When the Going Was Good

When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter

This is a memoir of Graydon, from his growing up in Ottawa, Canada to his career in the magazine business ending up as editor of Vanity Fair at a time when it was a major publication. Si Newhouse was major influence and guiding force that allowed him to excel at a gime when magazine's were at their height, arguably. Entertaining and personal.

Realm of Ice and Sky

Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue by Buddy Levy

During the first part of the 20th century, great lighter than airships were very popular and were seen as the future of aviation. This is the stroy of 2 polar explorations that used these airships to explore the arctic. The first was a ship lead by Amundson to go to the North pole. This was an italian built ship so the Italian government under Mussilini used it a propganda device, not to the liking of the Norwegian crew that were the actual explorers of this ship.

The second air ship is the Italia which was an Italian government sponsored exploration, lead by the italian Umberto Nobile who was on the first ship in a minor role, but managed to leverage his participation to lead the expedition. This second air ship had a much more ambitious arctic exploration agenda, but ended in tragedy when the ship crashed in the far north and many of the crew perished. Nobile was rescued and while he was a hero in Italy, many others blamed him for the failure of the ship and the lives lost.