March 8, 2026 - Recommended by the Wright B Flyer Museum in Dayton, Ohio, The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (1989) by Tom D. Crouch is a comprehensive, impeccably researched account of Wilbur and Orville Wright's lifelong quest to conquer human, powered flight. The title is interesting in that it recognizes their father, Bishop Milton Wright. In addition to telling the story of how two brothers who never married devoted their entire lives to building a flying machine, the book also details the boys' upbringing and their family life as their father preached and also battled his church, the United Brethren in Christ. At 529 pages, the book is not a quick read but well worth it.

March 8, 2026 - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (2013) is a riveting story of the University of Washington's rowing team that won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, the same Olympics where Jesse Owens won four gold medals. The nine boys had to first beat all of the Ivy League rowing teams to represent the United States at the Olympics. Few gave them much of a chance but they did. The book is based on Brown's interviews with Joe Rantz, one of the nine boys in the boat, shortly before he passed away. Brown traveled to Berlin to look at the lake where the boys, against all odds and attempts to deny them a fighting chance, won the gold. It's a terrific book that has been made into both a documentary and a feature film.

Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell by Charlotte Gray (2004; 445 pages) is an in-depth history of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone and the founding of AT&T in 1885. It's also a window into education of the deaf community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alexander's father devoted his career as a speech consultant (elocutionist) who developed the Visible Speech System, a series of symbols representing pronunciation. Alexander followed in his father's footsteps but charted his own path as a teacher of deaf students, one of whom was Helen Keller. Alexander married one of his deaf students and the book is also a beautiful love story about their marriage.

The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax is fascinating. Published in 2005, Lax dispels the myth that penicillin was discovered accidentally when working in London in 1928, Alexander Fleming left a lid off of a petri dish when he went on vacation. Lax explains why that could not have happened although he does credit Fleming with discovering penicillin. Other scientists took up the research when Fleming stopped. During WWII, the U.S. Army identified the mass production of penicillin as its second priority after the Manhattan project. They wanted enough penicillin to treat wounded soldiers after the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion in France. They succeeded. Read Sgt. Harold R. Smith, WWII Home Front Aircraft Mechanic. His brother was wounded during the D-Day invasion and was one of the first soldiers treated with penicillin. The antibiotic saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. To read the full story about the book, visit The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat was Penicillium.