Karen Piper won awards for writing on water and climate issues, but in A Girl's Guide to Missiles, she delves into her past to try and make sense of her present. She had hit a point in her life where a trip down memory lane would help her make sense of why she is where she is, why she thinks as she does, and make sense of several mysteries that have bugged her for years.

Piper frames her biography with a trip back to China Lake Research Base to visit the petroglyphs found in the desert with her mother. She provides a brief history of China Lake which opened as a rocket design base during World War II. In 1973, the Pipers moved to China Lake from Seattle (WA) which was quite an adjustment especially since they moved into base housing. Life got better later when they moved off-base to a local town. But the base was the focus of their lives, especially since both parents worked there (One worked on the Sidewinder while the other worked on the Tomahawk missile). Later Karen works at the base during summer vacations as a teenager and college student. She provides a sense of what life was like in China Lake during the Carter. Reagan, and Bush years with details that will remind baby boomers of those times.

But what about the mystery she wrote the book to solve? In the end she does come to a conclusion when she finally gets the courage to visit her father's grave site. She spent her life hunting for her father's back story, especially what he had done during World War II. During the course of solving that mystery, she also found out the backstory of China Lake, the part it played in missile development, the Cold War, and every war since WWII. And she thinks she got a grasp on her life, so she can move forward.

In a meandering, but ultimately mesmerizing story, Karen Piper uses her family as a way to use the reader's sense of place and time to discuss issues of history, geography, religion, and education. Baby boomers will wax nostalgic at reminders of their past while others will shake their heads over secrets hidden in plain sight.

A slightly off paced but magnetic look into the life of a woman who grew up on the China Lake military station during the Cold War. Bonus, her parents were both working in the weapons department which allowed for some fun "behind the scenes" looks into weapon development and deployment. The combination of childhood memories and observations from China Lake and Piper's adult thoughts on world shifts, military prowess, and wars both big and small, is a remarkable thing.

My feelings about this book seem to echo most of the reviews that have already been written for Goodreads. This is a fine coming of age memoir about a woman who happened to grow up in China Lake, but it is not a book about China Lake. What she shared about "America's Secret Desert" was interesting, as was her fundamentalist Christian schooling (horrifying is probably a better descriptor than interesting in this instance), but overall the book fell a bit flat for me.

I wanted this book as soon as I saw the title. If I ever wrote a book about my passion for Cape Canaveral, I would have used that title. By the end of the book, I felt the title was used because it sounds good, not because it accuratly reflects what happens in the book.

I am fascinated by the history of missile test sites, especially the oldest ones which emerged in the 40's and 50's. I knew of China Lake's test area, but I hadn't dug too much into it's history (I prefer the air breathing missiles and ICBMs). This book seemed like the perfect introduction.

While both the author and her parents worked at China Lake in various capacities, it felt like very little of the book was about what went on there. The book is more the story of the author's life, including various boyfriends, her brief job in the payroll department, going to college, getting married and her father's descent into Alzheimer's. I'm sorry, I got this book to hear about life in China Lake, not about trying to sell Amway.

At one point, she talks about the abandoned Lark missile ramp. Lark missiles were also tested at Cape Canaveral - but there was no ramp invoved. I want to know more! But alas, the author has moved on to someting else.

I suppose this book would be good if you liked memoirs of non-celebreties. It was definitly not what I hoped it would be.