Hidden Figures in Crazy Challenge Connection

Sep 19, 2025 Keli rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-wanted-to-like-it-more, 2-5-rounded-to-3, academic, it-s-okay-not-meh-but-not-great, non-fiction

Good lord, this was dull. I sooooo badly wanted to like it. Amazing stories, interesting times but the writing just bogged down any interest I might have had. The only thing it cultivated was my desire to finish.
Problem #1 -We jumped all over time and place and narration. For a bit we’d be talking about Dorothy at the West building. Then we’d go to Mary teaching in some school wherever she came from. Then we’d jump to when someone got married or quit university or bought a house or got placed w Good lord, this was dull. I sooooo badly wanted to like it. Amazing stories, interesting times but the writing just bogged down any interest I might have had. The only thing it cultivated was my desire to finish.
Problem #1 -We jumped all over time and place and narration. For a bit we’d be talking about Dorothy at the West building. Then we’d go to Mary teaching in some school wherever she came from. Then we’d jump to when someone got married or quit university or bought a house or got placed with some white women or took a sign off a cafeteria table. It felt all over the place. There were mostly connections to these transitions but they were interspersed with so much science, math and history that the human element was lost. Which leads to problem two…
Problem #2 - I don’t honestly feel like we really got to know any of the women. The info is mostly there, the fault is with the telling. That is down to problem one. I feel like Shetterly had so much information she wanted to include that doing a more traditional style would have been about a thousand pages, so she just threw her facts in here and there.
Problem #3 - This was dry. I was stuck in the Sahara and didn’t even have my own sweat to moisten my cracked lips dry.

Positive- She opens with a few lines about how smart black people are the rule not the exception, the exception is that any of them made such a massive impact on the advancement of our aeronautics and space programs in an insanely racist and legally segregated society. I finished reading this after the killing of Charlie Kirk and I could help but think about the quote of his about black pilots. How ignorant he was. But how ignorant are most. The idea that black people are not smart and that these ladies are the exception is such an offensive fallacy that is being promoted by the powerful racist individuals in power is scary. DEI didn’t allow stupid people to flourish, it allowed opportunity for those who wouldn’t get it otherwise. Now we have DEI for conservatives. 50% percent of the teaching staff at universities being strong armed by trump, have to meet this new DEI-esque rule. And the crazy thing is they’re bitching about how all these qualified conservatives got looked over, it’s unfair. Yet, they see no irony. Anyway, she shows what whiny bitches they are. Not her intent, but a positive outcome thanks to the time I’m reading. So extra half star. ...more

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