Managing Martians

Starred review from June 1, 1998
What do you do if you are a tomboy daughter of the two most prominent families of Wynnewood, Okla., a small town in the middle of the U.S. in the middle of the 20th century? If you're Shirley, you set a course for Mars. Along the way, even if you smell of airplane glue instead of White Shoulders, you enter horse shows; and even if you are struggling academically and socially as the only female engineering student in your class at the University of Oklahoma, you enter and win the Miss Wynnewood contest. In this autobiography as unself-conscious as Shirley apparently is herself, the first woman to manage a NASA space flight program invites readers to follow her adventures, beginning with an awkward childhood, through four decades of failure and success, culminating not in an end but in a new beginning. "Where do you go after you've been to Mars?" her epilogue asks. "Where do you go after you've reached the pinnacle of what you imagined for yourself?" The answer is to pursue a new passion, to discover once again what you want to do when you grow up. "The question is only: Which passion do I want to pursue?" she declares. "Stay tuned." This book will certainly appeal to unconventional women, but it also belongs on the reading list of teenage nerds and adult former nerds, of anyone who has ever misstepped, of anyone who has ever been uncertain, of anyone of any age who still dreams of reaching beyond the horizon. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. $65,000 ad/promo; author tour.

December 1, 1998
YA-Morton traces the career of engineer Donna Shirley, the first woman to manage a major space mission. Shirley became fascinated with planetary exploration as a child; after 35 years in the field, she still retains her sense of wonder. Writing in a clear and breezy style, she describes her experience with a number of space-related projects. The greatest part of the book is devoted to the cliff-hanging development of "Sojourner Truth," the Pathfinder Mission's highly successful Mars rover. The author paints a vivid picture of the corporate culture of space exploration, the creativity and excitement of this work, and the colorful individuals who bring about the success or failure of these endeavors. Through wry anecdotes, the author shows how hostile the cultural environment of engineering and space science can be to women, and how she has used humor and ingenuity to deal with these challenges. YAs will see how space missions happen and what it's like to work on them. More generally, the book conveys a sense of the sorts of frustrations and rewards they are likely to encounter in any professional field.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA