From the Editor's Desk...

Books in lieu of Cover of Book

FLYBY - the Interplanetary Odyssey of Voyager 2 by Joel Davis
This book is about the journey of Voyager 2, the spacecraft that blasted off from Cape Kennedy on August 20, 1977. It traveled to Jupiter and Saturn as the backup for Voyager 1 in the Voyager Project. When Voyager 1 was successful at exploring Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 was re-programmed to go on to explore Uranus where it passed at closest approach on January 24, 1986. The book chronicles the events of its journey, both as backup to Voyager 1 and as the primary exploration vehicle for Uranus. It also tells of the effects of the January 28, 1986 Challenger mishap on the Voyager project, the results from the Uranus exploration, and speculates about results that might obtain from the visit in August 1989 of Voyager 2 to Neptune (which at the time this book was written in 1987 was yet to occur). The book finishes with a description of Voyager 2's planned (in 1987) subsequent travel into interstellar space.

[See Current Status and Voyager Interstellar Mission Description for up-to-date information. The graphic at http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/f23.gif shows the paths of Voyagers 1 and 2 through the Solar System.]

I liked the way this book wove together the history of the discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel on March 13, 1781, the development of the technology used by Voyager to explore of the outer planets, and the goings-on in the lives of the people engaged in the multi-year effort. The book struck a good balance among all these strands.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the space program. The other aspect that I found interesting was the interplay between big science, big technology, big government, and the desires of people to explore and discover.

Books in lieu of Cover of Book

To Deliver Me of My Dreams by Elizabeth Avakian
Elizabeth Avakian writes of the traumas of growing up as a woman in the early 1970's when large numbers of women were just beginning to become aware of what society had done to them growing up thinking that their place was [only] in the home and the only acceptable way to live as an independent being was to do it vicariously through some man.

What particularly stood out for me was her pointing out the (probably well known) way in which the heroines of Shakespeare's comedies, "all of whom are far superior to their male counterparts," dress as men in order to accomplish things which were forbidden to them otherwise (giving as an example Portia in the Merchant of Venice).

The chapter titles are telling:

  • Men Travel, Women Have Love Affairs
  • Life As Vicarious Experience
  • Men: Can We Live With Them?

Along the way she discusses the dilemma that maternity or potential maternity brings and writes finally of the difficulty of maintaining her masculine side while living with a man of her choosing.
I liked the fresh and non-political way this book approached its subject. Perhaps, this is because it is very early in the latter day women's movement. I found it a little disconcerting the way it ended seemingly trailing off. It is perhaps something of a literary fault. I found it easy to excuse as the book is really a "work in progress" where the work is Ms. Avakian's life.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has thought about the position of women in the society and tried to understand the world from their perspective.

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