Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Yay!!! Thanks!!! We really appreciate the assistance! 💕😊
I’ve been traveling a lot this year, visiting all the states in the lower 48. And lately that has involved some time spent in airports. The only way to survive the soul-degrading experience of dealing with the security theater of the TSA (no need to applaud the show here), the very iffy food, and the overcrowded airplanes is to have a good book. To be safe – have about five good books! Trust me; you will be so happy you brought them.
So this week we look at books about airports and/or airplanes. You don’t even need to bother getting on a plane yourself; stay home and enjoy your life while you enjoy missing out on the misery of an airport – but enjoy some books!
Richard Scarry’s A Day at the Airport ” Join Richard Scarry’s beloved characters Huckle Cat, Sally, and Lowly Worm for a day of adventure and discovery at the airport. Airplane fans will get an up-close look at the terminal, the control tower, the runway, and more! Featuring over 70 labeled words and a sticker sheet! Have hours of fun with this busy adventure from the one and only Richard Scarry!”
A Week at the Airport, by Alain de Botton ” Given unprecedented access to one of the world’s busiest airports as a “writer-in-residence,” Alain de Botton found it to be a showcase for many of the major crosscurrents of the modern world—from our faith in technology to our destruction of nature, from our global interconnectedness to our romanticizing of the exotic. He met travelers from all over and spoke with everyone from baggage handlers to pilots to the airport chaplain. Weaving together these conversations and his own observations—of everything from the poetry of room service menus to the eerie silence in the middle of the runway at midnight—de Botton has produced an extraordinary meditation on a place that most of us never slow down enough to see clearly. Lavishly illustrated in color by renowned photographer Richard Baker, A Week at the Airport reveals the airport in all its turbulence and soullessness and—yes—even beauty. “
Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies, by Lawrence Goldstone ” The feud between this nation’s great air pioneers, the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, was a collision of unyielding and profoundly American personalities. On one side, a pair of tenacious siblings who together had solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. On the other, an audacious motorcycle racer whose innovative aircraft became synonymous in the public mind with death-defying stunts. For more than a decade, they battled each other in court, at air shows, and in the newspapers. The outcome of this contest of wills would shape the course of aviation history—and take a fearsome toll on the men involved. “
The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking, by Brendan I. Koerner ” In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of ’60s idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when shattered Army veteran Roger Holder and mischievous party girl Cathy Kerkow managred to comandeer Western Airlines Flight 701 and flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom–a heist that remains the longest-distance hijacking in American history. “
The Dog Who Could Fly: The Incredible True Story of a WWII Airman and the Four-Legged Hero Who Flew At His Side, by Damien Lewis ” Airman Robert Bozdech stumbled across the tiny German shepherd—whom he named Ant—after being shot down on a daring mission over enemy lines. Unable to desert the puppy, Robert hid Ant inside his jacket as he escaped. In the months that followed, the pair would save each other’s lives countless times as they flew together with RAF Bomber Command. Finally grounded after being injured on a flight mission, Ant refused to abandon his duty, waiting patiently beside the runway for his master’s return from every sortie, and refusing food and sleep until they were reunited. By the end of the war, Robert and Ant had become true war heroes, and Ant was justly awarded the Dickin Medal, the “Animal VC.” “
Prudence (The Custard Protocol #1), by Gail Carriger (Okay, this isn’t an airplane; but it’s the start of a great steampunk series that I really enjoy!) ” When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (“Rue” to her friends) is bequeathed an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female under similar circumstances would do — she christens it the Spotted Custard and floats off to India.
Soon, she stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier’s wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis (and an embarrassing lack of bloomers), Rue must rely on her good breeding — and her metanatural abilities — to get to the bottom of it all… “