Spaceflight in the Shuttle Era and Beyond is a rather academic look at NASA, space shuttle missions, and their legacies from a humanities and social sciences perspective. You might think it's more of a STEM-focused look based on the title and cover, and you would be wrong.

What I liked about this book was the unbiased look at spaceflight; many books about NASA portray all of the space missions through rose-colored lenses. This book includes reference to many sources (notably: the New York Times) that were not positive about NASA, the space shuttle, and the role of humans in space.

What I did not like about this book was almost everything else about it. It is very dry and academic, and I had guessed that the author was a tenure-track faculty member and was surprised to realize that I was wrong (Valerie Neal is a curator at the National Air and Space Museum). The book is frequently repetitive, to the point where I seriously doubted if I was having deja-vu or unintentionally re-reading sections (I do that sometimes when I'm really tired). Also, I really, really hated the use of the word "imaginary" as a noun rather than as an adjective. I would read and my brain would automatically fill in the blank and I would read "NASA's imaginary friend." Rather than "NASA's imaginary." (The latter of which just sounds stupid, in my opinion).

I leave you all with a very ambivalent recommendation. If you're really into spaceflight and NASA, you might just have enough interest to get through this book, especially if you don't mind a more cultural (rather than technical) view of history. Otherwise, skip it. ( )