Book Log 2019 #12: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

I don't know if I can add to what's already been said about this book, Wolfe's investigation into the test pilots who would bring the US into the Space Age and largely serve as the country's first astronauts. We get an idea not only of what drove these men to do what they did, how they internalized the danger, and how they functioned within the Mercury astronaut team.

Not that it's only about space flight. There's a significant chunk of the book about being a test pilot and the chase to break the sound barrier, and Chuck Yeager figures prominently even though he never became an astronaut. 

I really did enjoy this book, and found it especially compelling at a time when going into space seems kind of pedestrian. When you can send random billionaires and nonagenarian  actors into space, it's good to be reminded of the incredible peril that a handful of men endured in order to get there.