Date published: July 2004
ISBN: 978-0375758935
Biography, Non-fiction
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
When I first picked up THE MERCURY 13 I was breezing through the library and spotted it on a sale table. The timing coincided with some research I was doing for another reason on space flight. The picture on the front cover depicted the stylish women of the 1960’s. Not the hippies, but your average every day woman, most often seen as a wife, mother and homemaker. Growing up I thrilled to the first Mercury launch, avidly watched the news reports following Alan Sheppard, John Glenn and the Mercury 7 astronauts. Like most of my generation I had no idea there were women who were also tested for the Mercury program. THE MERCURY 13 tells their story and what a story it is.
THE MERCURY 13 is a story about 13 women who tested, hoped and dreamed of going into space. Yet it is more than that. The women, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Sloan, Jacqueline Cochran and the others laid the groundwork for much of what women enjoy today. While we still fight the glass ceiling in many ways, we have flown into space, in some countries we have held the highest office possible and we still have families. It would have been very easy for THE MERCURY 13 to dwindle into a dry and boring chronology of women in the astronaut program. Instead, it takes you into the women’s lives, their dreams become your dream and you witness first hand the internal battles, jealousies and fight for recognition. Ms. Ackermann tells an amazing story in such wonderful style that you cannot put the book down once you begin it. When you read three or four books a week, a sampling of both fiction and non-fiction, you see the skill of writers, appreciate their imaginations and story telling ability. THE MERCURY 13 is one of those stories that will stay with you long after the final pages have been read. It has been a long, long time since a story, true or fictional, brought tears to my eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment