Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt

World War II ushered in a new desire from all combatants for improved weapons of war. Nathalia Holt's book left me feeling happy. 'Rise of the Rocket Girls' is an excellent read, as well as a well-researched and organized history of the involvement of women 'computers' working for the Jet Propulsion Lab. It makes for a fascinating book that provides a lot of fun information with a human interest element as well. Nathalia Holt does a wonderful job of weaving the individual women's stories with the details of JPL and the work they were doing there. It's incredible that all the math was done by hand in those days, and amazing that it was primarily women who were doing the calculations considering the attitude society had about women in science at the time. I also thought it was really interesting to learn about how things worked in the initial development of satellites and rockets. Despite my interest in NASA and the history of space program, I didn't know much about JPL and was blown away by the stories of the women who were doing such important work at a time when women were not encouraged to have careers at all, much less careers in science.

This is a fascinating look into the lives of the women who have worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from its inception in the 1940s until today. Many of the stories were interesting, but she should have given her heroines more agency and respect.

I do give it 2.5 stars because I do appreciate her methodology and use of oral history as a primary source.

Why does the author spend so much time undermining her own intentions with superfluous physical descriptions, such as when she stupidly points out that Barbara was 'gaining a lot of weight' because she was too busy at JPL to eat anything but croissants and milkshakes. Every shallow description of 'Barbara's slim A-line skirt' belies the seriousness with which she hopes the readers will perceive the brilliance and determination of the first women rocket scientists. While I enjoyed the author's intentions and much of the history, Holt is a lackluster storyteller at best with a tendency to portray her 'rocket girls' as giddy, impressionable preteens who are more concerned with 'correcting their wind-blown girlish hair' than they are with representing themselves as agents of their own careers.

Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt