William Morrow reportedly paid over $3 million for a memoir by Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. The house, which brought the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 to BEA, announced a 350,000 copy first-printing and is pushing the title as one of its big fall books. So how does it actually read? In one of the first reviews out of the book, PW gives Highest Duty a star.

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters
Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger with Jeffrey Zaslow. William Morrow, $25.99 (352p) ISBN-13: 978-00-6-192468-2
Rushed to print, overshadowed by the next big news story, books by unlikely heroes who hit the front page are always suspect. But as Sullenberger grows from a 5-year-old who wants to fly planes, to a fighter pilot, to a 57-year-old "gray-haired man with my hands on the controls of an Airbus A320 over Manhattan," it's clear there's a story here to tell. "I flew thousands of flights in the last forty-two years," Sullenberger reflects, "but my entire career is now being judged by how I performed on one of them." Last January, "Capt. Sully" became one of the most recognized men in America when he landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after a flock of geese hit the aircraft and incapacitated the engines shortly after takeoff. But, he insists, he's not a hero, describing his actions as the result of a lifetime of flight training, particularly his intense cultivation of "situational awareness"—"ultimately flying the airplane with your mind by developing and maintaining an accurate real-time mental model of your reality." Though justifiably proud of his accomplishment, Sullenberger speaks frankly of the toll the public spotlight has taken on his marriage, as well as the difficulties he and his family have endured throughout his commercial aviation career. Zaslow's contributions should not be overlooked; as with Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, he invisibly assists Sullenberger in going beyond the moment that sparks readers' interest—the entire flight was five minutes, eight seconds long—and elaborate upon the life experiences that give context to his fame. The result is as dramatic as it is inspirational. 32 pages of photographs not seen by PW. (Oct. 13)