Now Elma and her husband had a wonderfully sweet relationship (perhaps even a tad too sweet), and a lot of the book focused on their romance. My only niggle with this novel were the sex scenes with her husband, Nathaniel. In this way, it was an extremely accurate portrayal of what anxiety looks like so an excellent representation here of anxiety disorder I thought. I thought it was especially empowering that Elma eventually comes to terms with her anxiety, understanding that it is a medical condition and does not mean she is weak. But it was also interesting to learn how she suffers from crippling social anxiety which was an important theme in this book, especially once she became thrust into the spotlight. She’s determined, brilliant, brave and competent. The book also did an excellent job of showing how challenging life in the 1950s was for anyone who wasn’t a white male.Īs for Elma, she’s a wonderfully inspiring character. I enjoyed the book’s exploration of discrimination across gender, race and even mental health and appreciated how these topics were the main themes of the story.

In this way, the book illustrated nicely how even well-meaning, supposedly open-minded people can be utterly ignorant of other people’s struggles until those struggles are really brought to the forefront of their attention. Initially, she was kind of self-centered and mostly unaware of the oppression of those around her. Elma was mostly unaware of racism issues in society, or at the very least it wasn’t something she thought about until people closer to her were affected by it. What’s interesting about this book is that it didn’t examine only the issue of sexism but also of racism, both of which were pretty much the norm in the 1950s.

Additionally, the author did an excellent job of illustrating how sexism and racism prevented leaders of the space program from taking advantage of all of the highly skilled and exceptionally talented people who could definitely be an asset to the program. In so doing, Elma strives to become the first Lady Astronaut even though the societal conventions of the 1950s are against her goals. Soon, Elma begins to wonder, with so many skilled female pilots, scientists, and mathematicians why women cannot become astronauts and go into space. This also creates a need for many more astronauts.

This threat accelerates the space program and the need to colonize space sooner rather than later if the human race is to survive. Elma soon figures out that the meteorite collision will result in a climate cataclysm, causing such high temperatures that the oceans will boil and the earth will be inhospitable for humans. One night in 1952, a meteorite falls to the earth, wiping out most of the east coast of the United States, including the capital. Elma York, a pilot, physicist and mathematician who works at the International Aerospace Coalition. This is an alternative history story that follows Dr.

The calculating stars review