by Katherine Johnson with Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore (read by Robin Miles)

 

Publisher's Summary

The remarkable woman at heart of the smash New York Times best seller and Oscar-winning film Hidden Figures tells the full story of her life, including what it took to work at NASA, help land the first man on the moon, and live through a century of turmoil and change.

In 2015, at the age of 97, Katherine Johnson became a global celebrity. President Barack Obama awarded her the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation’s highest civilian honor - for her pioneering work as a mathematician on NASA’s first flights into space. Her contributions to America’s space program were celebrated in a blockbuster and Academy-award nominated movie. 

In this memoir, Katherine shares her personal journey from child prodigy in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to NASA human computer. In her life after retirement, she served  as a beacon of light for her family and community alike. Her story is centered around the basic tenets of her life - no one is better than you, education is paramount, and asking questions can break barriers. The memoir captures the many facets of this unique woman: the curious “daddy’s girl”, pioneering professional, and sage elder. 

This multidimensional portrait is also the record of a century of racial history that reveals the influential role educators at segregated schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities played in nurturing the dreams of trailblazers like Katherine. The author pays homage to her mentor - the African American professor who inspired her to become a research mathematician despite having his own dream crushed by racism. 

Infused with the uplifting wisdom of a woman who handled great fame with genuine humility and great tragedy with enduring hope, My Remarkable Journey ultimately brings into focus a determined woman who navigated tough racial terrain with soft-spoken grace - and the unrelenting grit required to make history and inspire future generations. 

©2021 Katherine Johnson, Joylette Hylick, Katherine Moore (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

 

What bothers me is that there aren't enough Katherine Johnsons writing books like this

Katherine G. Johnson's memoir is reminiscent of another memoir written almost 30 years ago, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. Also barrier breakers, Sadie and Bessie Delany were born at the end of the 19th century. They both graduated Columbia University. Both were professionals, one a dentist and the other a teacher. Both scored firsts for black women in the United States. But it wasn't the lists of accomplishments that made me think of the sisters as I read Ms. Johnson's book. It was actually something in the language and the diction that triggered the thought; there was something about the way Ms. Johnson wrote that brought the Delany sisters to mind, because, for whatever reason, they sounded so much alike. Then, there was the message that both books articulated: success in life requires an education and hard work and a successful life includes giving back to the community that raised you in order to raise yet another generation of successful community members. Nothing in life is just given to you. It is a universal message.

I don't usually read memoirs, especially the celebrity memoirs that seem to be the sum total of the memoirs and biographies that turn up in the Audible sale piles. I want to read about good people who have contributed to society and are proud but humble about their accomplishments, not a bunch of self-entitled braggarts or drugged up yahoos. I'm interested in the people who have given to society and worked to make it a better place for everyone. Mrs. Johnson's life story is a life lesson for all of us; we need more of them on our library bookshelves.

In short, go, get this book and spend a few hours with a remarkable woman.