, which sells books to... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2023-10-03 07:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #indie stores #penguin classics #sells books #indie bookstores #vital resource #local shops #online book


8 Fabulous New Nonfiction Books to Add to Your TBR in October

October is full of fabulous nonfiction books to add to your TBR, from a speculative memoir to a mediation on bears and the natural world. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-02 10:32:00 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Meet Richard Arkwright, the world's first tech titan

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-09-11 20:50:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #company insists #independent contractors #endemic culture #automating cloth-making #founders aim #artificial intelligence


Hitting the Books: Meet Richard Akrwright, the world's first tech titan

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-09-10 14:30:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #company insists #independent contractors #endemic culture #automating cloth-making #founders aim #artificial intelligence


8 Amazing New Nonfiction Books to Read in September 2023

You *can* handle the truth with these eight incredible nonfiction reads to kick your fall reading season off right, including Thicker than Water: A Memoir by Kerry Washington. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-09-07 10:32:00 UTC ]
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These 8 books will help soothe your climate anxiety by focusing on the little things

In a climate crisis that feels huge and hopeless, these eight books — essays, fiction, memoir and poetry on the wild — will help you focus on small things Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-08-04 13:00:09 UTC ]
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8 of the Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books To Read in August 2023

These new science fiction and fantasy books out August 2023, including More Perfect by Temi Oh, deal with everything from ghosts to aliens to war machines. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-08-03 10:33:00 UTC ]
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8 Award-Winning Literary Fiction Books You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Despite winning awards, these little-known beautiful and thought-provoking literary fiction books, like Last of Her Name by Mimi Lok, remain criminally underrated. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-08-01 10:34:00 UTC ]
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8 New Nonfiction Books Being Released in August

August's new nonfiction books include a memoir exploring the model minority myth, a historical look at Middle Eastern horsewomen, and more, including Mexikid by Pedro Martín. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-07-31 10:34:00 UTC ]
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8 Great Books to Read About the Relationship Between Humans and Animals

These 8 books that explore the relationships between humans and animals in a variety of ways, including the personal and professional. Start with Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir by Thomas C. Ganno. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-06-29 10:35:00 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Why AI won't be taking our cosmology jobs

The problem with studying the universe around us is that it is simply too big. The stars overhead remain too far away to interact with directly, so we are relegated to testing our theories on the formation of the galaxies based on observable data. Simulating these celestial bodies on computers... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-18 15:30:05 UTC ]
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Hitting the books: Why you shouldn't blog about asking a cop to go shopping for you

You get free stuff, you get free travel, you get the nifty cool title of "brand ambassador," what's not to love about being an internet influencer? There's the consequences, for one. Not even just the warranted consequences of your actual actions, mind you, but also those arriving unbidden based... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-11 14:30:57 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Why we like bigger things better

We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Renee Descartes had his best revelations while baked in an oven

Some of us do our best thinking in the shower, others do it while on the toilet. Renee Descartes, he pondered most deeply while ensconced in a baker's oven. The man simply needed to be convinced of the oven's existence before climbing in. Such are the quirks of the most monumental minds humanity... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-05-28 14:30:30 UTC ]
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