I loved the movie and I loved this book even more. The book is a factual history of NACA/NASA's race to the sky and then the stars, exploring the vital, and until recently seldom mentioned, contributions of black women from WW2 to landing on the moon.

I'm glad I saw the movie first, because it is a vast simplification of a complex and sensitive subject Ms. Shetterly works very hard to give justice. Watching the movie after reading such a thorough and detailed book would have been a little frustrating.

Books like this are important demonstrations of how far reality can be from the received wisdom of 'how things were'.