+This Book is a well written acount on the extravegent life of mercury astronaut Alan B Shepard. Noted as the cockiest of Americas original astonauts, Shepard had surely enough past experiences for him to deserve the prize of being the first american into space on a suborbital 'hop' into space. From serving in the pacific during world war two, to Flying a ballisitic missile to teh edge of the atmosphere, I definatley advise this book to be read as action is evident on every page. I definatley tr More...

Having read the autobiographies of Chris Kraft (first flight director), Gene Krantz (second flight director) and Jim Lovell (of Apollo 13 fame), it intrigued me that this book was written by a journalist, of all things, and had started out as an article on the life of Alan Shepherd after he'd died.

Obviously, there's more to the man than meets the eye, so the piece quickly spiraled out of an article and into a book (and a long one at that). It was very interesting to see how the author got detail More...

I didn't care for the writing style that much and some passages made me think, huh? I didn't know much about Shepard's pre NASA days so this was the most interesting part of the book to me. The NASA part of the book didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and I would recommend The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe or A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin for a better view of the space program. The ending had me saying huh too. Alan Shepard was already dead when this book was written and it seemed lik More...

Light This Candle is a biography that adopts the swagger of its subject: Alan Shephard. Mixing new interviews with material from earlier records, author Neal Thompson delivers a book that proceeds at a steady, confident clip. As such, Light This Candle achieves a gut-level intensity that seems appropriate given the ambitious man it depicts.

At times, this book feels like a piecemeal eulogy. While the bulk of the narrative recounts Shephard’s storied career, chapters dealing with his youth and po More...

In chronicling the life of America's first (and one of its most private) astronauts, "Light This Candle" fills a void, and thus is worth reading just on that basis. But it disappoints on several levels.

First, it works at a huge disadvantage in that its subject, Scott Carpenter, is no longer around to tell his story, and left little record to tell us what was really going on inside his head and in his private moments. There is always in the book a sense of distance and uncertainty, and the reader More...

Anyone who has watched "The Right Stuff" will appreciate this biography of astronaut Alan Shepard, a complex, driven man whose flaws are as interesting as his incredible accomplishments.

I have an interest in the early years of the space program and therefore I am pre-determined to like biographies like this one - particularly as Al Shepard strikes me as one of the more interesting characters in the Mercury drama.

Having said that this book surpassed my expectations and is really a page turner. I am not sure how all the material was gathered but it all hangs together really well and provides a genuine insight into the character of the man, and one that is not always heroic. Ther More...

The biography of astronaut Alan Shepard, first man in space, landed on the moon on Apollo 15.

Alan Shepard is my hero!!!

A truly good read. A page turner.

For those of us "older" folks that actually remember the original Mercury 7 astronauts and the space race, this is a great book. These guys are the real hero's of the 20th Century. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants!