The astronaut trusted her over machines, saying, "I want this human computer to check the output of the electronic computer, and if she says they're good, I'm good to go." Most monumentally, one of them, Katherine Goble Johnson, was key in calculating the trajectories for John Glenn's orbital spaceflight. Performing myriad calculations for aeronautical research at NACA (later NASA), they all played important, invisible roles in U.S. Margot Lee Shetterly's "Hidden Figures" - the book behind the award-winning movie - focuses on the lives of five black female mathematicians who worked in a segregated division of the Langley Research Center in Virginia. "Hidden Figures," by Margot Lee Shetterly. The author's gift for vocal impersonation elevates the audio version into something even more splendid than an already terrific memoir. Noah combines personal stories with political and historical observations, bringing his own acute judgment, sardonic humor and sense of the absurd to bear on both. Forging her own small independence against all odds, she insisted that Noah learn English, and she sacrificed her small wages for his education: "She was preparing me to live a life of freedom long before we knew freedom would exist." A social misfit, Noah made his way out of poverty and some danger through entrepreneurial ingenuity, comic genius and an ability to speak a number of tribal languages, which he gives marvelous voice to here.Ībove all, Noah owes his success to the unfailing support of his mother, the real hero of the book. Noah is the son of a Xhosa mother and a Swiss father - both of whom could have been imprisoned for the crime of interracial sexual relations. Trevor Noah, comedian and host of "The Daily Show," reads his own engaging, substantive account of growing up in Johannesburg under apartheid and the years following. "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood," by Trevor Noah.
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