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Sally Ride: America’s First Woman In Space (2014)

by Lynn Sherr(Favorite Author)

4.25 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1476725764 (ISBN13: 9781476725765)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: I was one of those kids who was really into space. I loved astronomy, the space program, everything. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, this of course meant that I came to love and admire Sally Ride. She was clearly really smart and really nice, so what wasn't there to admire. Plus, she broke a major barrier. (I didn't entirely understand this, though. Of course, I didn't really understand why there hadn't been American female astronauts before, given that I was brought up in a household that didn't accept sexism.) So I really looked up to her as a kid, and one of my favorite Christmas presents one year was a copy of her "To Space and Back". In so many cases, you look deeply into the life of a childhood hero, and you find that he or she was less than savory, and far... more less than the idol you made them out to be. I was delighted to find from reading this very good biography that Sally was someone who not only deserved to be looked up to, but was really even greater than the idol of her I had in my mind. She was a person of great determination, more smarts than even I had thought, enormous discipline, and great concern for science outreach. She was human, to be sure, and the humanity is well on display here, but even there so much is to be admirable. Part of that humanity that is displayed is, of course, her homosexual orientation that came out upon her untimely death. I can't imagine how difficult it was for her to hide a fundamental part of herself from the world so that she could do what she did within it. I felt great sympathy for her. Her story makes me even more glad that the world has changed, and homosexuality is no longer pegged with the stigma it unjustly carried for so long. I wish she could have grown up in these times, when she could have been more herself to the world. Even so, because of her achievements and outreach, there are so many women who grew up in a world with fewer barriers to the pursuit of their dreams, and so many young girls today and more to come who will grow up in that world. Those for whom the spark of curiosity and love of science may be kindled, but not then extinguished because of outdated and stupid notions of what women can not and cannot do in the world. And even if they don't know it, that they this is true owes much to shining beacon that was Sally Ride. This book is an excellent testament to her and her impact upon the world. I came away admiring and loving her all the more.
review 2: Should you have delusions of competence, read this book. It will give you a much needed perspective on what real accomplishment is. Sally Ride was a most unusual person. Of those who become something out of the ordinary, many are the beneficiaries of fortuitous circumstances. Others make it the old fashioned way by hard work. Sally was both lucky and hard-working, whose flight made her famous. However, she chose not to simply cash in on her fame, but continued to work hard for things she believed in, right up to the time of her rather untimely death. The biography is ultimately not as revealing as one would like simply because the subject was so consummately skilled at compartmentalization that she kept part of herself even from those closest to her. less

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