Books like The Women of the Moon — picked by fans

The Face of the Moon was the most important lunar book of the 20th century and perhaps of all time. Ralph Baldwin was an astronomer who studied stars, but while waiting to give public lectures at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium in 1941 he became fascinated by huge photos of the Moon on the planetarium’s walls. Baldwin saw that craters were everywhere, from tiny ones to giants hundreds of miles wide that had gouged surrounding terrain and ejected bright streamers of debris in all directions.

During World War 2 he recognized that myriads of craters from the Allied bombardment that had devasted France and Germany were tiny versions of what he saw on the Moon. The Moon’s craters were not volcanoes as commonly believed, they formed by explosions of projectiles – asteroids and comets. After the war, Baldwin investigated the physics of crater formation by setting off dynamite charges along the sandy… show more.

This book by Paul Spudis is scientifically accurate and well-written for any proverbial intelligent layperson to enjoy. Paul’s (sadly, now a name on a crater near the lunar south pole) book is a popular introduction to the Moon 4.5 billion history, describing its catastrophic formation, its strange landforms and their geology, and especially the exploration by robotic spacecraft and Apollo astronauts – all of which Paul was involved with. In his lunar column for Smithsonian Magazine, Paul perfected his knack for revealing the fascinating history of the Moon and the reasons for humans to return. And now, 50 years since the last Apollo astronaut left the Moon, women and men will return starting this decade. You need to read The Once and Future Moon to be prepared - maybe prepared to go yourself.

Subtitled A Geologist’s History of Lunar Exploration, Don Wilhelms is every lunar scientist’s favorite selenographer. He worked from the very beginning of America’s lunar program to plan and prepare for humans to go to the Moon, including training geologists to map and understand an alien nearby world, and training fighter pilot astronauts to become extraterrestrial field geologists. To a Rocky Moon is Don’s comprehensive and entertaining story from an insider’s point of view of the officials, scientists, engineers, and astronauts who solved thousands of problems to successfully voyage to the Moon six times, and to survive one nearly disastrous aborted attempt. 

I especially like Don’s telling of the personalities of the people involved, nearly all of whom he knew and worked with. Virtually everyone struggled at some point but ultimately became a hero – or got out of the way – in learning about the Moon and getting us… show more.

Epic Moon tells the stories of the often odd characters and their thoughts about the Moon in the 400 years before Apollo. Although Galileo and one or two other early astronomers found evidence that the Moon did not hold water or air, the search for life and changes such as volcanic eruptions, light flashes, insect migrations, vegetation growth, and lunar cities dominated most lunar mapping and telescopic exploration and interpretation. The observers weren’t crazy, the Moon was completely alien, but humans understood only what was known on Earth. Terrestrial impact craters were not recognized until the early 1900s and the origins of many were still doubted into the 1960s. The fundamental discoveries starting with Galileo, skipping to Mädler in the 1830s, and Shoemaker and Baldwin in the 1950s, finally reached a firmament of understanding after Apollo when scientists established the new disciplines of lunar and planetary science.

Margaret and the Moon tells the story of Margaret Hamilton, who wrote the computer code that was key to the US first landing on the moon. The story is full of suspense. Margaret—not the astronauts—is the real hero of the story. But what is best about this book is that it is bursting with curiosity. Margaret wonders, Why are there only DADDY Longlegs? Why aren’t more girls scientists? How big is the moon? And with each of her questions, readers themselves became more and more curious! Isn’t that fabulous?!

This is my favorite hard sci-fi classic. I love the beautiful mix of real science (wormholes excepted), compelling story, and characters, and it touches on both first contact and the way in which human nature might cause us to react to it. That is the power combo, in my opinion!

The movie of the book was very good — Robert Zemeckis is a brilliant director — although it left out some fantastic details that, as a math and science fan, I really loved! (I won’t spoil it here; it’s too good.)

After each tale in Atkins’ sumptuous book of historical fiction, I wanted to rush out and discover new things. These three real girl scientists pushed past obstacles in their young years to successfully build themselves into naturalists, lifting my heart and reminding me of the importance of the few family and friends who championed their journeys.

As a poet myself, I savored how the tales–about a discoverer of butterflies, fossils, and stars–are written in verse, creating a lush blend of words, history, and science. If there’s one good thing about centuries of inequality for women in science, it’s that when women scientists succeeded against all odds, their stories are so gorgeously inspiring.

Highly exciting and engaging first-hand account by an astronaut of launching and then repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. The author provides her personal profile as a “Sputnik Baby,” life in science, and becoming the first female astronaut to leave the Shuttle.

This collection of comics by different women cartoonists explains the challenges and successes of six women scientists in the 20th century.

Although I am familiar with the scientists’ biographies and their celebrated discoveries, I liked seeing how well the different cartoonists make use of the affordances of the comic book format to convey women’s situations, emotions, and steps toward empowerment as well as the technical aspects of their scientific work. It would make an attractive book club choice for students or adults.

What is it really like to work at the top echelons of science research? Go no further than this book, a riveting collective biography of women scientists at MIT who conducted world-class research in departments with more Nobel Prize winners than women.

Even though I knew how the story turned out, I was riveted by the hardships, brilliant tactics, and eventual triumph of the women researchers who fought and won the battle for equal treatment at “The Institute.” Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who originally reported the story as it unfolded.