Sex on the Moon

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story of the Most Audacious Heist in History
Ben Mezrich
New York : Doubleday, 2011. 308 pgs, Nonfiction

This is a really fascinating tale of a good Mormon boy gone bad. Thad Roberts hails from Syracuse, UT, from a seemingly devout but strangely rigid and unforgiving Mormon family. After being expelled from the family due to childish indiscretions he eventually makes his way to NASA. An obviously very smart, personable young man, he rises to the top of the interns and falls in love with a fellow student. The two of them and one other student decide it would be a lark to steal moon rocks. They pull off the stunt, but are caught by the FBI when they tried to re-sell them.

I really enjoyed this book, but it did leave many unanswered questions. Why was Thad's family so unforgiving to him? What motivated Thad to risk his hard earned position at NASA? This story left me wanting more. Also left unanswered was the question of whether Thad was allowed to return to the University of Utah to obtain his doctorate after finishing his prison sentence. The title is rather sensational, but this book is clean.