I read the book cover to cover after finding references to it by Derek Lowe on his pipeline blog [1]. Learned a lot about chemistry and the enormous investment that went into the space age (mostly because of overlapping technology for ICBMs and other rocket powered weapons) which is daunting as this book ONLY covers what's been declassified as of the 80s in propelants.

[1] blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/