Another in my readalong books pile, where I encouraged blog readers and friends to suggest books from my TBR they would like to read alongside me. I was originally going to read this one with a woman from my online photo-a-day group and possibly Wandering Cranes last week, but it’s quite a dense book and I didn’t have quite as much reading time as I’d hoped, so it’s spread over two weeks. I did read a fair few novels alongside it, however!
I’ve read all except the bottom one in the pile, “Rewild Yourself” by Simon Barnes, now, which I think is pretty good going, and I’ve really enjoyed feeling people are reading them alongside me. I suppose I’ve extinguished that idea now as I haven’t added TOO many books since I displayed my TBR, but it’s been fun, thankyou. I have a few books lined up for the rest of this month – my Paul Magrs up next, “Where the Crawdads Sing” as Mr Liz is bursting to discuss it with me, and possibly a Diana Wynne Jones sequel. I am holding off on “Rewild Yourself” for a bit longer as Emma is still working her way through “Difficult Women”..
Margot Lee Shetterly – “Hidden Figures”
(23 April 2019, Cancer Research shop in Shirley)
I remember buying this book – I was going to meet my friend Linda to collect my birthday presents from her, and popped in the charity shops as I was a bit early. We’d just watched the film of this and there was the book! And it was exactly a year before I wrote up this review, which is nice and tidy, isn’t it?
This is an amazing book, let alone a first book – what an achievement! Twelve years in the making, Shetterly turns painstaking research into an engaging narrative of the lives and stories of the African American woman (and some African American men and some white women) mathematicians and engineers who worked at NASA and its predecessor organisations. It cleverly weaves the women’s lives and careers, the changing social mores of Langley, with “Coloured Only” signs eventually vanishing from canteen tables and work teams being desegregated, and the wider battle for integration (and, shockingly, against it, particularly in Virginia).
I loved the narrative of mutual support that the author draws out, each women extending a hand to the next, and working in their communities and schools to encourage girls into STEM subjects and black children to dream and achieve. Those that were still alive appear to have given generously of their time and their tales of their colleagues. But she also draws out the way the visual narrative of those involved in space research and engineering came out on the side of the white and male.
I loved the little details – Martin Luther King Jr. turning out to be a fan of Star Trek and its black Lieutenant Uhura, and the author’s story of growing up assuming that black people naturally worked in science and engineering, as that’s where her own family were situated. You also spot details that made it into the film, but this book is so much more than the film, filling in all the details that could not be included there. I particularly love that we find out the book has also spawned the Human Computer Project, which has continued the work with a database of all the female mathematicians working during the period the book covers.
A tour de force which surprises, shocks and celebrates in equal measure, and a very competent and readable work of history/social history.
Laura
Apr 24, 2020 @ 08:21:51
I’ve been meaning to read this for ages. I didn’t rate the film but the book sounds so much better.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 24, 2020 @ 12:22:15
Oh, that’s interesting. The film was a shorthand of the stuff out of the book, I feel. I did enjoy it.
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Apr 24, 2020 @ 11:20:38
Sounds like a fabulous read, Liz. It *is* shocking when you read about resistance to integration – until you look at the way some people are behaving in America right now and realise what still bubbles under the surface. Not nice.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 24, 2020 @ 12:22:29
Well, this is v true!
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whatsnonfiction
Apr 24, 2020 @ 12:33:59
Great review! I’ve heard so many good things about this one. Such an important topic.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 24, 2020 @ 13:33:57
Thank you. An important topic, written about well: highly recommended.
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Grab the Lapels
Apr 24, 2020 @ 14:06:28
I actually liked the film better than the book, as the script was able to take what I felt were disconnected pieces and weave them into a historical film. There were so many people in the book that for me it was hard to keep track of them all. I almost wish someone had written about the topic as highly-researched historical fiction, but perhaps that is what the film did.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 27, 2020 @ 09:21:54
Ah, that’s interesting. I felt like I was able to keep track as the author did a good job of reminding us who people were. Personally, if they’d done it as fiction I wouldn’t have been interested in reading it as I don’t like fictionalisations of real people (but that’s a weird personal tic, I know!). I did enjoy the film but got more out of the breadth of context the book gave.
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Eleanor - themonthlybooking
Apr 24, 2020 @ 15:23:51
I also loved this book – I don’t think I realised it was a first book, so am even more impressed now! I’ve also seen the film, which I liked well enough, but for me the book told a much fuller and more engaging story.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 27, 2020 @ 09:22:33
Yes, that’s how I saw it, too. And she is clear it’s her first book, so I was blown away by her ability!
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Deborah Brooks
Apr 26, 2020 @ 19:43:11
I am currently reading long, bright river so far so good!
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Liz Dexter
Apr 27, 2020 @ 09:23:53
That looks way too alarming for me! Glad you’re finding good stuff to read though, so important in these times.
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AJ
Apr 26, 2020 @ 19:43:36
Wow you are getting a lot of reading done!
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Liz Dexter
Apr 27, 2020 @ 09:24:32
I’m not doing too badly at all given I’ve got so much work on and then life seems to take three times as long! I am doing a lot of reading over the weekends when I might be doing shopping or meeting friends etc (or running longer, frankly!).
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AJ
Apr 27, 2020 @ 14:31:58
Yes there are some time gaps to fill in
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kookyrunner
Apr 27, 2020 @ 14:16:21
I haven’t read the book but have seen the Hidden Figures movie and it was super inspiring.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 27, 2020 @ 14:24:54
I loved the film but the author has done so much more to bring out all the history and information on many more of the women who worked there, and setting it in the wider context a lot more deeply.
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Deb Nance at Readerbuzz
Apr 28, 2020 @ 10:12:48
What a fun way to read down your TBR. Enjoy.
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Liz Dexter
Apr 28, 2020 @ 10:21:36
Yes, it’s been nice. Back to accession order for May I think, then it’ll be 20 Books of Summer from June-early Sept, and I usually curate a pile for that out of the TBR.
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buriedinprint
May 01, 2020 @ 15:12:20
Like others have said here, I’ve seen (and enjoyed!) the film and, like you, I’ve read the book (and enjoyed it too). There were a lot of additional details in the book, but I feel like the film caught the essence of it very well (and, in some ways, brought the relationships to the forefront in a way which wasn’t so clear on the page, maybe only because it took me awhile to read and only a couple of hours to watch. 🙂
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Liz Dexter
May 03, 2020 @ 17:57:21
Yes, I agree with all you say here. They’re complementary to one another for sure. I’m glad I saw and read them both.
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Gracie Roper
May 04, 2020 @ 14:44:25
Great review! I also reviewed this book. I thought the author’s research was impeccable, but it was a slow, detailed read.
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Liz Dexter
May 05, 2020 @ 13:35:27
Welcome to my blog, and thank you. And yes, I agree, it took me a while to read but I’m glad I did!
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Thomas
May 05, 2020 @ 23:08:34
Glad to see this book on your shelf and that you enjoyed it, I saw the film and liked it a lot and it’s nice to hear the book is good too. From the film, I appreciated the film of how oftentimes black women’s contributions are erased and they aren’t given credit where it’s due. So, it makes me happy to an extent that through this book and the film, some of that erasure is being undone.
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Liz Dexter
May 06, 2020 @ 05:54:56
Yes, it’s really important work – and she’s created a database that will be ongoing, recording as much about the work of these women as she can.
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State of the TBR January 2021 and reading stats / best books of 2020 #AnneTyler2021 | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Jan 01, 2021 @ 20:58:40