Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly
Novel Conversation’s Book Club – February 2018 Book – Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly
Thanks for such a wonderful book discussion meeting in on Feb 28th. Sometimes it’s hard to separate the book from the movie and that definitely came up during our discussion of Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. Many of us saw the movie first, and while the movie took some liberties with the book (when don’t they?), most of us agreed the book was just as pertinent and just as good. It was hard to keep track of some of the characters, however, as the book mentions so many and the movie focuses on just a few.
The history the book refers to was unknown to most of us in the book club. That made it all the more fascinating and even sad because this book is about women working for the government in non-clerical jobs – mathematicians – which is in and of itself quite an accomplishment for the 1940’s. Then you add another layer of complexity for those times – African-American women working for the government as mathematicians but known as “computers” – and you wonder why we never knew of something so important for its time. Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Goble (Johnson), Miriam Mann, Mary Jackson, Christine Mann, Christine Darden – all of these women and so many more worked at NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), which later became NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). They were all pioneers in their field.
The book is a rather complex look at their lives and the jobs they held. Many of the descriptions of the work these women did was rather complicated and so when you think about it, the research required just to tell this story is an accomplishment for the author. Sometimes the book starts to read like a technical manual but it doesn’t really quite get there, although without this level of complexity, the descriptions of the jobs these women held would probably not have had the same impact on the reader. Then add in the hoops the women had to jump through and even endure – the racism and the sexism – and the story becomes a cause for celebration. Just look what they accomplished! For those that haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it. You will be inspired by what these women did and the foundations they laid for the women coming behind them. It’s hard not to be impressed. For more information, I’m including a link to the Hidden Figures website. Please check it out! And here’s the link to my favorite book website.
Thanks again for joining our discussion and I look forward to seeing you for the next meeting on March 28th at 4 pm. We’ll be discussing Turner House, by Angela Flournoy. See you there!
Take care,
Donna
