Hidden Figures (Shetterly) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Much as Tom Wolfe did in The Right Stuff, Shetterly moves gracefully between the women’s lives and the broader sweep of history.... Shetterly, who grew up in Hampton, blends impressive research with an enormous amount of heart in telling these stories.
Boston Globe


Meticulous…. [T]he depth and detail that are the book’s strength make it an effective, fact-based rudder with which would-be scientists and their allies can stabilize their flights of fancy. This hardworking, earnest book is the perfect foil for the glamour still to come.
Seattle Times


Restoring the truth about individuals who were at once black, women and astounding mathematicians, in a world that was constructed to stymie them at every step, is no easy task. Shetterly does it with the depth and detail of a skilled historian and the narrative aplomb of a masterful storyteller.
Bookreporter.com


(Starred review.) Exploring the intimate relationships among blackness, womanhood, and 20th-century American technological development, Shetterly crafts a narrative that is crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Readers will learn how integral these women were to American aeronautics and be saddened by the racism and sexism that kept them from deserved recognition. Verdict: Shetterly's highly recommended work offers up a crucial history that had previously and unforgivably been lost. —Kate DiGirolomo, Library Journal
Library Journal


[A]mazing...because the women...fought for and won recognition and devotedly supported each other’s work.... They were there from the beginning, perfecting World War II planes and proving to be invaluable to the nascent space program. Much of the work will be confusing to the mathematically disinclined, but their story is inspiring and enlightening.
Kirkus Reviews