Last Man on the Moon
Eugene Cernan & Don Davis
ISBN 0-312-26351-1
The book is about the NASA career of Gene Cernan, who of course really was the last man on the moon. There are brief sections about his childhood and post NASA career, with a longer treatment of his career as a US Navy pilot, but just enough to set the scene for what is the real meat of the book - his time at NASA.
There's coverage of all the Gemini and Apollo missions, but of course it concentrates on Gemini 9 and Apollo 10 & 17. I did learn some things about those missions that I didn't know, but for me the most interesting stuff, was the behind-the-scenes stuff, Gene's relationships with the other astronauts, the jockeying for position, the constant worry that he might not make the grade and get another mission. I learnt one or two things about how the "rotation" system worked, and how if broke down a few times, due to accident or intervention from NASA management. There's also the running thread of how the stresses of the job affected his relationship with his first wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Tracy.
There are no pulled punches, and Gene gives some pretty forthright opinions of some of the other astronauts - notably Alan Shepherd & Buzz Aldrin. Particularly interesting is the description of how he had to deal with being backup Commander to Alan Shepherd on Apollo 14. In parts he comes across as arrogant, but by the time you get to the end of the book, you can see that this was almost a requirement of the job. As an astronaut, if you didn't want to jeopardise your seat on the next flight, you could not afford to show a hint of fear, or doubt.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I expected to enjoy it, of course, but I didn't realise quite what a page tuner it would turnout to be. This is a well written and very interesting book. If you have more than even a passing interest in the subject - go buy it!