With the new HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon bringing Jim Lovell's story to the screen for the second time in three years (the first was Ron Howard's Apollo 13), you're probably familiar with the aborted 1970 moonshot, even if you didn't live through it. In this book, Lovell and Kluger give the story less of a Hollywood spin, sticking closer to the facts of the mission. Still, the coordinated effort that brought Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert back from the Moon to the Earth is no less dramatic in a literal retelling.

Harold Check