From the Bookshelf of Discourse in a Digital Age…

Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly

Start date: November 9, 2017

Finish date: December 13, 2017

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May 25, 2024 Julie Failla Earhart rated it it was ok

I cannot remember the last time I said a movie was better than the book. I am saying it now about Hidden Figures though. So much better. My book club selected this title, but after three evenings and only getting to page 25, I knew this one wasn’t for me. And because I didn’t want to go to book club without some knowledge of the book, I listened to the Audio CD. It was easier to listen to than to read, but I still found it BORING!

My biggest complaint is that the book didn’t focus on the women. ...more

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Aug 28, 2017 Allison rated it liked it

Shelves: adult, multicultural, non-fiction, strong-female-lead, for-the-girls, diversity, issues, feminist, read-for-bookclub

A very important book and subject, but unfortunately I found the reading experience disappointing. It may just be me - I'm not a non-fiction person in general - but I got bogged down in all the facts and numbers and I lost the human interest story. I also found it confusing how the author switches between the women she follows, often jumping between time periods and subjects without any transition or indication. The story arc is muddled and confused so that the penultimate chapter feels no more ...more

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Nov 27, 2017 Kenneth Hardcastle rated it liked it

Shelves: paperback, race, nonfiction, biography, space

Hidden Figures tells the story of how black women worked to become engineers, computer programmers, managers, and other revolutionary figures in the organization that became known as NASA, located out of Langley in Virginia. Featured are Dorothy Vaughan, one of the first black women in a supervisory role there; Katherine Johnson, famous for calculating John Glenn's landing site; Mary Jackson, who earned the title of Engineer; and Christine Darden, representative of the next generation. While the Hidden Figures tells the story of how black women worked to become engineers, computer programmers, managers, and other revolutionary figures in the organization that became known as NASA, located out of Langley in Virginia. Featured are Dorothy Vaughan, one of the first black women in a supervisory role there; Katherine Johnson, famous for calculating John Glenn's landing site; Mary Jackson, who earned the title of Engineer; and Christine Darden, representative of the next generation. While the story keeps returning to these four, the book examines the career arcs of many different women, black and white, to accurately chronicle this time from a perspective that we rarely see in popular culture - hence, hidden figures.

The story starts during World War 2, when Dorothy Vaughan began working for NACA as a "West Computer", and stretches all the way to the 80s and 90s, when the main characters retire. The bulk of the story occurs during the Space Race in the late 50s and 60s, with the contributions of these women in achieving orbital flight and the moon landing the climax of the book. The book also examines the racial backdrop of a segregated Virginia and the Civil Rights movement at the time. (Did you know the Little Rock Nine and Sputnik took place one month apart, with the latter driving the former from the headlines?) While Langley was reasonably integrated for its time, the surrounding area was fighting pitched battles over education.

The book is immensely well-researched and for all that, not entirely dry. It did feel (and take) a lot longer to read than the 270-some pages indicated. It had some awkward writing. While the background information was good to have, and the people are wonderful, I didn't quite feel that the primary action in the book - people going to work and doing their jobs - was all that notable. For all of her honors and awards, Katherine Johnson seems to feel the same way. Therefore, the most interesting thing about this book, to me, is what it implies. That all around the country during this time, every single industry was being revolutionized in the same way. Black people and women were cracking into management ranks, outperforming white men, and gaining titles they never could before.

And I want to hear about more of them now! ...more

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