Hidden Figures in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jul 22, 2019 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ rated it it was amazing

A fascinating subject. An inspiring story. Peppered through with facts and fiction and more facts. Of course, some of the things must have been embellished (or not! or yes?), still, the inspiration is there!

All the 'segregation' and 'women can't do this or that job' is such damn bullshit! That seemingly sensible and not senile people managed to actually believe in it will probably never stop trumping me. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

The departmental policy's probably a bit skewed? I've no A fascinating subject. An inspiring story. Peppered through with facts and fiction and more facts. Of course, some of the things must have been embellished (or not! or yes?), still, the inspiration is there!

All the 'segregation' and 'women can't do this or that job' is such damn bullshit! That seemingly sensible and not senile people managed to actually believe in it will probably never stop trumping me. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

The departmental policy's probably a bit skewed? I've no idea how it actually was but it feels to be that way. Foe example:
Q:
Katherine and Al Hamer had already started thinking about what it would take to plot a course to Mars; their colleagues Marge Hannah and John Young would look even farther into the cosmos, dreaming up a “grand tour” of the outer planets. (c) I'm pretty sure this is just unfortunate phrasing which makes it sound like there were 2 (4?) people doing the 'thinking'. There must have been many more, we're just making these one visible, since they are the subject of the book.
Still, this is not making the book any worse, it's a really difficult task to pinpoint how large groups of people work. And anyway, the readers probably wouldn't have appreciated the thing: just how interesting can it get listening to dull day-to-day departmental meetings? I guess, not too interesting to anyone but an efficiency consultant.

I also find that 1 of the girls was, well, not too African American (she was of fair complexion and everything) isn't taking anything from the story. Just imagine being a fair African American: it would definitely be an issue, still, from all sides. This is not a fun position to be in, maths or no maths.

The heroes were independent and well-rounded and idealistic which got balanced by a plethora of researched details and non-fiction style. More's the power to the book, had it not been that way, I probably wouldn't have even believed a word from this book.

Q:
Even if the tale had begun and ended with the first five black women who went to work at Langley’s segregated west side in May 1943—the women later known as the “West Computers”—I still would have committed myself to recording the facts and circumstances of their lives. Just as islands—isolated places with unique, rich biodiversity—have relevance for the ecosystems everywhere, so does studying seemingly isolated or overlooked people and events from the past turn up unexpected connections and insights to modern life. The idea that black women had been recruited to work as mathematicians at the NASA installation in the South during the days of segregation defies our expectations and challenges much of what we think we know about American history. It’s a great story, and that alone makes it worth telling.(c) Totally great.
Q:
There was something in her bearing that transcended her soft voice and diminutive stature. Her eyes dominated her lovely, caramel-hued face—almond-shaped, wide-set, intense eyes that seemed to see everything. Education topped her list of ideals; it was the surest hedge against a world that would require more of her children than white children, and attempt to give them less in return. (c)
Q:
No one knew better than Katherine Johnson that luck favored the prepared. (c) ...more

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Jan 23, 2018 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, nonfiction, 2018, 3-stars, borrowed-from-overdrive, black-excellence

3 stars. This was a great listen though a bit on the slow side.

I'd seen the movie when it came out about two years ago (oops!) and I loved it! I loved the story and the characters so I was pretty familiar with the story going in. The book definitely adds a lot more. I enjoyed the narrator a lot and thought she did a great job. I will admit though that there were definitely slow parts and I found myself only listening to the audiobook in spurts and chunks instead of continuously. Still liked it ...more

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May 31, 2017 Linda C rated it liked it

Shelves: science, non-fiction, memoir-biography, history, black-american

This history of the Black women 'computers' at Langley and their contributions to the space program focuses primarily on Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Goble Johnson and Mary Jackson. All three were mathematical geniuses with college degrees. But when getting those degrees had to also get teaching certification since most jobs were for teaching. However, during WWII, Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, doing the research and testing of airplanes needed for the war effort, needed educated mathe ...more

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