A review by elysareadsitall
To Fly Among the Stars: The Hidden Story of the Fight for Women Astronauts by Rebecca Siegel

5.0

This book does a great job of telling the story of the first astronauts and the women who fought to be included in that list. Siegel tells the story (mostly) in alternating chapters of the all-male Mercury 7 crew and the 13 women who strove to be considered for the astronaut program at the same time. Siegel humanizes everyone in this book; she portrays the men as the men they were rather than the golden American heroes they're usually depicted as, and she shows the women as they were: hard-working, jaded, and ambitious. Neither group is really portrayed as negative. The struggles of these women are brought into sharp focus, and Siegel outlines what else still needs to be done. Siegel also makes a point to explain that this fight is a white one. She doesn't focus on how much more difficult it was for minorities, but she doesn't ignore it either. She makes everyone's struggle clear.