BOOK REVIEW ROUND UP // VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5

Hidden Figures
Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
Publication Date: November 2016
Genre: nonfiction, history, science
Method: hardback borrowed from TPL

Review: A quick read exploring the lives of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden and their contributions in the field of mathematics and physics while working at Langley Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. I would agree that this book is quite dry. Many reviewers say that movie is much better with more charm and focus on the 4 leading women’s personalities, sacrifices, and achievement. It’s definitely on my list of movies to watch!
This book proved to be a great refresher on the timeline of important historical events, weaving together aeronautics, war, and race. While the discussion on the speed of sound was brief, it had me doom spiraling. Does everyone understand that bullets fire at the speed of sound? At roughly 760 miles per hour? Or was that just my dumbass who didn’t understand this concept? Also, did we learn this in grade school? Because I feel like if children would have learned that bullets leave the barrel of a gun at 760 mph, there’d be less accidental gun injuries and deaths. But maybe that’s just me. This nearly insignificant scientific anecdote led me to MythBusters videos about the speed of sound and sparked very interesting discussion between me and my partner regarding gun violence and gun safety.
Women’s History Month selection

Grace Hopper: Computer Scientist
Author: Jill C. Wheeler
Publication Date: September 2017
Genre: nonfiction, biography
Method: hardback borrowed from TPL

Review: This is a biased review because I whole heartedly love and am endlessly inspired by Grace Hopper. With good reason as I am (partially) named after her – it’s a long story. For that reason, I’ve always been intrigued by Hopper and I’m so glad I picked this book up from the library to read for Women’s History Month. I already knew I liked Hopper from the basic level research I’d done throughout my lifetime, but I was amazed to learn how many similarities we shared. From the influence of her parents and their high academic standards, to her hobbies as a child (disassembling and reassembling clocks, sewing, cooking, knitting, needlework, embroidery, tending a garden), to her fascination with Stonehenge. Hopper kept a clock in her office that ran counterclockwise as a reminder that there was more than one way to do any job, and I just love that with my entire heart and soul. I am likely one of a handful of people who will give this a 5 star rating. I’m not embarrassed to admit I cried at the end.
“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”
Women’s History Month selection

The Time Traveler’s Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publication Date: 2003
Genre: fiction
Method: audiobook borrowed from TPL

Review: Beautiful, heart felt, touching, poignant, real, messy. People talk about beautiful writing in books and I’ve never really felt or experienced that, until now.
Going in, I knew the general premise of this story. It was a love story with a time traveling main character, obviously we can expect high and lows of love and romance. What I didn’t expect was the connections I felt in the last quarter of the book as main character Henry’s health deteriorates. We had accurate and positive acute physical therapy rep, insight into life following amputation, body dysmorphia, grief about loss of physical and functional health – topics and feelings I work with every day as a physical therapist. I felt connected to this book, connected to Henry. This doesn’t often happen for me. I don’t often relate to characters in books. My tendency is to be engaged while reading, finish, move on and never give characters a second thought. But Henry, he sticks with me. And this is, at it’s core a love story, and yet my lasting impression is so unrelated to the romantic love the main characters share. I’m realizing now this is exactly how I felt reading In Five Years. Where I thought I was getting a romance, but almost felt tricked into reading a book about grief. But I’m not mad about it. I actually really appreciate it, so thanks.
Unpopular opinion: I liked this so much more than The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Buzzword Readathon: March selection

A Brief History of Time
Author: Stephen Hawking
Publication Date: April 1988
Genre: science, nonfiction
Method: audiobook and paperback borrowed from TPL

Review: While I’ve taken numerous physics courses in my lifetime, I definitely didn’t read this to refresh on the context of astrophysics and cosmology, though I found it to be approachable, interesting, and enlightening. This book does not claim to be about Stephen Hawking himself, but I very much enjoyed the personal stories regarding how his life and learning changed after acquiring his motor neuron disease in 1963 at only 21 years old. What is marketed as a nonfiction, scientific text of sorts, I read almost as an academic memoir. As a physical therapist, what Hawking was able to accomplish after his ALS diagnosis is astounding and endlessly inspiring.
Buzzword Readathon: March selection

The Survivors
Author: Jane Harper
Publication Date: February 2021
Genre: mystery, thriller
Method: hardback from BOTM subscription

Review: I need a thriller to have a couple things to be a winner: 1. a diverse and interesting cast of characters, 2. an engaging, paced plot, 3. various timelines, and 4. unanswered questions along the way to keep my mind guessing and flipping the page.
The cast of characters were great with their overlapping histories, so much so I was formulating venn diagrams in my head to understand how they connected to one anther. Having said that, I still don’t know how I feel about a character with dementia being used as a plot point. Personally, I love working with individuals with dementia. This patient population brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction as a nursing home physical therapist. This can be an underserved and misunderstood patient population and time and time again, their diagnosis is exploited as a means to drive plot lines in novels. And I just don’t know how that sits with me. Maybe if I knew that the author had a personal connection with dementia or had adequately studied the diagnosis, I’d feel less icky about it.
Even so, this book came close to having it all, but fell just shy of a 5 star rating. I didn’t get the visceral, physical response I want out of a great thriller. I want a literal jaw dropping moment, I want genuine fear, heart pounding anxiety, I want to gasp out loud. This book didn’t get there for me, but I’m definitely interesting in reading more from this author.