Mac’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

5,464

pages read

books read

Mac

Shortest Book

176

pages

Longest Book

576

pages

Average book length in 2024

364

pages

Most Shelved

176,512

people also shelved

Least Shelved

554

people also shelved

Mac’s average rating for 2024

3.6

Highest Rated on 카지노싸이트

4.63 average

Mac’s first review of the year

really liked it

Perhaps there’s an axiom: When you start a book, the less you know about the conclusion, the more compelling will be your reading experience. Books where you have no idea how the story will be resolved can be riveting page-turners.

Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger belies that axiom and stands it on its head. I came to Challenger knowing the outcome of the Space Shuttle disaster, but somehow my knowledge of the story didn’t detract; it added to the Perhaps there’s an axiom: When you start a book, the less you know about the conclusion, the more compelling will be your reading experience. Books where you have no idea how the story will be resolved can be riveting page-turners.

Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger belies that axiom and stands it on its head. I came to Challenger knowing the outcome of the Space Shuttle disaster, but somehow my knowledge of the story didn’t detract; it added to the drama. I knew enough to make me want more—the details, the people, the fatal missteps, and the precise tick tock of the events. Because I knew how the story would end, I wanted to know the how and the why surrounding the conclusion.

Higginbotham does an excellent job of answering my questions. He writes clearly with an interesting mix of overarching ideas, technical details, and personality traits. He did extensive research, and he compiled that research into an engrossing narrative that is informative and compelling. It’s a book full of good and brave people as well as foolish, selfish, short-sighted bureaucrats. It’s a book full of optimism followed by tragedy.

I do have a few nitpicks. First, I couldn’t keep track of the multiple characters. The “Cast of Characters” listed at the book’s beginning helps, but the people tend to blur one into another. However, this blurring makes a point; it underscores how NASA and its suppliers were redundant and bureaucratic, dangerously so.

Also,, Higginbotham could have abbreviated the background leading up to the Space Shuttle program; it’s interesting stuff, but it seems like a tease or an overworked preliminary to the main event. And because Higginbotham hops around among various topics, I was occasionally lost in the chronology so he might have included an appendix with a timeline.

But too many characters and a fragmented chronology are minor critiques because Challenger is compelling reading, a story well told. Throughout, I kept turning the pages hoping someone would say something or do something to delay the launch and change the course of history. But, of course, history can’t be changed. We know what happened, and now we know why.

...more

MAC’S 2024 BOOKS

really liked it

it was amazing

Mac’s last review of the year

really liked it

For more than a decade, I’ve had a November tradition of reading the latest Michael Connelly novel, and this year is no exception; I’ve just read The Waiting. And annually, I’ve submitted my opinions on 카지노싸이트 with my recent reviews getting shorter because I essentially say, “See what I wrote last year.”

More specifically, in 2023, I wrote, “Here, I’ll skip my usual praise for Connelly’s techniques. If readers are interested, they can check out ...more

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