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392 reviews for:
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Nathalia Holt
3.8 AVERAGE
392 reviews for:
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Nathalia Holt
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
In the vein of Hidden Figures, this book introduces the women who did the math calculations for the projects of the “space race” . I also learned much about astronomy and space technology from this book.
There was lots of superficial filler about their fashion sense and love lives, but maybe that’s what concerned ladies back then? There’s a talking point!
There was lots of superficial filler about their fashion sense and love lives, but maybe that’s what concerned ladies back then? There’s a talking point!
Clunky, saccharine, and unmemorable. Like an inflight magazine article stretched to book length, full of cliches, and strained and clumsy segues between developments in space exploration and the developments in the lives of the "computers," the women who worked at JPL from the very beginning to help plot trajectories, program flight plans, and much more.
The saving graces are (1) the light that the book shines on the crucial role that the female computers--some of whom later became recognized as engineers--played at JPL and (2) the useful general overview of the development of American space exploration--though the overview will not be all that interesting or illuminating for anyone with a passing knowledge of American space exploration, or anyone who's been to a planetarium or the National Air and Space Museum.
Though the book is meant to be about the women who worked at JPL, Holt fails to make these women memorable for the reader: the various women Holt chooses to highlight are each too superficially drawn and end up blending into each other.
Overall, a shallow, quickly forgettable, surface-level read. (If you're wondering why I chose to read this, it was because one of my book clubs picked it as this month's selection.)
The saving graces are (1) the light that the book shines on the crucial role that the female computers--some of whom later became recognized as engineers--played at JPL and (2) the useful general overview of the development of American space exploration--though the overview will not be all that interesting or illuminating for anyone with a passing knowledge of American space exploration, or anyone who's been to a planetarium or the National Air and Space Museum.
Though the book is meant to be about the women who worked at JPL, Holt fails to make these women memorable for the reader: the various women Holt chooses to highlight are each too superficially drawn and end up blending into each other.
Overall, a shallow, quickly forgettable, surface-level read. (If you're wondering why I chose to read this, it was because one of my book clubs picked it as this month's selection.)
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
medium-paced
This is a book about the real life mathematicians, programmers, and other influential women on the Jet Propulsion Lab and NASA. I enjoyed the story about these women and how they were able to go boldly in the direction of their dreams. This book was educational and informative at the same time. I appreciated it very much!
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt is most accurately described as interesting and inspiring. The book takes us through the lives of incredible women who helped to shape our space exploration journey and much more. It begins during World War 2 with the new Jet Propulsion Lab, to help design the missiles. These women used their mathematics skills to compute missile trajectories and design rockets. Before computers, iPhones, and programming existed these amazing women were known as human computers, doing all of the advanced math by hand to aid in the war effort. Later the women were able to work on their true passion, space exploration. The women at JPL played a huge part in most of the space missions from the mission to Mars, the Apollo missions, and the first man on the moon. Eventually they were given the title engineer, which they so greatly deserved. I liked that the author took something as potentially mundane as mathematical calculations and crated them into an exciting read. Rise of the Rocket Girls does a great job highlighting the talents of these women, especially in an era when they were often overlooked. I do wish that there were more explanations as to how the math and science advancements were made. There were a few gaps. These didn’t affect the timeline, but I was curious about the scientific process. Rise of the Rocket Girls tells a story few people know, the women who changed the space race. It’s fascinating, intelligent, heartfelt, and inspiring. I highly recommend it.
Holt tells an engaging, enlightening and entertaining story about the women who worked as, first, "human computers," and later as engineers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Although I'd known a tiny bit in passing about the role women played in supporting early space exploration, this book gave me a much richer understanding of the depth of their contribution, as well as the barriers these professionals faced due to their gender. I appreciated Holt's efforts to interweave the personal and professional narratives of her subjects, but some of the personal interjections were abrupt and shallow enough to be a bit jarring.
The narrative style of the author took some time to adjust to, but the information and stories in the book are fascinating. As a child I, like so many, was fascinated by space. I wanted to be an astronaut, but it never would have occurred to me to want to be one of the scientists that sent spaceships, satellites, and rovers into space. I wish I had known about these women then -- I might have tried harder in math class. Well worth the read!
The women are fascinating but the book leaves much to be desired. Simplistic prose; choppy, erratic organization; lack of substance and an overall weak writing style all contribute to a lackluster portrayal of a very dynamic time in both American and women's history. The frequent brushing off of opportunities to discuss social issues of the time (e.g. going no further than, "She was pregnant, so she knew she'd have to quit,") and glossing over all but the most basic science would have left a mediocre impression regardless; the fact that there are more detailed descriptions of outfits than calculations just left a bad taste. Finishing was a struggle.