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Title details for The Six by Loren Grush - Wait list

The Six

The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts

by Loren Grush
Inés del Castillo
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 18 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 18 weeks
"Vivid." —The Guardian * "Engrossing." —Booklist * "Suspenseful, meticulously observed, enlightening." —Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures

In this account of America's first women astronauts "Grush skillfully weaves a story that, at its heart, is about desire: not a nation's desire to conquer space, but the longing of six women to reach heights that were forbidden to them" (The New York Times).
When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—a group then made up exclusively of men—had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic—and sometimes deeply sexist—media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride's history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark. "A spirited group biography...it's hard not to feel awe for these women" (The Wall Street Journal).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 12, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797160610
      • File size: 336888 KB
      • Duration: 11:41:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 10, 2023
      Bloomberg News reporter Grush debuts with a satisfactory history of the first six American women astronauts: Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Judy Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon, and Kathy Sullivan. Grush traces the long path to the groundbreaking class of 1978, to which all six belonged, noting that a previous female cohort in the early 1960s was scrapped because “figuring out if women could fly to space” was seen as a distraction from the moon landing. The calculus changed in 1976 when NASA, hoping to counteract bad press from the firing of a whistleblower who criticized the agency’s lack of diversity, opened their new astronaut class to women and people of color for the first time. Grush captures the personalities of each woman, but focuses primarily on the first two to visit space: Ride, a whip-smart introvert who concealed her sexuality throughout her life, and Resnik, a talented engineer with a reputation for “navigating between being one of the guys and being a raging feminist,” as a male colleague once said. Grush also details the sexism the six endured, suggesting that Seddon’s assignment to “help craft the food systems” rather than robotics or software was likely because of her gender. Unfortunately, the author sometimes resorts to dubious speculation, particularly in the re-creation of Resnik’s mindset in the minutes before she died in the 1986 Challenger explosion. Still, this makes for a solid companion to Hidden Figures.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Journalist Loren Grush's compelling history of the first women selected for NASA's astronaut corps is perfectly paired with In�s del Castillo's conversational and sensitively attuned narration. While these women's lives became inextricably bound through their historic service, this engaging audio production explores their individual experiences, both personal and professional. Their invaluable contributions as medical doctors, scientists, and engineers enhanced the Space Shuttle program's new mandate to conduct scientific studies and make space travel a routine occurrence for an increasing number of commercial and government partners. Though del Castillo doesn't always clearly delineate between quoted passages and the author's voice, she embraces the celebratory tone of this work. Sally, Judy, Anna, Kathy, Shannon, and Rhea's life-altering journeys as the first American women astronauts continue to inspire. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 1, 2023

      Bloomberg News reporter Grush debuts with a gripping history of NASA's first six women astronauts--Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Lee Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. Grush's account details these women's stunning triumphs as well as the infuriating misogyny they faced as they made their marks in the field. Narrator In�s del Castillo brings these pioneering women off the page, fleshing out their personas with appropriate levels of emotion. There is sadness in her voice when she speaks of the Challenger disaster, for instance, but she doesn't overdramatize. She trusts the writing and allows the events to speak for themselves, while offering sincere empathy. Listeners will likely be amazed by the women's accomplishments and long to hear more about these groundbreaking individuals who went from ogled and trivialized to largely forgotten. The book ends with incisive commentary on the lasting effects of misogyny in science and with hope for a more equitable future. VERDICT An excellent purchase to appeal to listeners who enjoyed Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures. Of particular interest to readers of Mary Robinette Kowal's The Calculating Stars, which offers a different perspective on a history that might have been.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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