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Author Topic:   Reaching for the Stars (Jose Hernandez)
cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 04-27-2012 02:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut
by Jose M. Hernandez with Monica Rojas Rubin

Foreword by Emilio Estefan

Born into a family of migrant workers, toiling in the fields by the age of six, Jose M. Hernàndez dreamed of traveling through the night skies on a rocket ship. Reaching for the Stars is the inspiring story of how he realized that dream, becoming the first Mexican-American astronaut.

Hernàndez didn't speak English till he was 12, and his peers often joined gangs, or skipped school. And yet, by his twenties he was part of an elite team helping develop technology for the early detection of breast cancer. He was turned down by NASA eleven times on his long journey to donning that famous orange space suit.

Hernàndez message of hard work, education, perseverance, of "reaching for the stars," makes this a classic American autobiography.

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Center Street (1 Sep 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 1455522805
  • ISBN-13: 978-1455522804

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-20-2012 11:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm a few chapters into reading this book, but in the meantime, a few reviews and related features:
  • The Space Review: Review: Reaching for the Stars
    "Reaching for the Stars" can be considered, in some respects, a campaign biography, especially with its publication just two months before the November election. But if you ignore those final pages about his decision to run for Congress, though, it is also a tale of success, with Hernandez, in the book's epilogue, helpfully enumerating the steps he followed to turn his childhood dreams into reality — steps, he says, can be used by anyone to "harvest your own stars," even if you're not interested in being an astronaut.
  • SPACE.com: From the Farm to Space: Astronaut-Turned-Congressional Candidate Tells Story in New Book
    "I started out as what I would categorize as a typical migrant farm worker," Hernandez told SPACE.com in a recent interview. "Even though I was born here in the United States, I was born to immigrant parents. We would go back for three months at a time [to Mexico] and then we would spend nine months here in the United States following the harvest of the crop in the San Joaquin Valley of California."

Daugherty54
Member

Posts: 591
From: Cabot, Arkansas, USA
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 09-23-2012 07:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Daugherty54   Click Here to Email Daugherty54     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hernandez in person. If his story is as compelling in print as he told me in conversation, it will be a great read. To go from migrant farm worker to NASA engineer then to an astronaut is genuinely inspiring.

astro-nut
Member

Posts: 946
From: Washington, IL
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 09-29-2012 08:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for astro-nut   Click Here to Email astro-nut     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
For those currently reading this book what are your views on it? Would you recommend this book? I enjoy reading books about astronauts and their biographies and wonder if this would be one for my collection.

jvertrees
Member

Posts: 108
From: Crestwood, MO
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 11-13-2012 09:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jvertrees   Click Here to Email jvertrees     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Do any readers on this site have a review of this book? By the publishers review much sounds like a good story but I am still curious about wanting to know more than from farm to the stars.

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