Book Review: Beyond the theater

At this point I’m sure everyone has either seen or heard of the movie Hidden Figures, but did you know it’s based on a book? Well, if you didn’t, then now you do, and that’s good because that’s what this review is about.

The book was written by Margot Lee Shetterly and published in 2016. It follows the story of the three African-American women who, against odds, help with one of the greatest operations in history, to send a man into orbit. The story takes place in the 1960’s, an era where the races weren’t segregated but many African-American people (and people of color in general) were still discriminated against.

In the story, the three are not well received by the mostly male employees at NASA, but these amazing and smart women overcome racial, gender, and professional biases to become known as “human computers.”

Both the book and the movie are very good, but I’d have to say the book is better, for obvious reasons. The book went into much more detail than the movie and had more of the ladies’ personal feelings. Since movies have time limits, it, of course, couldn’t show this as much, but that’s beside the point. This plot is very good and shows a different story than what most people are used to.

I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. Even if they have seen the movie, the book paints a much more detailed picture of what the three had to go through and what they had done. That being said, go read the book! It would be an out-of-this-world way to spend the summer.