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 … 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.
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I loved this book! I read it after seeing the TV series and while I loved the series I loved the book even better. They all had interesting stories and dealt with the publicity and pressures in different ways.
You’ve heard about the astronauts, but have you heard about the wives?
For these women, being a wife wasn’t the half of it. It wasn’t the hardest part, either. I’ve read the books about the astronauts. There’s an immeasurable amount of testosterone going on there. What else would one expect? They’re test pilots. But the wives. Now there’s something interesting that I hadn’t learned. The writing is crisp, but can be choppy at times, but the story is good.
Each woman is different and had her own set of challenges. If you don’t know the women, this is a great way to get to know them. I knew almost nothing about Michael Collins’ wife, nearly nothing about Louise Sheppard, Joan Aldrin…The only reason I remember Annie Glenn having a stutter was that John Glenn was our state senator forever and I remember seeing her on television. I respected each of the wives more and liked how they banded together. Marge Slayton become the mother of the group. Everyone rallied around the See, Basset, Chaffee, White and Grissom families. It’s touching, heartbreaking and interesting.
If you want a book about the unsung heroes behind the astronauts, then this is the one for you to check out. Read it.
So many of the best stories come from this book, which tells the tales of many of the wives of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Who were these women holding the home forts steady while their husbands were shot into space on rockets to achieve glory? How did they feel about their roles? What REALLY went on behind the scenes? There is so much good backroom gossip and truth in this book. I don’t think we can truly understand the space program without learning about the astronauts’ wives’ role in it.
I’m so torn on how to rate this. The basis for the book is captivating. The execution of it fell on its face. I watched the ten-episode television show of the same name. I remember feeling that it was forced–squashed into a too-small space–and that it could have easily been a television show of three or four seasons. It started off at a comfortable pace, accelerating rapidly as it progressed, until the ending felt like slamming into a wall.
In much the same way, I felt as if the wives’ stories got squashed into the pages of a book. There was never any time to get to know them as individuals before Koppel careened off sideways into a new wife’s life. The writing often felt abrupt and disjointed. I think that’s a result of trying to cram the lives of nearly fifty women into 270 pages. Just about the time I’d start to feel a connection to one of these women, we’d be in someone else’s living room. By the time the woman’s name resurfaced, that fledgling connection had been clipped off. And truly, with so many names being thrust at my brain–wives, astronauts, children, Cape Cookies, NASA execs, political figures, media sorts–it became an insurmountable task to keep track of any of them. With such a fascinating wealth of information into which to delve, I felt like each new crew of wives would have benefited from a book all their own.
My rating settles at a three based on: I’d give five stars for the topic, two for the writing, and one for whoever was charged with editing this book and failed so miserably. That averages out to a generous three stars, purely for the sake of the book’s subjects. I’m glad I watched the tv show first, because it gave me a bit of foundation upon which to draw as my head whirled around the random details the book pitched at my brain. I found the book something of a disappointment, but not as much as I was expecting after reading other reviews.