John Glenn

November 1, 1999
Could there be a more iconic American life than that of astronaut-turned-senator Glenn? The author's reading voice measured, plainspoken, imbued with honest conviction reinforces this sense of salt-of-the-earth patriotism. First, the listener hears of Glenn's halcyon Ohio childhood, how he married his childhood sweetheart and went off to fly for the navy in the World War II. It is only here, with Glenn's intricate technical descriptions of aircraft and heartfelt observations on the beauty of flight, that he comes across as really comfortable with himself. He goes on to tell of his hero days, first as a postwar test pilot, then as a solo astronaut in his famed Mercury capsule, "Friendship Seven." Though he has the grace of modesty in his descriptions, a genuine sense of the exhilaration of these times translates effectively. By contrast, Glenn's summation of his subsequent political career is admirable but unsurprising. It's only when he returns to space aboard a shuttle flight at age 77, and exuberantly radios to earth, "Zero-G, and I feel fine," that a feeling of his true spark returns. Based on the 1999 BDD hardcover.

August 1, 1999
In this biography, which will (not surprisingly) be heavily promoted, Glenn details his exploits on land and in space.

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 1999
"A boy could not have had a more idyllic early childhood than I did," writes Glenn, but his memories of it would have remained private but for the intense interest when he blasted into space again last year. This reprise of his fame induced him to reconsider his disinclination to write a memoir, so here it is. In it, airplanes, combat, wife Annie, and spaceflight crowd out that part of his life spent in politics, a sensible decision because though the former command the public's unadultered admiration, the latter inevitably attracts mixed opinions. But they are connected. The first steps in Glenn's aeronautical career began with his fascination with cars and planes in Ohio. Immensely proud of his father, a World War I veteran, Glenn enlisted in the army air wing after Pearl Harbor. He finagled a transfer to the marines, whose esprit de corps he admired and whose fighter planes, instead of the army's slow transports, he was burning to fly. He got his chance in the Marshall Islands, survived enemy flak, and returned stateside to the itinerant life of the military. Making the uniform his career, Glenn reveals his ambition through description of his assignments. Apparently becoming the Corps' commandant was his goal. He talked his way into flying jet combat in Korea, and these passages, which feature an appearance by the "splendid splinter," Ted Williams, as Glenn's wingman, will be the most thrilling to readers of an aviational bent. In comparison, the account of Project Mercury is flat, technocratic, with little reflection on the mass-media machine that elevated his celebrity over all other astronauts'. Readers will opine on Glenn's politics according to their wont, but nostalgia for his uncomplicated courage and patriotism will create waiting lists for his reminiscences. ((Reviewed October 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)