A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 - The Space Race Begins Book

I enjoyed D'Antonio's writing style and had to respect the extensive research that he put into the book. Also, I found the idea of reporting on a period of time as opposed to a particular person or event very interesting. With all of the hoopla surrounding the anniversary of the moon landing, I enjoyed getting a chance to learn about the less-celebrated milestones on the journey to that achievement.

The book put me in mind of seeing slides of someone's vacation. A scene comes up, and the person offers a little story about what we're seeing and gives what background he has on the people in the photo. Over time, a few people start to show up repeatedly, and we build up a sense of them, but it remains limited by the snapshots in which they appear. By the end, we have a fairly strong overview of the events described, but at any particular moment we have only a sliver of the picture. At the end of the book, the author offers an epilogue in the style of "based on a true story" movies where a bit of text at the end tells us what the main characters went on to do with their lives.

Toward the end of the book, the editorial rigor begins to slide; typos and digressions begin to multiply, but this only occurs in the last twenty pages or so.

Finally, militant, PETA-type animal lovers should NOT read this book. It will just make you angry.