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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
This was a fun ride and taught me so much that I had never considered before. (Wow, I know, a book opening your mind, how original.)
I actually found myself getting a little choked up, thinking about all of the women who were responsible for basically creating our space program. Without their hand computing, man never would have made it to the moon, let alone even put a satellite into orbit. Just imagining these women in a room frantically calculating in their paper notebooks to figure out if the data coming in from the rockets and probes would mean that their projects would clear Earth's atmosphere. What an exciting job.
And how awesome that there was such camaraderie between the women, even as they propped up the male engineers next door and became experts in early programming. Also an example that some women truly are fulfilled by their careers, whether they have children or not. Definitely a great read if you want some light, girl-power non-fiction.
I actually found myself getting a little choked up, thinking about all of the women who were responsible for basically creating our space program. Without their hand computing, man never would have made it to the moon, let alone even put a satellite into orbit. Just imagining these women in a room frantically calculating in their paper notebooks to figure out if the data coming in from the rockets and probes would mean that their projects would clear Earth's atmosphere. What an exciting job.
And how awesome that there was such camaraderie between the women, even as they propped up the male engineers next door and became experts in early programming. Also an example that some women truly are fulfilled by their careers, whether they have children or not. Definitely a great read if you want some light, girl-power non-fiction.
Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt intertwines two historical narratives: NASA space exploration and the women at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Both these stories started with World War II, but with the end of that war, the efforts transitioned to scientific missions.
In the beginning women could not be engineers, but they could be computers – women who manually performed the complex calculations required by male engineers. As bad as this discrimination might sound today, it was a great opportunity for women in the 40s and 50s when many engineering schools didn't even accept women anyway.
These were rigorous technical jobs, sometimes given to women who showed only promise and interest, sometimes right out of high school. Their success was what we might expect today, but would have shocked the people of their generation who didn't expect women to work, and if they did, the career choices were nurse, teacher, and secretary, not planning interplanetary missions.
Aside from all working on space exploration, the women were from different races, and some married, some divorced, some had children, some didn't. As today, this history shows that gender tells little about a person.
This is a wonderful history of technical women and NASA.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2016/09/rise-of-rocket-girls-by-nathalia-holt.html
In the beginning women could not be engineers, but they could be computers – women who manually performed the complex calculations required by male engineers. As bad as this discrimination might sound today, it was a great opportunity for women in the 40s and 50s when many engineering schools didn't even accept women anyway.
These were rigorous technical jobs, sometimes given to women who showed only promise and interest, sometimes right out of high school. Their success was what we might expect today, but would have shocked the people of their generation who didn't expect women to work, and if they did, the career choices were nurse, teacher, and secretary, not planning interplanetary missions.
Aside from all working on space exploration, the women were from different races, and some married, some divorced, some had children, some didn't. As today, this history shows that gender tells little about a person.
This is a wonderful history of technical women and NASA.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2016/09/rise-of-rocket-girls-by-nathalia-holt.html
This book was alright. It got more interesting in the last section, once it turned to discussions of more recent space missions that I'm familiar with.
My biggest gripe is that the author kind of rambled a bit, so I never really could keep track of who she was talking about. She handwaved away any sexism or racism. I was also a bit bothered by her total acceptance and redemption of Nazi scientists hired by the US space program.
My biggest gripe is that the author kind of rambled a bit, so I never really could keep track of who she was talking about. She handwaved away any sexism or racism. I was also a bit bothered by her total acceptance and redemption of Nazi scientists hired by the US space program.
A bit over romanticised with comments on how people “felt” and what they yearned for in personal lives.
It’s a bit of far reaching from the author to put feelings in a factual book but still very interesting and the women that helped form the space-race should always be applauded.
It’s a bit of far reaching from the author to put feelings in a factual book but still very interesting and the women that helped form the space-race should always be applauded.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I had goosebumps the entire time I listened to this book. The epilogue made me tear up. I wish the women of JPL had been treated better, in terms of maternity leave and recognition of their work, but this book seems like a start.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
This was a slow start for me, but once it hit the second half I was hooked. Following fifty years of NASA/JPL successes and failures through the eyes of these women, who wrote the code for most of it, was amazing.
This was a delightful and fascinating read about the women "computers" who helped build the space program in the late 40s, into the 50s, and through to today. We follow a few key women throughout the decades, following the progression of the space program and the role of women in the sciences. The author throws in some fun anecdotes, like when a couple of the women decided it was acceptable to finally wear pant suits, along with the struggles many of these women had in the early days of getting married, getting pregnant, and facing the choice of leaving a job you loved or attempt the fine balancing act of being a working mother. Highly inspiring! Just enough science is covered to give the reader an idea of what's going on in the profession without being overwhelming. Having previously read The Astronaut Wives Club, this was an awesome book to get a women's perspective of the space program from a totally different angle.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
While Rise of the Rocket Girls is surely an ambitious book about an important time in women's history it has failed to incite a spark in me.
There are two main reasons for this: 1. the book is not very well researched, the timeline is messy and the selection of events to portray what was going on in the world outside the laboratories feels a bit off.
2. Like many other reviewers I'm a bit shocked how vehemently the author includes superficial details about the women. Even though I dislike bad research, I loathe the frequent disruptions the author causes by discussing the women's appearance and apparel. Including these shallow and thematically trivial details takes away too much of the sincerity that topics like this should be treated with.
Also: I really want to speak against using 'girl' as a term for describing a woman. That's belittling and sexist. Language makes reality. Why do so many authors of (well-meant) books about female history not know or comply with this? I don't think I'll ever read another non-fiction book with girl in its title ever again if it's not indeed about girls.
There are two main reasons for this: 1. the book is not very well researched, the timeline is messy and the selection of events to portray what was going on in the world outside the laboratories feels a bit off.
2. Like many other reviewers I'm a bit shocked how vehemently the author includes superficial details about the women. Even though I dislike bad research, I loathe the frequent disruptions the author causes by discussing the women's appearance and apparel. Including these shallow and thematically trivial details takes away too much of the sincerity that topics like this should be treated with.
Also: I really want to speak against using 'girl' as a term for describing a woman. That's belittling and sexist. Language makes reality. Why do so many authors of (well-meant) books about female history not know or comply with this? I don't think I'll ever read another non-fiction book with girl in its title ever again if it's not indeed about girls.