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The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story
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The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story
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The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story
Audiobook7 hours

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story

Written by Lily Koppel

Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Read the bestselling book that inspired the ABC television series.



As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons.

Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; JFK made it clear that platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was his favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived with a secret that needed to stay hidden from NASA. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, providing one another with support and friendship, coffee and cocktails.

As their celebrity rose-and as divorce and tragedy began to touch their lives-the wives continued to rally together, forming bonds that would withstand the test of time, and they have stayed friends for over half a century. THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB tells the story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 11, 2013
ISBN9781619696464
Unavailable
The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story

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Reviews for The Astronaut Wives Club

Rating: 3.480480461261261 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really would give this 3.5 stars. This a good book. Kind of an eye opener on how NASA treated the wives and families of the astronauts. These ladies were expected to be the perfect housewives and mothers. Never have a stressful environment for them. Allow their husbands who went off to work on and get ready for their missions to cheat on them non stop but not do anything about it. If they did it was non American for the wives to get angry cause a fuss or God forbid divorce. A very good read. Definitely an eye opener.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the very best current nonfiction books that I have ever read, Koppel gives readers the chance to meet the strong partners of the NASA astronauts - their wives. These women formed a tight knit community in order stay strong under scrutiny from the press, and the common ups and downs of NASA life.

    A fascinating book from start to finish. A very fun summer read filled with intimate little details that go beyond the hype and history books. There are photographs and captions as well as a cast of characters (astronauts and astrowives) to keep the story organized. A definite reread and it passed the ultimate test because I bought the book and own it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Five Thoughts

    1. More of a general overview than a in-depth look.
    2. These wives never really get any individuality but rather ended up group by mission names.
    3. Glosses over the pressures of the perfect life, the affairs, and the problems.
    4. Enjoyed this as an overview but you'll need another book for historical perspective.
    5. Can't really recommend this but if it piques your interest, go for it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a light and fluffy account of what it was like to be an astronaut's wife. (There are apparently no other books on the subject). The original seven Mercury astronauts were generally military test pilots, and their wives were used to living in drab base housing, struggling to make ends meet on a military salary. When their husbands were chosen for the space program, the wives were thrust into the spotlight. They were suddenly treated like royalty--tea with Jackie--and found their incomes amply supplemented with Life Magazine payments and freebies, including cars, houses, clothes etc. They were also expected to be perfect, and have perfect children. They were advised by NASA to always feed their husbands a good breakfast, and to ensure that their husbands were not subjected to stress of any kind when they were at home. For their part, the wives had to grin and bear their husbands' philandering and to stifle their fear that every doorbell ring meant news of a husband's firey death. If they struggled with the "blues", they could not seek help, because anything other than a perfect marriage hurt an astronaut's chances of being chosen for a mission. After the initial Mercury series, as more astronauts are named, the 9 Gemini astronauts and the Apollo astronauts, the book becomes less interesting. The wives do not come across a individuals, and the information and analysis the book provides barely skims the surface of what I wanted to know. What the book does is tell us very little about a whole lot of people. It was interesting revisiting the major events of the space program, but again only scant and superficial information, usually only a few brief sentences, is provided about even the major occurrences. Overall, the book was a fluffy read, and to some extent I would say it took a somewhat mocking tone about the social mores of the 50's and early 60's to which many of these wives adhered, and that bothered me. I can't really say I was satisfied with the book, and I'll have to wait for a more incisive writer for a better understanding of what it was really like to be an astronaut's wife in anything other than a superficial sense. Until then, I guess I'll just have to reread The Right Stuff.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book covers the lives of the wives of the early US Astronauts. The astronauts of the 1960s and early 1970s were major celebrities -- fed by in part of the LIFE magazine coverage of their lives (and the magazines paid each family a stipend in exchange for the heavy coverage). Therefore, their wives were in the spotlight also, whether they liked it or not. Reporters from various magazines and papers would camp out on their front lawns. So, some ended up building homes with no front windows and high fences to try to have some of privacy (for some reason this tidbit really stuck with me). Most of their marriages suffered and ended up in divorce. Several of the wives are covered in this book, starting with the original Mercury Seven, and just a few in depth. However, this is not tabloid-style writing, but thought-provoking about what it meant to have to be "perfect wives" back then, especially having to be in the public eye.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Mediocre writing
    Wives came across as vapid victims with no lives of their own and little personality. The embodiment of the 50's-60's housewife stereotype, smiling as their husbands did their work and cheated on them. They were connected by their husbands but their relationships were shallow - partially due to their concern for their husbands' careers and partially due to their own sense of competition for status. Perhaps this is the true story, but it doesn't make for compelling reading. Much of the book focused on their husbands.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent especially if you are over 50 years of age.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    From the inception of the Space Age to its end, The book follows the women behind the famous men. Excellent reading.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It was intriguing to see the women behind the famous men, but none of the wives were very distinct to me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As a portrait of the women behind the men in America's space program, this book provides some insight into lives at once lived under the microscope of publicity yet at the same time largely ignored. As the flip side of "The Right Stuff", it's pretty thin broth.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Though I vaguely remember watching humankinds' first steps on the moon on black-and-white television, I was too young at the time to appreciate the significance of the event, much less consider what it must be like to be a family member of one of the astronauts involved.

    "The Astronaut Wives Club" provides a sense of what it was like to be at home, able only to wait and hope, while one's husband (at the time, there were no female astronauts) risked his life in space. Initially focussing on the wives and families of the Mercury Seven, and later expanding as the astronaut pool and the space program increased in scope, the book also provides insight into the lives of the astronauts themselves.

    There is both triumph and tragedy within the pages -- as history tells, not all of the missions were successful. Written in an enjoyable style and at the same time demonstrating the results of the author's extensive research, "The Astronaut's Wives Club" was a worthwhile read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It was great to read about the wives and mothers the american space program - at the time, practically the only women involved in it - their struggles, their fears and the expectation of NASA and the american government for them to be perfect "astrowives".
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Finally pulling this off the shelf as the end of July and the 50th anniversary of the moonwalk arrived. I found it interesting ,but a bit tedious in parts as it seems to be a recitation of facts and conversations. I am young enough not to know that these families essentially had Life magazine embedded with them for the duration of the space race and how tiring that must have been. A lot of the men chosen, both for their height and their flying abilities were from the armed forces, so a lot of the wives knew exactly how to act--including making hearty breakfasts for the astronaut trainees. They were required maintain a happy, stress free home front--a world separate from the 'rock star' status (and groupies referred to as cape Cookies) their husbands enjoyed while training for missions. I think it could have gone a lot deeper with how the women's movement was starting to change their lives as the Apollo project wound down in the early 70's. Only 7 of the of the core 49 couples didn't get divorced.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    In theory, Astronaut Wives Club is the kind of book I should love: it’s about a topic I find fascinating (space exploration), centers the unsung/unexplored experiences of women, and happens to be a true story. Unfortunately, I walked away thinking this would have been a great magazine article, but, at least as Lily Koppel wrote it, it made a lousy book. This book wants to focus on a wide group of women, and sacrifices pretty much all of its depth to do it. Just when the book would touch on a substantive topic like the toll the missions and public attention took on the wives, it flitted off again to focus on dresses and parties and parades. Don’t get me wrong, I love a pretty party dress as much as the next girl, but that’s not what I picked this book up for. I hope that some author in the future revisits this topic, focusing on 2 or 3 of the wives in a greater detail and recording the psychological and physical toll space exploration took on these women. It would do their contributions to our space program justice in a way this book simply did not.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I see what people are saying in regards to this book, really, I do… But… I think they are reading too much into it, as a book that should be amazing and well-written and super in-depth and dense. It’s just not that kind of book. It’s the literal definition of a non-fictionish beach read: something easy to read that doesn’t require much brain power, something that delves into an interesting subject just enough to pique your interest, and the kind of book that has a lot of short chapters and quick starts, for maximum easy reading. Understanding that, I did enjoy the book—a lot, even. It broaches an interesting subject I had honestly never once though about: the women behind the men who went into space all those years ago. You see, I have a bit of an affinity for clothes, music, or books from the 50-60s, so when I see something from those eras, I pick it up, especially when I see it at the thrift store for a dollar or two. This book follows the lives of the Mercury 7 astronaut’s wives, as well as delving into the Call me a privileged millennial (cue the eye roll), but I really did not know who Alan Shepard was, or that he was the first American to go into space. Or even that Russia had a woman go into space so soon (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963), Sally Ride was the first American woman to go into space, in 1983. Yikes, way to be behind the times.That being said, this book starts with the Mercury 7’s wives. LIFE magazine offered the astronauts and their families a 500,000 contract, in exchange to have exclusive rights to them that included interviews, photographs, and of course articles. After reading this, I officially booked their first LIFE magazine appearance on my magazines to acquire list, and I’m pretty hopeful it’ll be in my collection soon. Something I found very amusing was that the cover of this book is taken from LIFE, and at the time, all of the women wore very respectable shades of pink lipstick. And all, in turn, were changed to what one described as “harlot red” for the magazine’s publishing. All of the women’s husbands were offered exuberant amounts of perks for being such infamous people, including expensive cars, sponsorships, and free things wherever they went. Including the option to build their own homes together, where a lot of the astronaut’s wives lives during the duration of their husbands training. I was fascinated they lived in a sort of bubble of community and congeniality with each other. They were, in a way, the first American reality stars. Their hairstyles were immolated, other women wanted to be them, and they were very scrutinized by society.You also read about the New Nine group with the Gemini program, thus named because of their two-person ships. This group included Neil Armstrong. Next, the Fourteen group, which included Buzz Aldrin. This group also included a group of men who died before ever going to space, which should really show you the volatile nature of being an astronaut. There was such a rush to get things done, to beat Russia, to put a hopeful face forward for other Americans, which mistakes were made that might have been avoided. Which brings me to the conflicting emotions I experienced while reading this. Why spend millions of dollars on a space program, really? Especially when the technology wasn’t exactly streamlined or cheap to figure out during that time. What it seemed to boil down to was a sense of nationalism. Interesting.THE VERDICT:It’s an enjoyable book, but at times it could get confusing. It introduced you to the 7 wives and their husbands, and then additional 9 wives and their husbands, and then another round with the Fourteen and their wives. I found myself often going back to the beginning of the book to read a brief description of who was who. Because there are so many people, it feels like you definitely just clip the surface of these fascinating women and their lives. It’s a good book to pass the time, and to introduce you to this capsule of history, but more reading is definitely required to get a better understanding of who they were. Because of that, they’re fairly two-dimensional, not because they are actually like that, but because there are so many people to introduce you to. Just adjust your expectations for this as a beach read, and it shouldn’t disappoint you too much. Hopefully, it will make you more interested in this topic, like it did for me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I had an e copy of this book for quite a long time and then a friend gave my partner a hard copy. After immersing myself in the events of 1969 and all of the Apollo missions, I turned to this book and was completely blown away.This book is about so much more than being the wife of an astronaut. It also brings these men (and they were all men at the beginning) firmly back to earth and dispels some of the hero worship people are wont to believe about the moon men.The book covers the wives of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo mission astronauts. The period the book covers is from the 1950s to 1970. While people are familiar with the astronauts and their backgrounds in the military, as test pilots and as engineers, less are aware of the role of their wives in their success.Astronauts were like rock stars. The derring do coupled with their clean cut good looks and the accolades and favors bestowed on men willing to sit on top of rockets that were potentially going to kill them is impressive. What was more impressive were the wives who in the background, provided support and encouragement; put their lives on hold and moved around the country with children in tow to support these endeavors and who also put up with absentee spouses who maintained girlfriends on the side and serially cheated.The wives were often featured in magazines and most chose to look the other way because they benefitted from their husbands celebrity. State of the art homes, fast new cars and modern conveniences were supposed to fill in for the things they put up with. They had no real support except for one another and out of this, tight knit camaraderie grew between wives and families.There were tragedies: some families lost astronauts in terrible accidents. Some astronauts divorced their wives and left to join other women since wives were in Houston and girlfriends were in Cocoa Beach. At least one wife was unable to deal with the loss of her husband in a rocketry accident and committed suicide after years of desperate unhappiness.Some of the women were superb pilots and drivers of fast cars in their own rights, but recognition was not forthcoming – a wife is nothing compared to an astronaut. Each woman had a wonderful personality with all the complexities each human being possesses. Not only did these truly amazing women hold down the home front, they did it with style planted firmly in the glare of the flashbulbs from Life magazine. They were painted as style makers and breakers and shaped by the publicity machine of NASA. They were able to hold their own. They were also in the middle of major changes in a woman’s role in society. Women in the 50’s were the happy homemakers and by the 60’s, women’s liberation was on the rise and the astronauts wives were not immune to the same influences that the rest of the American society were undergoing.Some of the most poignant moments in the book did occur when the astronauts were on missions. NASA installed squawk boxes in the homes so that the wives and the children could listen to the conversations between their husbands and fathers and mission control. At different points in the orbit, the astronauts were not in contact and if there were problems or potential disastrous problems (and there were) mission control would silence the box. Frankly, when the box was silent, a wife’s worst fears must have been going through her mind.All these years later, although marriages have come and gone and deaths have occurred among many of the men and some of the women, The Astronaut Wives Club lives on. They support one another and only another wife or child can truly understand what that period in the space race was like.This was so good I read it in one sitting and have given the book to several other people. You will not be disappointed. This is a fascinating bunch of women. They may have looked like June Cleaver or Carol Brady but they were more interesting like Marlo Thomas or Jessica Lange in the movie “Blue Sky”. Loved this book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It started with seven wives. When the original seven wives of the Mercury astronauts were chosen to be shot up on fire-boosted rockets into the final frontier of outer space, their wives decided they needed a support group in order to help each other with the fears and ongoing stress of not only being thrust into the media limelight, but into the ongoing horror of not knowing if their husbands would return from their perilous missions. Armed with cartons of cigarettes, bottles of champagne, jello-molds, and casseroles, these seven brave ladies gathered together to serve up laughter, hugs, and shared stories, each time an astronaut was launched into space. As years went by they were joined by the Gemini and Apollo astronaut wives, each additional wife adding to the wall of stiff upper-lipped women as they endured tragedy and fright as well as the joys of success and the many perks they were gifted with from NASA, the White House, celebrities, department stores, and most of all, each other. Although on one side of the coin they battled the press that daily invaded their homes and front lawns leading to loss of privacy and sanity, NASA headquarters mandating how they lived their lives and presented themselves to the world, the flip-side marvelously handed them dinners with Presidents at the White House, friendships with Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson, thousand dollar shopping sprees from Neiman-Marcus, balls and parties galore, bigger houses and expensive cars, and trips around the world to promote the Space Race. Lily Koppel’s intimate look into the astronauts and their wives gives the reader a very insightful and fascinating page turner into what really went on behind the front doors of the lives of these families and how although it looked like a fairytale to those of us on the outside, it was most often a trip to hell that brought much heartbreak, traumatic emotional suffering, broken families, and even death to those who chose to live space age dreams and nightmares. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this terrific book; five stars from this avid reader!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having always been fascinated by the space race and man's subsequent visits to the moon, of course I had to read this book. I found it quite interesting and informative. I'd read plenty about the astronauts but never thought about the impact their families would feel because of their NASA training and obligations. The wives are presented honestly, which I appreciated. They did a wonderful job to standing up to increasing pressures, from being military wives to being in the international spotlight. I admire these brave women more since I've read this book. It moves quickly, and the names are often confusing, especially later on the in the space program. Otherwise, it was enjoyable and informative.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting account from the wives of the astronauts of the 60's and 70's and how their lives changed for better or worse after their husbands became part of NASA's programs.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I got hooked on "The Astronaut Wives Club" TV series this summer, so when I came across this book, I just had to read it. Taken from extensive interviews with the wives of the Mercury through Apollo astronauts (most of whom are still alive) the book gives the reader a mostly horrifying look at these women's lives. Although there were plenty of financial perks (Dollar-a-Year sports cars, stipends from Life magazine for exclusive coverage, practically interest-free mortgages, and lots more), the wives' activities were strictly monitored by NASA to ensure that all the astronaut families were presenting a wholesome All-American image to the American public. In truth, a plurality of the wives were desperately unhappy in constantly deferring to their husband's moods, ignoring their many, many infidelities, coping with worries about the safety of the space missions and generally suppressing any of their personal needs. From a distance of 40 to 50 years, we can see this all very clearly.This is a relatively quick read, but the author could have made it easier on the reader by not including so many characters or at least having a list of names/missions at the beginning of the book. It was very hard to keep track of who was who towards the end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Started out so interesting. I was born in 1971 so some of this happened before my time, and I loved hearing the history from this point of view. However, as more wives are added it gets more confusing. I think the beginning is the best. By the time you add the 9 and then the 19 I couldn't keep track anymore. Who was separated at the beginning? Who had been divorced? Why did the kids say these 2 were in love when so-and-so had been cheating.

    Like others said, this could have been a lot better. It really skipped around near the end and I got thoroughly confused. I'm glad these women got their stories out, but maybe it should have been done sooner and by someone else. Maybe Rene Carpenter would have written it better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    With interviews from the wives of the astronauts of the Mercury and Apollo missions, Lily Koppel gives a different perspective of the space race from the women who stayed behind.I may have enjoyed the book more if I weren't reading it for book group. I had rather expected something more. More detailed, more meaty, more history? I'm not sure, exactly. I looked up reviews while I was reading, and saw words like "breezy" and "chatty" used to describe it, and that is truly more what it is. It's not the book's fault that it wasn't quite what I wanted. There are many wives that I found easy to mix up, there are many years covered, and much of what is included, as I gather from an author interview, is what Koppel herself found most interesting. All well and good, but sadly it meant that the wives I was most interested in sometimes weren't detailed as much as I'd like and stories like a Russian woman astronaut going into orbit just a little while after John Glenn testified that women shouldn't be in space are told in a few short paragraphs. There is so much that could have been explored deeper. But maybe that's left for me as the reader and book discussion facilitator to do. Unfortunately, though the book is good for what it is, I found it a little disappointing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the true story of the lives of the women married to the first astronauts, starting with the original Mercury Seven in 1957. Overnight, they went from being military spouses, to being treated like American royalty. They enjoyed tea with Jackie Kennedy, and appeared on covers and articles in Life magazine.The wives were closely monitored by NASA, and they were expected to be perfect, right down to the clothes they wore and the food they served their husbands. They could not turn to their husbands to deal with the pressures of publicity, because they were too busy training, and NASA was too busy trying to figure out how to get their husbands to the moon, so the wives turned to each other for support. They were there for each other as they waited for husbands to safely return to earth, and also in times of tragedy.I really enjoyed this book, but I wish it had been a few chapters longer; while reading, I got wrapped up in the lives of these extraordinary women and I wanted to read even more of their stories. I also wish the author had included a chapter from the point of view of the children of the astronauts.While looking up some more information online about the wives after I started reading this book, I learned that ABC has a television series in the works based on this book, premiering in June; I am looking forward to watching it and seeing how it compares to the book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Author Lily Koppel delves into the lives of the most well-known astronauts and their wives and gives us a glimpse of what their lives were like at the height of the space program. Mostly centering around the earlier missions and the people involved, it is apparent that the authorities in the space program tried to control the activities of not just the men but especially the behavior and image of the wives. They all had to maintain a squeaky-clean and all-American demeanor, or at least the pretense of it. The stress of the job eventually got to most if not all of them, and the overriding casualty of that stress was the stability of their marriages. Even unions that did not end in divorce were sometimes a sham of the husband being absent and unfaithful, and the wife willing to put up with it, for the sake of the program. Though this book does give some interesting insight into the lives of the wives and times of the space programs, it is a bit disjointed. Though the author does include a list of the wives and their husbands, there are so many characters and time frames that by time you finish the book, you may be hard pressed to remember whose husbands were unfaithful and who got divorced. Like most people, these wives suffered through good times and bad, but unlike others, they were often intrusively in the spot light. For most of us, sending a husband off to work does not involve thoughts of a highly dangerous job they may not survive. But for these women, it did. This book tells how they survived, even when some husbands didn’t, with encouragement and support from each other.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Only one member of my book club was familiar with this book before we read it. She had watched some of the TV show based on the book and liked it. However, she was surprised by how much she didn’t like the book. The feeling was unanimous. To me it read like a bad soap opera. I wanted more meat and less gossip. Our rating: 1 star.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    FAB-u-lous addition to the stories told by The Right Stuff and Chuck Yeager's books. Some info isn't new, but the book didn't feel rehashed in any way (to me).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book has piqued my interest in the early NASA program. I loved getting to know the astronaut's wives. Koppel gives a good overview of each of the missions and the families involved. I enjoyed thinking about the role of the wife at that time in America. This was an easy read and one that would be great for a book club.

    This is one of my favorites of 2013.

    I received a free copy of this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book on CD narrated by Orlagh Cassidy.In 1959 the U.S. announced the first seven Mercury Astronauts. They were instant American Heroes, profiled in Tom Wolfe’s [book:The Right Stuff922197]. But their wives, who had just as much of “the right stuff” were relegated to (and restricted by) the role assigned to them – happy homemakers showcased in Life magazine, asked what breakfast they sent their men off with each morning, and followed to the beauty parlor and grocery store. Lily Koppel felt these women – and the wives of the astronauts in the Gemini and Apollo missions - deserved their own book. While some of the women did not consent to be profiled, Koppel conducted extensive interviews with some of the women. Not all their stories ended happily. Most divorced their astronaut husbands. Some succumbed to alcohol, pills or depression. Some forged new careers. Koppel reveals their strengths, their weaknesses, their fears and joys, their stumbles and triumphs. These were some STRONG women, and it’s about time they were recognized. Orlagh Cassidy does a marvelous job narrating the audio book. Her pace is good, and she has enough skill as a voice artist to give the women sufficiently distinct voices (most of the time), so there is little confusion. Of course if you listen, you should also get a copy of the text version, so you don’t miss the photographs.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
    272 pages

    ★★★★

    There are so many books and history out there on the early Astronauts (those to man the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo flights) but what about those women who stood behind them through flights, long absences, infidelity, and more? It’s about time their story was told!

    This is well written account of the many women who stood by their men (sometimes quite begrudgingly) during the Space Race. They were thrown into the limelight, whether they liked it or not, and they were expected to be prim and proper while at it (remember, this was the 50s and 60s). Eventually most of the women had no one to turn to but each other and a “club” was made. They would be there through the tragedies and the happy moments. It was heart-warming story. It was well researched. I did find it slow in some areas and there were A LOT of women to keep track of, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the perspective it offered.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this book, although I wanted to love this book. It was almost like gossiping with someone at a party; the stories were short and lacking in detail, but interesting if you love reading about the space race. I only recommend it if you already know a lot about the astronaut corps and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, otherwise I think it would be hard to keep all of the wives straight.