(Denver Post Book Review)
500 words
Mister B: Living With a 98-Year-Old Rocket Scientist
By A. Lynn Byk
Published April 1, 2016
420 pages (cloth) ; 352 pages (paperback)
9" x 6" (cloth) and 6.69" x 9.61" (16.993 x 24.409 cm) (pb )
50 black and white photos (30 historical)
For the amusement and edification of ages 15 and older:
ISBN: 9780997162561 (cloth)
ISBN: 9780997162509 (perfect bound)
ISBN: 9780997162516 (ePub/eBook)
$34.99 (cloth with dust jacket)
$22.99 (perfect bound) (Ingram, B&T, B&N, SpringArbor, Amazon)
$9.99 (ePub/eBook)
Memoirs: Mister B. Enthralling and Instructive To the End
Mister B: Living with a 98-Year-Old Rocket Scientist, by Lynn Byk, might be a national treasure. It charms the bejeebers out of the Greatest Generation, Lockheed Martin, and the Cold War. And, it won the 2016 Pinnacle Achievement Award Winner in the category of Memoir. The humorous, aerospace memoir, Mister B, hardcover at 420 pages, is also available in paperback and eBook and offers 25 historic photographs from the old man’s cache.
Right from the Preface of Mister B, a journal of a year in the life of a retired aeronautics engineer, I was pulled into a possible world of aging where intelligence, wit, and physical adventure get bolted together like a space dome must be bolted to the capsule bulkhead in order to succeed.
As three individuals step into a mysterious life together, Mr. B’s sacrifice and compromises of old-age make a way for his story to be recorded. Located in the Colorado foothills near the Lockheed plant, new dynamics of stress-relieving relationships are engineered.
Using present tense dialogue, the author Lynn Byk allows a reader to feel privy to the hidden, Polish-immigrant history and to the ambitions of a self-made man who made his way up the ladder with mathematical precision. Warning! Mathematics and logical decisions, and some non-politically correct ones come to heads when a fascinating past reveal both regret and satisfaction in the memories of an unusual old fart and the prejudices of a religious caretaker.
The author has detailed her father-in-law’s self-made personality, his playfulness, and energy into the stories that tumble out with dinner recipes and breakfasts that made me remember why I also love to linger over a meal in the company of a great mind. As the author, – who is the chief’s cook, chauffeur, and companion, – oversees Mister B’s daily rituals, driving him to doctor appointments, the library, and lunch outings, I felt like a passenger in the back seat, admiring Mr. B, his penchants, personality, and passions.
Lynn Byk has made Mr. B’s Rhode Island background come alive with the architecture of his descriptions. His college life in the swamps of Alabama, and how he later proved his scientific expertise, fascinated me on many levels.
If you ever wondered what the aerospace engineers were up to during WWII and the cold war, read the quick and intelligent thoughts coming from the quirky mind of Mr. B– at age 98! As the months in the story pass, we learn of a mathematically gifted and dedicated engineer who was truly in the thick of the rocket industry during exciting times.
I was enthralled with the man to the very end. Take time to revel in this multi-generational account of daily life, where mutual respect becomes the strong, new material that stands up to the stressors of getting older. It can be found in the grumpy ol ’ men’s section at Barnes & Nobel, or Amazon because it is classified for aging older men, relegated to the tiniest section of the library, in the back.
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Review by: Sue Lockwood Summers, author, educator, and lover of books </h1>
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n Denver Post Book Reviewer
n Jeffco Special Librarian (retired)
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