100 books like The Right Stuff

Occasionally, a book affects you profoundly: as a reader, writer, and person.

As a reader, the characters were part of my life. The ebb and flow of conflict, resolution, and tension was captivating. While reading this book, I slowed down instead of speeding up, to savor every emotion with intensity.

As a writer, Ms. Hannah uses language to convey heart-wrenching emotion. This is the joy, despair, hope, love, anger, and rage I want to share in my stories.

As a person, stories let us inspect the complex intricacies of humanity. It’s inspiring, moving, and encouraging. This one evocatively demonstrates the power of love, family, courage, and hope. I would be surprised if this book disappointed you, and not surprised a bit if it changes you on some deeper level.

If you, like me, were forced to read Homer’s Odyssey in high school, you may recall the famous story about the witch Circe, who turned Homer’s sailors into pigs. And you may have felt as I did: slay, queen. If so, then Circe, Madeline Miller’s sophomore novel, is the book for you. 

In Circe, Miller expounds on the scant details we have on the life of Circe—who, like so many women in mythology and literature only existed as side character in the main male character’s storyline—producing a sweeping, moving narrative of female empowerment.

I loved this book because I could see so much of myself in this story—from Circe as the unwanted child to Circe the rebellious young woman to Circe the sensualized siren to Circe the broken-hearted muse. In all the phases of her life, Circe learns to find her own way in a world that does… show more.

Can there be anything more poignant than a story about a hero who doesn’t think he’s a hero? About a man who endured a boarding school full of abuse, lived through the horrors and injuries of WWII, returned to hate and racism, lost family, and yet confronted it all with resilience and forgiveness?

This memoir is from Chester Nez—one of the original Navajo code talkers. It contains wonderful photos and the actual Navajo code. This is an important piece of history as well as a genuinely insightful read and peek into Navajo culture.

The last line of the book, written when Mr. Nez was 86, reads “It’s been a good life—so far.” As an outsider I couldn’t disagree more. His life was tragic and profoundly difficult, but he endured with grace and strength. This simple last line says much about the heroes we should all admire. It has been a… show more.

Perhaps it takes a gifted poet to write about loneliness and pain in a way that is free of self-pity. Lucy Grealy is that poet, and this is the book I recommend in my grief self-help workbook (published in 2014).

Ms. Grealy, diagnosed with cancer at only 9, lost a third of her jaw and eventually underwent 30 torturous surgeries. She endured not only ridicule from classmates, but her own feelings of ugliness and rejection. This memoir is full of wit, insight, and beautifully crafted sentences that spare the reader from much of the frightening details. If ever there was a book that made you dig deeper for your own buried strength, this is it.

Lucy said before her death that she didn’t want to be anyone’s inspiration or role model; she wanted to be recognized as a serious writer. She did both.

I. Love. This. Book.

This is, hands down, the single best book about the Apollo Moon missions ever written.

Comprehensive, accurate, and utterly engrossing, Chaikin takes you back to the 1960s and 70s and to the Moon to tell the story about how humans visited their first alien world.

Far and away my favorite book on the topic — and as we begin the journey to go back to the Moon, a great time to read up on when we did it first.

The autobiography of John Young is almost a history of NASA itself since he began his career there in 1962 and retired from it in 2004. Young was the only astronaut to fly two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions, and two Space Shuttle missions. His book covers all of the various challenges the U.S. space agency faced during that period, and he also touches on the future of spaceflight up until 2012, when the book was published.

Neil Armstrong was an American hero not just because of his skills as a pilot during the Korean War or because of his prowess as an astronaut or by becoming the first man in history to touch the lunar surface. He is a hero because he did all of those things without ever bragging or seeking to make a profit from his success. His commitment to duty, as well as his sacrifice and humility, are lessons for every generation. 

By now, nearly everyone has seen Apollo 13, the movie based on this gripping account by the mission’s commander. The book delves into both the events themselves and the background of the mission in ways a movie cannot, including an unlikely event during the spacecraft’s assembly, which ultimately led to the oxygen tank explosion.

Of all the hard-charging, high-achieving astronauts, Mr. Lovell was perhaps the most “normal” of the group, which I think is illustrated by the fact that he was one of the few to get through the Apollo program with his marriage intact. His humanity, intelligence, and determination shine forth in this account, illustrating what it took to survive their ordeal.

Because I always learn something from Mary Roach’s books, and because they are relentlessly funny. 

This time out, with her usual investigative vigor, Mary delves into the Space Program and gives us a detailed look at what happens before, during, and after a space mission. We learn about training, experimentation, the rigors, and dangers of space travel, and the astronauts themselves, who, it turns out, aren’t always the stern-looking, no-nonsense types we’ve come to imagine. Apparently a sense of humor, even of the bizarre, is an uncited requirement for becoming an astronaut. You will learn things in this book that you probably never thought about (Ever wonder what might go wrong in a trip to the toilet at zero gravity?). And we find that some of the astronauts are legitimate practical jokers (on one voyage a skull keeps appearing in various places). And why not? Don’t they get bored?

Yes,… show more.

“Weightlessness is like a new toy you get to unwrap every day, again and again — and it’s a great reminder, too, that you need to savor the small stuff, not just sweat it.” One of many lessons learned offered by the Canadian astronaut (yes, the one who sang a creative version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”) and flew on both the American Shuttle and Russian Soyuz. Like other next-generation astronauts influenced by the Apollo era, Chris reveals a non-jargon view about training and spaceflight with international crews. As Commander of the International Space Station during Expedition 34/35, he writes, “… don’t assume you know everything, and try to be ready for anything” is wisdom that can be related to here on Earth and up there in space.”