This is a good one. It deals with that era of time just before and into the dawning of the space program. But it isn't so much about the space program as one man's full self-realization throughout his life as a test pilot in the Mojave Desert for the USAF and NASA. But more than that, you get this great supporting cast of characters including Grace, his wife, and Florence, his daughter, and Pancho, a kick-ass female before females were allowed to be kick-ass.

The prose is stark. I hear that a lot when I read reviews. This book will definitely be one of those. It sets the tone for the whole book. Sometimes, it will seem as if you are jumping into the middle of a conversation where you wish you were there for the beginning of it. And if you are not up on the history of the pre-space and space programs, sometimes the technical portions of the flights might zip right over your head.

BUT I implore you to soldier on through some of this because the book just picks up steam from beginning to end and the end is worth it all.

This will likely be at the top of my best list for 2015.