Alan Shepard tells in this month’s cover story of his first small step into space, in 1961; a batch of new books coming out in time for July’s moon-landing anniversary takes the story from there. Shepard’s own version, from which our article was adapted, is Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon (Turner Publishing, 365 pages, $21.95, CODE: TPC -1), coauthored with his Mercury Seven crewmate Deke : Slayton, who died last year. “This is a very tough place,” Shepard told I Mission Control upon stepping onto the moon’s surface as part of Apollo 14 . Despite all the years of training, the experience of standing on the moon still moved him to tears, while his fellow astronaut Ed Mitchell reported that “the presence of divinity became almost palpable.” A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin (Viking, 688 pages, $27.95, CODE: PEN -1) tells the full story, sometimes hour by hour, of the Apollo missions Shepard’s glorious first ride made possible, including Shepard’s own famous lunar golf shot ten years after his first voyage.

Having read Brock Yates’s tribute to the mighty Duesenberg, you’ll want to acquire one for yourself, and since they regularly trade at over a million dollars there’s a certain pleasure in going through the Illustrated Duesenberg Buyer’s Guide by Josh B. Malks (Motorbooks International, 128 pages, $16.95 soft cover, CODE: MTB -1), reading the brisk, straightforward descriptions of these sublime machines as though you were trying to decide between a Chevrolet Suburban and a Jeep Grand Cherokee. “If you’re buying your Duesenberg to keep forever, then buy the body that you love. If you intend to resell in the future, remember that the issue then will not be what you like, but what people prefer to buy.” Open cars generally bring the higher prices, but everything in the authoritative guide to the various coach builders looks tasty, hardtop or not. Beware retro-fitted superchargers; know your serial numbers; don’t expect effortless gear shifting; and don’t count on getting more than eight miles per gallon. The editors were reassured to learn from the bibliography that “Duesenbergs are so impressive that every respectable periodical has to do an article about one every so often.”

And once you’ve made your selection, you’ll need the Duesenberg Model J Owner’s Companion (Motorbooks International, 192 pages, $19.95, CODE: MTB -2), a compilation that includes the Model J “Owner’s Instruction Book,” which gives a pretty good idea about what made these cars special: “The green signal light at the right side marked ‘Bat’ when burning approximately every 1500 miles reminds you that the battery should be inspected.…The red signal light at the left side when burning approximately every 60-80 miles indicates that the chassis lubricating mechanism is operating and immediately afterward the green signal