Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

[denorios]

Comments

[bearshorty]

I didn't realize there was a book! I will definitely add it to my list now.

[author_by_night]

I loved the movie, but you've made me want to read the book. The movie of course had to be adapted for story purposes, although apparently some things really did happen, like John Glenn saying he was only satisfied once Katherine (or "the girl") read all of the numbers.

Were they really all friends? I wasn't sure if that was true, or if they were mostly just woven together - again, for arc purposes. I did love how their friendship - real or fictional - was portrayed, though. Because honestly, there really are so few good female friendships in film that don't at least partly fall into cattiness. I honestly half-expected Dorothy to hold a bit of a grudge against the other two until receiving her own recognition, but while it's kind of there initially (she's not comfortable with Mary and Katherine discussing their aspirations at the beginning of the movie), she stays pretty solidly on their team.

[denorios]

Yep, the John Glenn bit is true. And yes, they were friends, but not the way the movie portrays. The middle-class African-American community was pretty small, so they probably all knew each other anyway. Dorothy was at NASA long before Kathryn, and she was friends with Kathryn's parents, so much older. Dorothy was Kathryn's mentor in many ways. I got the sense from the book that Mary didn't mix much with them at all.

[manoah]

I want to read this before I see the movie. You always have the best recs!

[frelling_tralk]

Sounds like a book worth checking out!

[katiesangels]

This sounds fascinating. I'll definitely check this out.