Book list, looking for spaceflight books, please advise,

[Zixinus]

Me and my dad are looking up to buy a few books from amazon.co. Because of the fee of the post, we're trying to get as much books in a little time.

The list so far:
- It's me or the dog, by Victoria Stillwell
- It's me or the dog: fat dog slim, by Victoria Stillwell (dad watches the show and I caught a few episodes, the women knows her stuff).
- The Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku (I put it forward and dad approved)
- A history of warfare by John Keegan (my choice, after a member here recommended it, I want a greater overview of warfare theory).
- The second Burn Notice book.

I wanted to add "artificial minds" but its a bit beyond our price range at the moment, so it'll wait.

Now, I would like to add to that list at least two or three books:

The first one should concern spaceflight. I'm interested in two approaches:
1. A history of the more significant missions, both of the technical aspect of development and its results on their mission.
2. A book focusing on the astronauts: how they eat, sleep, etc in zero-g, both now and in the past.

Another type of book I am interested in, or rather my dad is interested in, is regarding spycraft. After the Burn Notice book "The Fix", the author mentions "The Spycraft Manual, by Barry Davies" (a book selling over two-hundred, new and 20 pounds in the UK, its beyond our price-range). I think rather than concrete techniques, I think we would like to know how modern espionage works.

I would welcome suggestions and even criticism of the existing list (I am unsure about "A history of warfare").

[Dalton]

If you want to try something based on cryptology, try Cryptonomicon.

[Gaidin]

If you want to try something based on cryptology, try Cryptonomicon.

At that point one can probably go for the entire Baroque Cycle as well I think, though it takes the concept and characters(well...families) of the Cryptonomicon and is set in the 17th and 18th centuries.

[Zixinus]

I'll keep that title in mind, but I am not interested in cryptology at the moment.

[Zixinus]

Can anyone reccomend me this book:
SpaceFlight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle--And Beyond (Hardcover)
Sounds like a complete historical review.

Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
Memoirs of an astronaut, can anyone comment on this book?

I am sorry if anyone finds this bothersome, but I would really like some more personal feedback from forum members than semi-complete reviews from Amazon reviewers.

[Melchior]

They may not be exactly what you are looking for, but I own with distinct satisfaction both this and this.

[Zixinus]

Both are a bit out of my price range, but I'll keep those titles in mind (well, in a txt document anyway).

[Simplicius]

It is not quite what you are looking for in a space book, but as an interesting bookend to coverage of the whole space program I recommend Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age.

It starts at the very end of World War II, where the Americans and Russians are picking over the German rocket program and each trying to get the best bits of it before the other does. It follows von Braun and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency languishing in Huntsville while the US military was busy not giving a crap about rocketry, Korolev and Glushko's work on Russia's ballistic missile program and Korolev's political maneuvering to see the program sustained and expanded into space launches besides. It covers the development and launch of Sputnik I and II, the collective brick-shitting by the United States and the trouble it gave the passive Eisenhower administration, the scramble for a response, the Navy's clusterfuck that was Vanguard, and the eventual short-notice success of ABMA's Explorer I launch - all this in considerable depth as a coherent historical narrative.

Sadly, I didn't read it with an eye to evaluating it as a piece of historical writing. Assuming it is accurate, it is a good book besides.