Best Reads 2024 at BCIT Library: Transportation

"Space Age aficionados, political junkies, and general readers will find both the unexpected and the fascinating in Launius’s scrupulously researched account." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Through a journey of compelling aviation experiences, Lutter offers four tools that every individual in aircraft MRO can and should employ to ensure they have done their very best to keep their team on the ground and passengers in the air as safe as possible. The reality is that even a small maintenance error that goes undetected can bring down a plane. We live and work in an industry in which a mindset of 'good enough' cannot be justified. Aiming for precision in all manual tasks provides you with the skillset and mindset to avoid error traps.

"From behind the big red doors of the Airport Fire and Rescue service and the glass of the control towers to the men and women in high visibility jackets that swarm around a commercial airliner, this book shines a light on the unseen yet critical jobs at an airport, without which commercial aviation as we know it today would not exist." From publisher website

While airlines have been looking into the next generation of retailing practices for several years, developments since the beginning of 2020 have accelerated the need to take retailing to a new paradigm. A singular focus now is the ever-changing demands of the current and next generation of customers and employees and managing their values. Examples of customer needs include a mobile-first approach, rich content, augmented and personalized end-to-end services with seamless, consistent, and contextualized experiences.

"Beckoned by the Sea celebrates coastal women from northern BC to northern California who work on or with the sea. The twenty-four women featured in this inspiring and fascinating book represent a variety of industries--from conservation, commercial fishing, and marine biology to safety and rescue, tourism, and the arts. Weaving together elements of social history, culture, geography, and environmentalism, author Sylvia Taylor draws on in-depth interviews, meticulous research, and her own experience as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat. Beckoned by the Sea investigates the myriad ways in which women have contributed to the marine industries that sustain the people and shape the culture of North America's west coast--and reveals how the sea itself has touched the lives of these women by giving them not just a livelihood but an infinite source of inspiration and personal fulfillment."

"Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told - that of our ocean. Not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself: what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture. This is the spectacular story of Earth's dynamic ocean"-

"This covers the development of autonomous shipping towards a more human-centred approach, placing greater importance on human factors and human-centred design. Combining insight from experts in the industry and academia, it discusses the initial enthusiasm for rapid development of unmanned ships and the eventual shift to a more measured view as cumulative experience revealed the limitations, risks, and lack of a generic business case. This book uniquely covers the resulting focus on more realistic growth of automation to augment humans in maritime operations."

"an exhaustively researched and thrilling account of a long-forgotten, 18th-century calamity at sea. This historical narrative isn’t just based on a true story – it really is one, despite extremes of psychology and nature that make the recounted events almost unbelievable." From NPR