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"Apollo 13" by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger

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In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, APOLLO 13 (previously published as Lost Moon) tells the full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe. Minutes after the explosion, the three astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the lunar module, a tiny craft designed to keep two men alive for just two days. As the hours tick away, the narrative shifts from the crippled spacecraft to Mission Control, from engineers searching desperately for a way to fix the ship to Lovell's wife and children praying for his safe return. The entire nation watches as one crisis after another is met and overcome. By the time the ship splashes down in the Pacific, we understand why the heroic effort to rescue Lovell and his crew is considered by many to be NASA's finest hour.

Now, thirty years after the launch of the mission, Jim Lovell and coauthor Jeffrey Kluger add a new preface and never-before-seen photographs to Apollo 13. In their preface, they offer an incisive look at America's waxing and waning love affair with space exploration during the past three decades, culminating only recently when the Apollo 13 spacecraft itself, long consigned to an aviation museum outside Paris, was at last returned to its rightful home in the United States. As inspiring today as it was thirty years ago, the story of Apollo 13 is a timeless tribute to the enduring American spirit and sparkling individual heroism.

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"Ghosts of the Titanic" by Charles Pellegrino

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In 1996, Charles Pellegrino published Her Name, Titanic, a riveting account of the most famous disaster in American history. The book became a New York Times bestseller, garnering superb praise from both readers and the pres. Now Pellegrino, expert oceanographer and a member of the original team that discovered the wreck two-and-one-half miles below the surface of the sea, has written the ultimate book on the sinking of the Titanic. Using the latest technology to penetrate the ship's watery grave—where low oxygen levels and a water temperature only two degrees above freezing have kept many of the ship's artifacts from even mild decay—Ghosts of the Titanic recreates those last, horrifying moments on board the doomed ship, and uncovers fascinating secrets about ocean life. Filled with new discoveries about the ship's fate and history, it reveals:

• The surprising fate of the Grand Stairway
• Why the lookout never saw the iceberg before it was too late, and why the Titanic was much closer to the iceberg than previously thought
• Who was looting cabins as the ship went down
• Diaries and letters from passengers, perfectly preserved at the bottom of the ocean

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"We Don't Need Roads: Tha Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy" by Caseen Gaines

From BarnesandNoble.com:


Long before Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled through time in a flying DeLorean, director Robert Zemeckis, and his friend and writing partner Bob Gale, worked tirelessly to break into the industry with a hit. During their journey to realize their dream, they encountered unprecedented challenges and regularly took the difficult way out.

For the first time ever, the story of how these two young filmmakers struck lightning is being told by those who witnessed it. We Don’t Need Roads includes original interviews with Zemeckis, Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and over fifty others who contributed to one of the most popular and profitable film trilogies of all time.

With a focus not only on the movies, but also the lasting impact of the franchise and its fandom, We Don’t Need Roads is the ultimate read for anyone who has ever wanted to ride a Hoverboard, hang from the top of a clock tower, travel through the space-time continuum, or find out what really happened to Eric Stoltz after the first six weeks of filming. So, why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here – and start reading! We Don’t Need Roads is your density.