Hidden Figures: Reviews by 2020 Reading Challengers

[Winter, Group Reads]

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

Please make sure to mark your spoilers by typing "[spoiler]" at the start and [/spoiler] at the end but replacing the []s with <>s.

[Stephanie]

I was amazed throughout the book. Those women really stepped out of their comfort zone and made a difference not only at their workplace but for the entire country. We need more inspirational stories like this.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I listened to this on audio. It actually held my interest way better than Doctor Zhivago did (also on audio). That was a surprise. The "story" was a bit dry, but it was good if you listen to it as a bunch of anecdotes and facts.

[Gabi]

I just finished it and liked it a lot. Those women did such a terrific job and never gave up hope in themselves. Absolutely admirable.
I really liked the way it was told. I was listening to the audiobook and never got bored.

[Lisanne]

Just finished this book. Want to start by saying that these women definitely deserve all the recognition for their brilliance and the immensely crucial role they played in the space program.

I found the writing a bit of a challenge to keep up with though. Now, I know that this is a non-fiction book about science and space, so there's bound to be technical details, but my small brain just couldn't absorb them all. Some sentences were so long, with all the commas and parentheses, that my brain felt worn out after only a couple chapters. So, for me at least, that was a downside.

Still, while the technical jargon was a bit too intense for me, these women's stories were remarkable and I'm very glad I got to get to know them through this book.

[L Y N N]

My Goodreads review:
This book deserves 10 stars on a 5-star scale! Seriously! While jam-packed full of historical information, it flows superbly! Shetterly deserves so much credit and so many accolades for her hard work. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to obtain this information. So many statistics of which virtually all of the US is blissfully unaware. Not just regarding minorites (folks of color, females, etc.) but of the space program overall. I very highly recommend reading this!

[Martha]

4 out of 5 stars.

This was a very interesting read - a type of book and writing style I have never experienced before.
A research project that was turned into a novel / fancy research report.
It was an incredibly educating book, but very long winded and full of different characters I had a difficult time keeping track of (I am very bad with names and since there were so many characters I kept thinking "who was this again? - what were they known for?"). I really had to push myself to keep picking the book up and keep reading. The eventual landing on the moon was a very anticlimactic scene and the epiloge... I think Shetterly could have split that into two or even three more chapters and called them "what I also wanted to mention but couldn't fit in anywhere else 1,2 and 3".

But why give it 4 stars when I had such a "hard time" with this book? Partly because I think the long-windedness is due to my German translation (us Germans do tend to use long and boxy sentences) and not the fault of the author. The other part is the idea behind this book:
Research about black women who worked for NASA and then turn the findings into a novel to make this part of history more accessible. GREAT IDEA! And it worked - this book was made into a well known and *good* movie.

I could really feel Shetterly's love for this project. For these black women who paved the way for generations to come. Who paved the way for her as well. Who "just wanted to do their job". Shetterly's love and admiration and gratefulness for these women waved at me from behind every single word. And made me fall in love with a long-winded and scolary, kind of boring book.

Thank you Ms. Shatterly for digging up information about these women from almost 80 years ago, arranging it in a digestible way, and bringing it to the public's attention.

[L Y N N]

Martha wrote: "4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you Ms. Shatterly for digging up information about these women from almost 80 years ago, arranging it in a digestible way, and bringing it to the public's attention."

Agreed!!

[Ashleigh]

4.5. This was a such a great listen. I, of course, knew there was a movie about this book, and I knew the general idea of what it was about, but this was such a great, enjoyable history lesson. I'm not American to begin with, and science - particularly physics - and I do not get along at all, so me knowing about the ongoings at NASA is something I've never really looked into.

Not only did a learn a bit about what they do, I learnt about the people behind the scenes, the people who made the moon landing, and every other space adventure, happen.

Learning about the lives of Dorothy, Katherine, Mary, and all the others was a fascinating experience which I would gladly delve into again at any time. I'm glad I got the opportunity to listen/read this.