Do you read the book before you watch the film?

I do! Or at least I do the vast majority of the time! When I know that there’s a book out I’ll do my best to read that before I watch the adaptation, and there’s a few films that my partner has wanted to watch over the years that he’s had to wait on because I needed to read the book first!

We’ve still not seen The Revenant, and we’ve still not seen Hidden Figures! I’ve read them, but by the time I had gotten around to them he wasn’t quite as interested in the films anymore! I’m really not a fan of watching films or TV to be honest, so I’m not sure whether we’ll ever get around to them.

One of the possible exceptions to this is going to be Dune. I have a copy of the book now (thanks to the wonderful Eleanor Nicbhatair for my birthday) but it’s a big book and my boyfriend (who’s read the book before) wants to see the film in the cinema. So maybe this will be the one exception, and it might even make getting through the book easier! That was definitely the case when I read Game of Thrones after I had watched the show, I tried to read it before but it was too awkward. Much easier after I already knew the characters and the plotline!

Hidden Figures, exposing the amazing women who changed the world

This book is a tough read, or at least I found it to be. The language is technical, and it takes a surprisingly long time to actually reach the space race part of the book. I’ve heard that the movie starts straight there, so this is something to be aware of if you’ve watched the film before reading the book. I am looking forward to finally being able to get to the film as it looks really good.

You will really learn about the history of NASA and the women behind their success through reading this book. It is really sad that the contribution from white and black women has been pushed down in history, but this book starts to make up for some of that. It focuses mainly on the black computers (the name for the women working at NACA and NASA) and their fight for equality to the white women and also to the white men. I loved learning about the amazing women behind NACA and NASA in both the East and West sides and finding out about their contributions and how they were a driving force for many of the achievements of NASA.

I previously had no knowledge of NASA’s past, or that they even had “computers” or the racism which was present, as it was in the whole “western” world in this time period. Learning how they evolved from a department formed for aviation developments to help with WWII to launching astronauts into space was incredibly interesting and I wouldn’t say no to reading more about this topic area.

From what others have told me, this seems to be pretty different from the film that was based on the book. But if you are interested in learning more about the women behind many of the USA’s greatest achievements then definitely pick up this book and give it a go.