Book of the Month: FIRST MAN

James R. Hansen's First Man (Simon and Schuster, 2005) is the first authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, and is likely to remain the definitive one. This 769-page tome does an excellent job of acquainting readers with Armstrong the man as well as Armstrong the astronaut and, most often overlooked, Armstrong the engineer, a man who made a major contribution to the revolutionary development of digital fly-by-wire control. This biography hits all the highlights of Armstrong's career, but goes beyond earlier efforts be explaining how he reached those highlights and why. Armstrong's personal life is detailed - not excessively, but enough to help readers understand a man who has tried to maintain some distance between himself and Armstrong the icon. This is a superb achievement.