What We Are Reading Today: The Six

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Updated 15 September 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: The Six

Author: Loren Grush

The Six highlights the contributions of women in science and the challenges they face. It is a solidly researched book on the first American women in space, including some new stories readers will not find elsewhere.
The daughter of two NASA engineers, author Loren Grush grew up surrounded by astronauts and space shuttles.
Melissa L. Sevigny said in a review for The New York Times: “It’s difficult to imagine a place more coded as masculine than the cockpit of a rocket ship.
The tales of the space race enshrined in American history too often center on white men and elevate machismo.
From the first pages of “The Six,” the science journalist reclaims this place as female.
Grush skillfully weaves a story that, at its heart, is about desire: not a nation’s desire to conquer space, but the longing of six women to reach heights that were forbidden to them — literally, to fly.
The author “resists the urge to put the Six on a pedestal, and avoids Hollywoodizing their relationships with one another,” said the review.  

They were neither close friends nor fierce competitors, Grush writes, but rather “trusted co-workers” who “could form a united front when they needed.”

 

 


What We Are Reading Today: Island at the Edge of the World

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Updated 30 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Island at the Edge of the World

  • Pitts has gone deeper than any other writer in cutting through the miasma of misperceptions that shrouds the island, even if his work sometimes bogs down in numbing detail

Author: Mike Pitts

In his ‘Island at the Edge of the World,’ British archeologist Mike Pitts delves into the misconceptions and legends surrounding a complex ancient culture.
The book is a work of historical revisionism that re-examines the history of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, using new archeological evidence, a fresh reading of 18th-century European accounts, and the long-overlooked work of early 20th-century anthropologist Katherine Routledge
Pitts’ investigation offers authoritative new insights into what really happened on the island.
Pitts has gone deeper than any other writer in cutting through the miasma of misperceptions that shrouds the island, even if his work sometimes bogs down in numbing detail.
Many questions still remain, but this is the most compelling and comprehensive account yet published of the extraordinary story of Easter Island.