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30 reviews for:
Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist
George D. Morgan
3.57 AVERAGE
30 reviews for:
Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist
George D. Morgan
3.57 AVERAGE
While the subject matter was interesting, this book was not well written. Fairly clunky, a lot of situational conjecture, breaks in continuity for the author to talk about himself (or, on two occasions, narrate from the point of view of an animal), and a lovely analogy between the military origins of the space race and gang rape.
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Mary Sherman Morgan had a very eventful life, from her childhood in North Dakota to the successful V2 test in California, and it was very interesting to read about it. It sounds like the author (her son) put a lot of effort into finding out anything about her life, due to the lack of photos, evidence, and cooperation. I liked the parts where the science was explained as well; the conversation about what sorts of propellants to use in the rocket, or the description of her work at Plum Brook, were very interesting. I would have liked a little more convincing that Mary had a hard time as a woman. Sure, it was mentioned that she was the only woman at NAA a few times, but there wasn't much about whether that bothered her, or what problems it gave her.
The book could have used a bit more editing, especially in the parts where the author waxed just a little poetic. Purple prose has its place, but I'm afraid it never really worked for me in this book. And the part where Werner von Braun has an existential crisis because he forgot to name the rocket---that was just a bit ridiculous. I also need to mention that the author admits he doesn't know much about his mother, because she was such a secretive recluse, but then why was he writing "creative non-fiction" about her in the first place? Especially since the woman he knew growing up seemed like the complete opposite of the person he was writing.
So, an okay book. Interesting story, but I feel like it would have been better if the author had not tried to be creative.
The book could have used a bit more editing, especially in the parts where the author waxed just a little poetic. Purple prose has its place, but I'm afraid it never really worked for me in this book. And the part where Werner von Braun has an existential crisis because he forgot to name the rocket---that was just a bit ridiculous. I also need to mention that the author admits he doesn't know much about his mother, because she was such a secretive recluse, but then why was he writing "creative non-fiction" about her in the first place? Especially since the woman he knew growing up seemed like the complete opposite of the person he was writing.
So, an okay book. Interesting story, but I feel like it would have been better if the author had not tried to be creative.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Jumps between Marys son saying how hard it was to find information out about his mother's profession to a detailed description of an event that happened. Not sure exactly how much creative lisence was taken in this book
informative
slow-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Her son, the biographer, does a nice job telling the story. I liked having another piece of puzzle of the space race.
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
After watching the new Cosmos (the one hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson), I started making a list of books about women scientists. Rocket Girl was one of the first available at my public library, so I picked it up.
The style threw me at first because I was expecting more of a traditional biography, but the author (Morgan's son) wrote something closer to creative non-fiction. It makes sense. Mary's work was top-secret and she had mental illness, so she was distant from her kids and reluctant to tell anyone about what she did.
Still, what is known makes for a good story, and Morgan throws in details of what the USSR was up to at the time to help put his mother's work in perspective.
It's unfortunate that stories like these get lost to history. Mary was a brilliant scientist and engineer who played a major role in the space race. With her struggle with mental illness added to the mix, she can be a role model for so many people.
The style threw me at first because I was expecting more of a traditional biography, but the author (Morgan's son) wrote something closer to creative non-fiction. It makes sense. Mary's work was top-secret and she had mental illness, so she was distant from her kids and reluctant to tell anyone about what she did.
Still, what is known makes for a good story, and Morgan throws in details of what the USSR was up to at the time to help put his mother's work in perspective.
It's unfortunate that stories like these get lost to history. Mary was a brilliant scientist and engineer who played a major role in the space race. With her struggle with mental illness added to the mix, she can be a role model for so many people.
Although this was an incredibly interesting topic, I found the way in which this book was written to be very jarring. The author frequently mentions how difficult it was to find out about his mother's life and the part she played in the space program, so to read scenes and chapters where he writes whole dialogues and goes through what's going on in her mind was very disconcerting. I understand that he was trying to make the story more interesting by imagining scenes from her life, but it bothered me. I would have prefered it to be just a straight biography. I guess I'm boring, but I don't mind that kind of writing if the person is interesting enough, and I think Mary Sherman Morgan might have qualified.