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A review by astridsbooknook
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
3.0
Hidden Figures tells the untold story of how America's space race was accomplished with the help of black female mathematicians and engineers. Thinking the book will be better, I eagerly dove into the book, hoping to get a fuller picture of what these incredible women went through.
While the story was inspiring, the writing was very dry and at times sleep inducing. Where the movie focuses on three of the women computers, as they were called, the book talks about the computers as a whole and several women specifically, including the women the movie focused on and some the movie never mentions. The book gave us a deeper understanding of these women's lives, from a young age through college to when they joined NASA. We got a sense of the time period as well, with Jim Crow and segregation being talked about matter of factly.
The most interesting part of the book was seeing the differences in how the three women were portrayed and what actually transpired versus their movie counterparts. In both versions, these women faced inconceivable pressures and obstacles. The movie however takes huge liberties with how the women were treated by their white colleagues at NASA and emphasizes the inherent racism of the time period whereas the book chooses to focus more on the women's achievements.
Overall, the book was great in showing you how instrumental these women were in getting America to touch the stars but could have done a better job of keeping the story engaging and interesting.
While the story was inspiring, the writing was very dry and at times sleep inducing. Where the movie focuses on three of the women computers, as they were called, the book talks about the computers as a whole and several women specifically, including the women the movie focused on and some the movie never mentions. The book gave us a deeper understanding of these women's lives, from a young age through college to when they joined NASA. We got a sense of the time period as well, with Jim Crow and segregation being talked about matter of factly.
The most interesting part of the book was seeing the differences in how the three women were portrayed and what actually transpired versus their movie counterparts. In both versions, these women faced inconceivable pressures and obstacles. The movie however takes huge liberties with how the women were treated by their white colleagues at NASA and emphasizes the inherent racism of the time period whereas the book chooses to focus more on the women's achievements.
Overall, the book was great in showing you how instrumental these women were in getting America to touch the stars but could have done a better job of keeping the story engaging and interesting.