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A review by nadia
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
This was such a wonderfully inspiring read. I didn't realise just how much I'd fall in love with these women, their brains, their perseverance, and their resilience.
I loved the mixture of biographical elements with all of the history, especially the extra context of what was happening in the United States around civil rights and international politics from the 1930s to the 1970s.
The only thing that threw me with the book was that I couldn't quite grasp the narrative structure. It seemed to jump from one thing to another, one character to the next, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. One minute we're talking about the Cold War and the next about the experience of black men in NASA — at least, that's how it felt to me. It was all super interesting though!
Ultimately, I really appreciated that while racism and discrimination were, of course, key themes in the book, the overriding focus was on the sheer brilliance of these women and the greatness of their contributions to maths and science.
I loved the mixture of biographical elements with all of the history, especially the extra context of what was happening in the United States around civil rights and international politics from the 1930s to the 1970s.
The only thing that threw me with the book was that I couldn't quite grasp the narrative structure. It seemed to jump from one thing to another, one character to the next, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. One minute we're talking about the Cold War and the next about the experience of black men in NASA — at least, that's how it felt to me. It was all super interesting though!
Ultimately, I really appreciated that while racism and discrimination were, of course, key themes in the book, the overriding focus was on the sheer brilliance of these women and the greatness of their contributions to maths and science.