Book Reviews

Since completing my MBA I picked up my reading list (which is actually a number of different books scattered throughout the house) and started whittling it down in no particular order. Of course the list expands and contracts as my daughter and friends make additions and others placed on the shelf happily consigned to the "yes I read that one catagory."

The first I tackled was "John Adams" and there is nothing I can add to the reviewers comments other than to say once I started I could not put it down. It is a compelling read and that should be enough of a recommendation for anyone. Gene Krantz's book "Failure is not an Option" is an amazing look back at the time Krantz spent in America's space program from the beginning through the Apollo program. There are important lessons gleaned on leadership, followership, commitment, professionalism, and dedication to a dream. As a reader old enough to remember getting up in the wee hours of the morning to watch John Glenn's first flight, to watching the grainy feed on a black and white T.V. of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon it was moving and emotional. It makes me wish for the kind of leadership to surface again who will lead this great nation on another quest like reaching the moon. It was a remarkable time even against the back drop of Vietnam and other international events which are the same today; they only seem to take on different locations, and new protagonists.

Nothing like a good book.