Hidden Figures

 Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 368 pages

 

I cannot remember the last time I said a movie was better than the book. I am saying it now about Hidden Figures though. So much better. My book club selected this title, but after three evenings and only getting to page 25, I knew this one wasn’t for me. And because I didn’t want to go to book club without some knowledge of the book, I listened to the Audio CD. It was easier to listen to than to read, but I still found it BORING!

 

My biggest complaint is that the book didn’t focus on the women. Its focus was the history of race relations in the aerodynamics industry from World War II through the Space Shuttle Program. It was interesting, but I wanted to know more about the women the book highlighted (Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Johnson). And while their stories are woven into the text, they aren’t centerstage. And that is a shame. The stories of these courageous and intelligent women had been buried for so long, it was a miracle that their accomplishments became known before they passed away.

 

However, the movie took those random bits of real life and turned them into a fascinating and enlightening movie.

 

In the book, there wasn’t a reason to turn the page; nothing compelling was written---except for the small sections on the women. The movie got off to a slow start, for me, but soon picked up to warp speed, keeping me on the edge of my seat.

 

It’s obvious that a lot of research went into this story. It is well done though. Therefore, for the book, I give it 2 stars and for the audio gets 3 stars. However, the movie receives ten out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Josephine Baker's Last Dance

Josephine Baker's Last Dance by Sherry Jones

I was attracted to this biographical novel simply for its subject: Josephine Baker. I knew a little about her. An African-America woman, she left the Jim Crow-era America and was singing and dancing in Paris’s nightclubs by the time she was sixteen. That’s about it. Readers get an insightful and well-researched novel about Baker---singer, dancer, movie star, French Resistance member during World War II and Civil Rights activist---that is at times slow, at times despairing yet a fascinating story of a groundbreaking woman, well before her time.

The story starts off in Paris, in April 1975. Josephine doesn’t know if, but readers get a glimpse of her final performance. Then the story skips ahead to her childhood in St. Louis. She is considered an ugly child. Her mother, a bitter woman, forces her to work for the neighbors by the time she is seven years old, making only a pittance, none of which Josephine ever sees. Life was so incredibly difficult that Josephine tries to blot it from her mind and tells anyone who might ask that she is from New Orleans. It’s heartbreaking to read about the line of abusive people in her life, from both her parents to every man she seems to meet.

By 1915, young Josephine has a new employer, one that treats her like a person, not an animal. But her security doesn’t last long. By 1919, she has spent two years singing, dancing, playing instruments with the Jones Family Band. 
The story continues to recount her time in Paris. Sometimes it drags a bit as the tediousness of her life in the theater evolves. The World War II breaks out, and Josephine wants to do her part.  She joins the French Resistance. I didn’t feel this section was deep enough, but maybe there isn’t enough documentation or evidence out there to make it more compelling.

It doesn’t matter though, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, couldn’t put it down. That’s why  “Josephine Baker’s Last Dance” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, 175 pages

“Running into a long-ago friend sets memory from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything--until it wasn't. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant--a part of a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.” This was a sad but hopeful story.  It really spoke to me for some reason that I can’t quite explain.  I loved it, but I’m not sure I’ll want to reread it and I can’t quite explain that either.  I’d recommend this to anyone who likes realistic and historical fiction.