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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
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Excellent history of the human computers, focusing on JPL.
Between 3 and 4 stars. I rounded up because it was so inspirational.
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
Rating: 2.5 Stars
This is a story that needs to be told, for sure. I just don't think I liked the way it was told to me. I listened to it on audio, and it was hard for me to follow the narrative (if there was one?). There were so many women involved in the story (the downside to nonfiction, I guess, is that you can't cut people for brevity), and so many had the same names, and their stories were so interspersed between the intense science talk that it was hard to keep them straight.
I wanted to love this book but it fell a bit flat for me.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who enjoys science and math. Anyone looking for a story about the role women played in history.
This is a story that needs to be told, for sure. I just don't think I liked the way it was told to me. I listened to it on audio, and it was hard for me to follow the narrative (if there was one?). There were so many women involved in the story (the downside to nonfiction, I guess, is that you can't cut people for brevity), and so many had the same names, and their stories were so interspersed between the intense science talk that it was hard to keep them straight.
I wanted to love this book but it fell a bit flat for me.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who enjoys science and math. Anyone looking for a story about the role women played in history.
I was very interested in the subject of this book, but it's organized and paced unevenly and was hard to read.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
The history of the women of JPL is fascinating, but I agree with other reviewers that the style in which they are often described is irritating. I don't think a book about the men of JPL would focus so frequently on their shoes, their outfits, and certainly not their lipstick. And were all of these women really so fraught about trying to balance career and children? I understand the urge to humanize these women by providing specific details about their personal lives, but the manner in which Holt does it here often comes off as cloying and condescending, emphasizing femininity over feminism.
The women computers and their stories are great, but the writing wasn't really my cup of tea. The forward of the book set it off on the wrong foot (this is not the place for the author's baby naming story). The nonfiction gets pretty dry sometimes. Also, there are so many people it's confusing. But! It's a great on-in-the-background book. I did enjoy it, even if I couldn't keep the characters straight.
This book not only told me the story of some of the many women who have played a pivotal role in NASA's unmanned missions since before NASA existed, but also gave me a history of space flight, from the space race up through contemporary times. A worthwhile read.
Really, it's a 3.5 star book, but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt. It's an incredibly well researched piece of fascinating history. The problem, I think, is that Ms. Holt is trying to do too much. If she had focused on one or two of the women and really given us their characters or focused on JPL through the women, without giving us the personal stories of marriages and kids, then I think the book would have been much stronger.
As it was, we get an amazing amount of detail, but nothing to really anchor it to anything. Some important things felt like they got short shrift while seemingly inconsequential minutiae was dwelt on in agonizing detail.
As it was, we get an amazing amount of detail, but nothing to really anchor it to anything. Some important things felt like they got short shrift while seemingly inconsequential minutiae was dwelt on in agonizing detail.