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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
This was a very interesting story of a pioneer in the rocket science field... who happened to be a woman. The writing was a bit uneven, but it's an important story, written by Mary Morgan's son after her death. As I was reading, both the subject matter and the storytelling style made me think of BOMB by Steve Sheinkin, so I'd offer that as a readalike.
I saw this book at the bookstore and was intrigued, but something about it made me hesitate, and I decided to check it out from the library instead. While I did enjoy this book, I think I'm pretty happy with this decision.
Mary Sherman Morgan's story was fascinating. Born to poor, abusive parents on an isolated farm in North Dakota, who had to be compelled by the state to send her to school. After graduation, she runs away from home to attend college to study chemistry. After a few years, she is recruited/pressured to drop out to "join the war effort," where she stars making TNT in a factory staffed almost entirely with women. After the war, of course, munitions jobs dry up and the ladies are pressured to retire and make way for the men returning home to look for jobs. Mary applies for and gets a job at North American Aviation anyway, where she builds such a reputation for herself that when the U.S. Army sends a colonel asking for NAA's best man to solve a propellant problem that Dr. van Braun can't crack, it's Mary who gets the job. And it's Mary who eventually solves it, playing a crucial part in the first launch of an American satellite into orbit (and getting the American space program back on track.)
This book is both fascinating and frustrating. Mary was an intensely private person, averse to photographs, who didn't leave much evidence of her life behind, not even min the form of stories shared with her son, who authored this book. George shares his search for any sort of documentation of his mother's career, which turns out to be mostly non-existent. (The documentation, not the career.) Much of her story is pieced together by interviews with Mary's co-workers, who don't want her legacy forgotten after her passing.
The book also seems torn between aspirations of what it wants to be. After I read a few favorite ringing passages to my husband, he said, "That's very theatrical." And I laughed. Of course it was, I just hadn't put the word to it yet. George Morgan is a playwright, and this book grew from a play he wrote about his mother. And as much as George tries to establish his mother's place in the space race, it's also intensely personal, in places more a memoir of his search for information. But as a memoir, it also leaves questions strangely unanswered, like why his father can't or won't fill in more details of his mother's personal story.
Despite any of these shortcomings, this is still a compelling story, and one that needs to be shared.
Mary Sherman Morgan's story was fascinating. Born to poor, abusive parents on an isolated farm in North Dakota, who had to be compelled by the state to send her to school. After graduation, she runs away from home to attend college to study chemistry. After a few years, she is recruited/pressured to drop out to "join the war effort," where she stars making TNT in a factory staffed almost entirely with women. After the war, of course, munitions jobs dry up and the ladies are pressured to retire and make way for the men returning home to look for jobs. Mary applies for and gets a job at North American Aviation anyway, where she builds such a reputation for herself that when the U.S. Army sends a colonel asking for NAA's best man to solve a propellant problem that Dr. van Braun can't crack, it's Mary who gets the job. And it's Mary who eventually solves it, playing a crucial part in the first launch of an American satellite into orbit (and getting the American space program back on track.)
This book is both fascinating and frustrating. Mary was an intensely private person, averse to photographs, who didn't leave much evidence of her life behind, not even min the form of stories shared with her son, who authored this book. George shares his search for any sort of documentation of his mother's career, which turns out to be mostly non-existent. (The documentation, not the career.) Much of her story is pieced together by interviews with Mary's co-workers, who don't want her legacy forgotten after her passing.
The book also seems torn between aspirations of what it wants to be. After I read a few favorite ringing passages to my husband, he said, "That's very theatrical." And I laughed. Of course it was, I just hadn't put the word to it yet. George Morgan is a playwright, and this book grew from a play he wrote about his mother. And as much as George tries to establish his mother's place in the space race, it's also intensely personal, in places more a memoir of his search for information. But as a memoir, it also leaves questions strangely unanswered, like why his father can't or won't fill in more details of his mother's personal story.
Despite any of these shortcomings, this is still a compelling story, and one that needs to be shared.
Fascinating book right up until the abrupt ending. I felt like there was so much more story to be told but the book ended. I also felt that some of the information was kinda thrown in chapters randomly.
Very cheesy and moved too fast. Not in the least bit believable. Not going to continue this series when there are so many other great ones out there.
I liked the story and I think it is an important one to tell. However, I found the actual writing to be stilted and non-engaging. It felt like a bit of a chore to read.
Author states at the end it's "creative non-fiction"...that's putting it mildly. Fascinating woman but definitely should have been written by someone else besides her own son. I'll give it a 1.5 star rating.
Those who can't write non fiction, write "Creative non fiction"? That's probably a bit harsh, but this book really didn't work for me. I just wanted to know all the sources, how things were found out, what was sure and what was conjecture, what the different versions were. If it had to be creative, couldn't it have been more like a detective story? The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin would be a good example of a better book based on even less information.
I think it was also hurt by not being that great prose. It tended to over dramatise and use out of period language. I feel like it was probably a better stage play, where at least the actors could have helped it along. As it were, there were some real clunkers in there.
All of that said, it was a fast read, and Mary Sherman Morgan herself was pretty cool, so I enjoyed learning about her. What I learned that was true and what was fiction remains unclear to me, however.
I think it was also hurt by not being that great prose. It tended to over dramatise and use out of period language. I feel like it was probably a better stage play, where at least the actors could have helped it along. As it were, there were some real clunkers in there.
All of that said, it was a fast read, and Mary Sherman Morgan herself was pretty cool, so I enjoyed learning about her. What I learned that was true and what was fiction remains unclear to me, however.
I have a lot of thoughts about this. I'll update with a more thorough review, but in short, this book could have had a lot more going for it. The story wasn't really very focused on MSM, it didn't seem to be interested in delving too much into sources or citing where anecdotes were from, it just left me wishing someone who wasn't her son had written it.
This is both a biography of the author's mother and a memoir of how he discovered her history. It's also a good example of how easy it is for women to disappear from the pages of history if no one is trying to keep them there.