Book and Movie Review: Hidden Figures, book by Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Figures tells the story of how a group of black women broke both the race and sex barrier when they acquired jobs at NACA/NASA as mathematicians. It is an important story to be told. There is also a lot here about how it felt to live in the USA as a black person during the mid twentieth century. 

However, this book was a bit hard to get through. There is a lot of information here and important information, but it was hard to get through. The telling wasn't linear and skipped from one character to another. I had the book in front of me in print, and also was listening to the audio book. (which I borrowed through SORA - I have the Nashua Public library connected to my SORA account.) I ended up speeding up the recording to 175 percent so that I could get through it. There is a pretty good index so I think it could be helpful for reports on the Space Race, Feminisim, Civil Rights, American History.

AND THEN I watched the movie. I am not sure how accurate the movie was, and it certainly didn't cover all of the information in the book, but it was enjoyable. It centered on three of the women and told their stories in a manner that could be digested. 

So lessons learned -

• Sometimes the move IS better
• Some books are better for research than for reading cover to cover
• This is not the book for me