The Astronaut Wives Club

by Lily Koppel

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 fashion icons.

Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a secret. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, meeting regularly to provide support and friendship. Many became next-door neighbors and helped to raise each other's children by day, while going to glam parties at night as the country raced to land a man on the Moon.

As their celebrity rose-and as divorce and tragic death began to touch their lives-they continued to rally together, and the wives have now been friends for more than fifty years. THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Book Club, Space, Audiobook, Historical

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

Lily Koppel is the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of The Astronaut Wives Club (Now an ABC Television Series Premiering June 18th at 8|7c) and The Red Leather Diary. "[An] entertaining and quirky throwback...This is truly a great snapshot of the times," says Publisher's Weekly of The Astronaut Wives Club. She has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and Glamour. Koppel grew up in Chicago and attended Barnard College and Oxford. She currently resides in New York.

Reviews

[Nick Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

And then this happened. And then this other thing happened. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about the time this happened. I should've had this book over for a cup of coffee and a chat.

[Nicholas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is among the most artlessly written books I have read in ages, and easily ranks as the worst book I've read in 2013. It is glib and confusing and makes no effort to actually tell a story. It just recounts and recounts and recounts, but because there is an endless cast of characters and Koppel makes no effort to help you get to know at least a select few of the wives, it is almost impossible to care about any of the wives, even when their husbands die in enormous fiery explosions. Indeed, half the time you can't really remember which wife even belongs with which husband.

Reading this book just made me angry, not so much at Koppel (who clearly just can't write, or interview, or craft a story), but at her editor, who was obviously asleep at the wheel. It was as if the editor (and publisher) were simply content to coast on the wake of Koppel's first bestseller, content that as long as people actually bought the book, then it didn't matter if it was actually readable. I'm also shocked at the mostly positive reviews the book received. If I needed proof that reviewers are, by and large, unwilling to call out a bad book, the treatment of this one would certainly do the trick. It is, in a word, horrible.

[Lisa of Hopewell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this mess of a book--didn't finish it.
Chapter 1 reads like she watched the movie the "Right Stuff" and that's about it. It is written in that trendy, annoying new, "sassy"/hip/disrespectful tone that is starting to ruin non-fiction reading. Like aging Valley Girl does Master's thesis. Hope it gets better. The women themselves ARE interesting, just the style of writing that grates. Astro-everything is really wearing me down. The story itself IS interesting. But it's like Jr. High School history with a hip teacher who practices his stand-up routine. Enough with the glib-non-humor and just TELL THE DAMN STORY already.

Sadly the tone continues and the "depth" is sadly lacking.....

[Marcie · Rating 1 out of 5]

After seeing the episode of Tom Hanks' "From the Earth to the Moon" devoted to the astronaut's wives, I was very anxious to read this book. What a screaming disaster! It reads like it was written by a high school girl working on a book report. No character development, random anecdotes relating to nothing, no continuity and worst of all, made the wives sound like a bunch of mannequins. None of these women exist outside of their husbands and all are written as 1950s stereotypes - sexist to say the least. I should have known when there were no endnotes, bibliography, or source material of any kind cited. I seriously doubt that even one of these women were actually interviewed and, if they were, the "author" had no idea how to make interview material come alive on the page. Where was the editor for this? Lily Koppel must be related to, or sleeping with, somebody really important for this piece of crap to have made it onto the bookshelves. A HUGE disappointment.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original Mercury 7 astronauts


When the U.S. space program went into high gear in 1959 the original Mercury 7 astronauts were a sensation. People wanted to know about them and their families - and their lives were avidly followed by the public. Life Magazine paid for exclusive access to the 'astrofamilies' and articles and photos were published to accompany each space flight.







In time, the wives formed the 'Astronauts Wives Club' - for friendship, advice, help, and support during stressful times. Eventually the club also came to include the astrowives of the Gemini and Apollo projects - a total of 30 women.







The women needed each other because being an astrowife could be stressful indeed. Separated from their husbands for long periods while the men trained at Cape Canaveral, the wives had to take care of their homes and children by themselves. No matter what, the ladies had to keep up the appearance of a blissful home so their husbands would get plum flight assignments; the public wanted to see happy families. This facade became especially difficult to maintain because the celebrity astronauts attracted women like magnets and infidelity was rampant (a fact which NASA apparently was aware of).







In addition, the space program was inherently dangerous, and a number of astronauts lost their lives. Each space flight had a real threat of death hanging over it, and - to cope - some of the wives were driven to chain-smoking and drinking. Through it all the astrowives formed lasting friendships with each other, and were immediately there if tragedy struck - bringing food, comfort, and company.

Of course there was an upside to being an astrofamily as well. They were able to build lovely homes at cost and they could travel and stay in expensive hotels for practically nothing. The families got fancy cars and gifts of every description from corporations and department stores. They also met presidents, foreign dignitaries, movie stars, and so on. And some of the astrowives got to hobnob with first ladies, get tours of the white house, and borrow evening gowns. Those were heady times for sure.













There are so many astrowives mentioned in the book that it's almost impossible to remember who's who. Still, we get the impression these were mostly well-educated, talented, capable women - though many went unfulfilled (in my opinion) by being coerced by circumstances to accept 'housewife' status. (These were the days before women's lib.)

Eventually, the stress of their lives became too much and most of the astrocouples divorced. The author reports that of the original 30 astrocouples, 7 remained together. Some of the wives then suffered from depression while others went on to establish careers and blossom in other ways.

The story is well-written and provides a fascinating view of the space program from the perspective of the astronauts families. Good book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to write a book about the space program that's far less compelling than the one Tom Wolfe wrote on the same subject, in five easy steps.

1) First, make sure to eliminate everything that's interesting about space, and the politics involved in exploring it. The space race was an insane endeavor. Astronauts faced death when they got in those capsules; some of them actually died. Americans became obsessed with nationalist astro-gazing, but in the background buzzed the constant (and not unsubstantiated) fear that Russia would blow us the fuck up. Ignore all of that. Instead, focus on people's hair.

2) Second, write like a middling high school sophomore. It's best if you channel said sophomore as if he had gotten spectacularly high and only then remembered he had to write something (imagine that, by this point, he's three bowls in and not having an easy time getting his neurons to fire appropriately).

3) Organization, schmorganization. Ramble about whatever comes to mind!

4) Provide no information on the historical context, except to mention that, by the first Mercury launch, pink lipstick was out and red lipstick was in.

5) Don't attempt to humanize your subjects by providing well-researched biographical information. Instead, just find out what they were wearing at the time. That's much easier.

This is nonfiction for the kind of workaday philistines who get their book recommendations from People magazine. The Astronaut Wive's Club is sure to please that demographic: it has a pretty cover, and is a great choice for the type of person who spends their evenings watching The Real Housewives of Orange County while writing inane Facebook posts in which they bemoan their perceived lack of reading time.

In other words, I recommend this book only for those who have no intention of reading it.

[LillyBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admit I knew basically nothing about the wives of the astronauts from the 1960s and early 1970s, so this book was educational. It's also an easy, pleasant enough read. The main problem with this book is the lack of, no pun intended, gravity. Stories are recited in quick succession with little or no insight in the social or physiological causes. It just doesn't seem very intelligent. There are certainly no words that a fifth grader wouldn't know and the sentence structures are very basic and repetitive. I also think the book suffers from too many characters; by the end of the book the author admits there are over 50, and it's almost impossible to keep them straight. This is not helped by the author's insistence on calling all of the wives by their first names which, being the 1960s, are almost all Betty, Sue, or Marilyn. Additionally, she jumps back and forth between the same-named wives apparently at random. My final complaint is that everything is told with the same lack of urgency, which is bizarre to me as there were certainly some tragic and nail-biting moments and days in the space program.

[Penny McGill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is either a poorly written book or a poorly edited book. Maybe both? I was very keen to read this book and was thrilled to think of the interview she must have been granted. Couldn't believe how fun it would be to learn about those years because I have always thought it must have been a wonderful time to live through. All of those amazing scientific discoveries and developments and constant excitement on news shows and in the newspaper, you can see how someone like Chris Hadfield would have been inspired. Millions of people followed these men through each mission and that had to be a fabulous book, right? I just couldn't wait to read it.

Having these decades detailed through the eyes of the wives and families provided a chance for true fly-on-the wall content like what was Gus Grissom really like or how did it feel to single parent when you had a spouse who worked military hours but the author, Lily Koppel, never really took advantage of this rare opportunity. It was barely magazine article interesting, really. She didn't provide much insight into any of the challenges these women faced and constantly moved around from one Astronaut family to another and raced from one mission to the next. She missed out on fleshing out some of the most intense moments of the race for Space, like Apollo 13 and barely touched on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's first steps on the moon. I think she spent more paragraphs on how hard it was for the wives to buy appropriate dresses for special balls and press appearances than she did on anything else.

It was a disappointing book and I won't suggest anyone read it. It can't even be used as much of a reference choice as it's a sketchy memoir at best. Maybe extreme astronaut fans will be glad they read it? I'm moving on to something else...

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting (though perhaps a little long) story of what it was like to be married to an astronaut in the 1960's and '70. Painted as perfect families in the current press, especially Life magazine, Koppel takes us further inside these marriages, most of which eventually collapsed from the stress. Many of the astronauts maintained families in the Houston area while serially seeing other women during their long sessions of training on the Florida coast. Koppel does a great job of exposing the enormous pride the wives felt, the jealousies they felt about each other, and the fantastic support they provided during missions, and the many deaths across the space program.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

The minute I heard Lily Koppel give an interview about this book on NPR I added my name to the queue for it at the library. I don't even think the book had actually been released yet; that's how excited I was to get my hands on this book. Despite the fact that the idea of space travel terrifies me beyond all reason, I'm fascinated by astronauts and the entire cultural milieu surrounding the space race of the 1960s. Plus I'm all for any "rah-rah feminism, let's tell the unheard story of the women behind the men" project.
Sadly, it turns out my hopes for this book were a bit too high. Let me preface my criticism by saying that I did enjoy reading this book. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I immediately went to recommend it to my mother, only to see on Goodreads that she had already read it! :-) I learned a ton of fascinating tidbits about the space program and the astronauts. I drove my husband crazy during the two days I was reading this with all of my, "Hey, wanna know ANOTHER interesting thing about NASA?" questions. My assessment of whether a non-fiction book has been worth my time is if it inspires me to learn more about the subject, and after reading this I was inspired to re-watch Apollo 13, add Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff to my to-read list, and spend more time than I'd like to admit googling info about the various moon missions. So in that sense, this book was a welcome read.
The thing is, that's pretty much all this book boils down to: tidbits of information and often-disjointed anecdotes about the astronauts' wives. It read to me as if Koppel did a single hour-long interview with each wife who would agree to it and used that subject matter plus the Life magazine archives to put this book together. I was expecting and hoping for something more in-depth and meaty. Putting on my historian hat for a second, let me address the book's main issues:
-The cast is much too large. I understand Koppel's dilemma: each wife had her own very distinct background, personality, marriage, and relationship with NASA and the media. If I were doing this project, it would have killed me to leave any wife out. The problem is, by trying to include all of the wives, Koppel didn't give any of them their due. To cram a divorce or adjustment to widowhood into a matter of paragraphs just doesn't do justice to the story that I know is there (and some wives' major life events received even less page space than that, just mere sentences before Koppel was onto another topic). All (or almost all) of these women were/are mothers, and yet almost nothing was written about their parenting experiences in this extremely unique situation. Since this is supposedly the wives' story, I found it bizarre that so little was mentioned about how they felt about parenting under the media microscope, something that was surely a huge part of the lives of these women. I think this book would have been much more compelling if Koppel had focused only on the Mercury wives, or had perhaps picked a couple of women to be the focal point of her history of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and let the rest of the story revolve around them. As it is, I feel like all this book did was whet my appetite to know more about each wife, and it's disappointing to know that I can't now pick up a complete biography of Jo Schirra, or Betty Grissom, or Marge Slayton, or any of the others.

-The author's tone was strangely catty at times in a way that I think was intended to present the Astronaut Wives Club as a sort of "Original Real Housewives" but almost felt like a judgment of her subjects. I would have preferred a more objective tone.

-There were random, disjointed attempts to throw in a bit of historical context about the women's movement and the astronaut wives' relationship to that movement. That would have been a fascinating thread to weave through this story, but while Koppel made attempts to throw it in once in a while, it wasn't developed at all. It was so under-developed, in fact, that the references to The Feminine Mystique, etc., felt like they didn't belong in this book at all.

Overall, the concept behind this book is great, and it was a fun, quick read, but it's "underbaked" in terms of substance and execution.

[JanB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the space program of the 60’s, told from the perspective of the “astrowives”, the women behind the men. I was a child in the 60’s, too young to realize the astronauts were such rock stars. The celebrity status of the Mercury Seven included the wives, and their every move was recorded by the ever-present media. They were invited to the White House, featured on the cover of Life magazine, numerous articles were written about them, and they were given many perks.

However, these women were all a product of the times, and were expected to maintain the perfect household while raising perfect children, despite having absentee husbands who were being shot into space in a capsule with less technology than is in our present-day iPhones. The wives were given strict orders from NASA to create a refuge at home so the astronauts wouldn’t have to do “menial chores” or endure any stress when he was at home. (We’ve come a long way baby!). Their husbands would be in danger of being kicked out of the program if the storybook facade slipped. This extended to the need to look the other way at evidence of infidelities. Their only confidants were the other astrowives, and they inevitably formed a tight -knit community in Houston.

Although at times parts of the book felt more like a string of anecdotes than a cohesive story, I enjoyed the anecdotes, so it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. I gained a new admiration for the astronauts who pioneered our exploration of space, and the wives they left behind.

[Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have longed for someone to write a book about the wives of the first astronauts. While Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer have told rich, descriptive tales of the space program, this book, by comparison, is a disappointing and shallow treatment of the wives' experiences -- told in an uneven and disjointed way.

The good news is that it's a fast read because there is no substantive depth to any of the stories, and you can feed on some trivia munchies along the way. (I didn't know that John Glenn had the horrible task of telling the Bobby Kennedy kids about the assassination of their father.) The bad news is that much of it reads like a 10th grade book report. As someone with more than a passing interest in the U.S. space program, I expected more out of the book. For someone whose interest or expectations are lower, this may be a more enjoyable read.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

About time and then some that this story was written! As one of the wives put it, "If you think going to the moon is tough, try staying home". The book includes the stories of the 8 astonauts who died during the space race. A very good read.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Astronaut Wives Club is a fast and entertaining look at the lives of the wives of the first American astronauts.

The Mercury Seven who included the wife of John Glenn the first man to orbit Earth.
The Gemini Nine that included the wife of Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the Moon.
The Apollo Fourteen which included the wife of Buzz Aldrin the second man on the Moon.

Its crazy to read about how famous these families were in the 1960's. These astronauts were treated like rock stars and their wife's were trend setters and on magazine covers. These women went from being military wives to American royalty. They hung out with the Kennedys and went on talk shows.

But not everything was as picture perfect as it seemed. These women had to be perfect symbols of womanhood and they were told that if they "embarrassed" their husbands by doing things like complaining about their husbands infidelity or sought help from therapy for anxiety or depression then their husbands won't get their chance to go up in the space shuttle. These women were expected to be the perfect little Stepford Wives.

As there stars rose so did tragedy and divorce. But these women were able to create a sisterhood that lasted a lifetime.

The Astronaut Wives Club really gave me an inside look at how much pressure these women were under. I don't think its even possible for those of use who were born after the "Space Age" to realize just how big a deal astronauts were back then. Lily Koppel wrote a breezy and lively account of a part of history that we all take for granted.

This book is a perfect beach read. Even people who don't usually like Non Fiction will enjoy this book.

[Katy Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book, what could have been an awesome story about courageous women was merely eh. The author reports what happened, but never goes further. Even when talking about large missions she really just scratches the surface of the stories. At some points it's like she's just dumping info onto the page. There were paragraphs with random sentences that had nothing to do with the paragraph - kind of an 'oh, by the way...' Then not touched on again. It became frustrating that she didn't search deeper into this story, she obviously had the sources. It often felt like she was writing a book for children. She tried to do too much with too many of the wives and in the end, I ended caring very little about any of them.

Knowing a bit about space/history I was annoyed when technical details were wrong, i.e. a rendezvous is when two vehicles meet up in space, not when they connect. That is called a dock. And in a non-fiction book you should not refer to someone who has died as they "bought the farm". Seriously? This person was someone's son, husband and father and that's the insensitive way you write it?

It was okay, but that is probably only because I was interested in the subject. Kind of a shame because it could have been great.

[Erin Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

My gosh I loved this book!

[Snap · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was growing up during the time of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights. It was a time of women in shirtwaist dresses, pearls, hats and gloves. A small box called a television with a picture in black and white -- we thought we'd hit the big time when "color" came in. Women stayed home and took care of the kids and the men went out to work. In this case -- the men went to the stars and back. The first astronauts were all military. The wives were used to their husbands being away from home for long periods of time. Becoming an astronaut didn't change any of that except to make their husbands celebrities. Everyone wanted to know what it was like to be married to an astronaut.

This book reads very quickly and I agree with others that sometimes it was difficult remembering which wife was being talked about and who she was married to. The passage of time changed things. The women's movement changed things. NASA ruled the roost. Every woman and man was cookie cutter perfect -- at least that is what NASA wanted the public to think. This book certainly blows that idea away. And the technology. There is more technology in your smart phone today than in any of the first space flights. Amazing!

While I thank the author for helping me to remember this time period in my life, I think the book could have been much better.

[The Library Lady · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here we go again with another great story turned into superficial, badly written fluff that insults its subjects. There were points where the writing was SO bad I was ready to put the book down,but kept on hoping for better things that never materialized.

One of the astronaut's wives talks about Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, saying she threw it across the room because she was so irked by it. I am not sure WHAT in it bugged her, because Tom Wolfe may have made the wives secondary characters, but the book (and the movie for that matter) made the wives feel far more real than this book does, especially Betty Grissom and Annie Glenn. Wolfe's writing brought poignancy and heart to their stories. Koppel's book shrieks and turns them into characters straight out of a bad "Lifetime" Movie.

Especially sad, since it's not likely there will be another book on this topic and on these women, who for the most part were NOT remarkable women. Just ordinary people in an extraordinary time, which makes their stories even more fascinating.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides a history of the early days of the American manned space program told from the perspective of the wives of the astronauts. This is a span of time beginning with Project Mercury in 1959, through Project Gemini, and ending in 1972 with the closing of the Apollo program. This era occurred during my younger years spanning between my high school years to my early professional work career. I found it interesting to recall my memory of that era with the retelling of it in this book through the eyes of the astronaut spouses.

The astronauts were considered to be heros by the American public and media. NASA encouraged this by being concerned about the image and reputation of the astronauts. Thus it was important for the astronauts to have happy marriages, or at least have the appearance of happy marriages. In the early years they successfully projected this image of all-American marriage bliss. However, once the first divorce occurred in the late 60s the floodgates were opened. Out of the Mercury Seven (Project Mercury), the New Nine (Project Gemini), and the fourteen Space Families (Apollo program), a total of 30 couples, only seven couples would stay together.

I was surprised to learn that eight astronauts died in the program’s first 12 years. That's a 27 percent fatality rate over the twelve years which provides an indication that selling life insurance to astronauts is not a profitable prospect. I remembered the death of the three in the Apollo 1 fire, but the other five deaths were mostly from airplane crash accidents which were less directly related to space flight equipment and thus not as easily remembered.

The wives referred to the launches as death watches, and their fears weren't misplaced. Everybody recognized that there were so many things that could go wrong and that the flights were dangerous. It turned out in the end that none of the astronauts were left stranded in space. But at the time nobody knew what the future held. These were stressful circumstances for the wives and families to live through, and they looked to other wives in the group for support.

Extramarital female attention to the astronauts was another source of stress on the marriage relationships. Unfortunately, many of the astronauts didn't keep their pants zipped. The problem was so prevalent that the wives had multiple nicknames for potential temptresses: a Suzy or, if the other woman sought out the men near Cape Canaveral, a Cape Cookie. The journalists of that era turned a blind eye to this sort of infidelity. I don't think journalists today are likely to be so restrained.

The book's narrative makes occasional reference to national social conditions that were taking place at the time: feminism, war protests, hippies, etc. The astronaut families were largely isolated from these things. However, the changing expectations for marriage roles probably played a role in the divorce rate.

The book is reasonably well written, and my two star rating is an indication of my low level of interest in the wives. The only reason I read this book was to prepare myself for a book group meeting.

I'm looking forward to the book, "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly for another view of women involved with the space program.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember: Spring 1961, my senior year of high school, never before had a radio broadcast been piped into every classroom of Champaign High School, our entire English class listened attentively as Alan Shepard was catapulted into space and arced back to earth. The 15-minute suborbital flight made Shepard America's first Astronaut hero.

Through the 1960s and '70s NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs grabbed the attention of the public. We held our breathe for the fate of Gus Grissom when the hatch blew on Liberty Bell 7, and mourned when Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in a fire during a pre-launch test in 1967. We rejoiced when John Glenn first orbited the earth, when Apollo 8 sent Christmas Eve messages from moon orbit in 1968 and as Neil Armstrong reported, "That's one small step for man, one giant step for mankind," as he planted his foot on the moon's surface July 20, 1969.

Although I remember watching front-yard press conferences with astronaut wives, families watching liftoffs at Cape Kennedy, and weeping widows at funerals we knew little of the women behind the men. How did these wives - also pioneers of the space age - manage home and families while husbands trained for missions, how did they handle the stress of spouses hurled into space? Lily Koppel offers readers an inside look into the lives of astronaut wives.

Much of the book focuses on the original Mercury 7 wives: Louise Shepard, Betty Grissom, Annie Glenn, Rene Carpenter, Jo Schirra, Trudy Cooper, and Marge Slayton. Their husbands' ambitious careers catapulted these women into a trailblazing select group, The Astronaut Wives Club. Koppel explores female friendship, support and competition. They brought champagne, casseroles and deviled eggs to homes for the "death watch", as they called launch gathering. With absentee husbands they coped with relocations, pregnancies, unfaithful husbands, loneliness, groupies and intrusive reporters. Could they live up to the images NASA wanted of perfect marriages, perfect homes, perfect children, perfect media presence and public image?

"The Astronaut Wives Club" also takes readers through decades of major cultural, societal and lifestyle change, especially for women. Styles evolve from belted shirtwaist dresses, pearls, hats and gloves to mini skirts, prim tight curls to towering beehives. Woman's place moves from the kitchen/ June Cleaver role model to bra burning and professional careers. When the original astronauts were introduced in 1959 an ex-spouse was a secret to keep from NASA administrators, by the 1970s only seven of the first 30 astronaut couples were still together.

I thoroughly enjoyed this walk down memory lane and the insight into the astronaut wives.

This ARC was provided through Netgalley.com by Grand Central Publishing and scheduled for release June 11, 2013.

A friend recently recommended "The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal" also by Lily Koppel. After reading "The Astronaut Wives Club" I definitely placed her recommendation higher on my "To Read" list.

[CS · Rating 5 out of 5]

The little girl who dreamed of going into space squees.

Bullet Review:

I LOVED THIS SO BAD!

What I hated: how short it was and how much it skipped over. I realize that this is probably from interviews done many years after the events, but I felt many missions (such as the infamous Apollo 13) were glosses over.

What I loved: everything else! It's all about these incredible diverse women trying to pretend to be the perfect 50's housewife under the scrutiny of the media. Real Housewives? Eat your heart out! Oh, yeah, and these women DONT have to women-hate each other either.

I particularly loved the end where the women, split up from their men, come together for community with these other women. Truly, the space race would have gone NOWHERE without women like Louise, Annie, Rene and Betty (I HEART BETTY!!).

(I don't typically address other reviews but this one has quite a few 1- and 2- stars that I feel I must. 1) I do get that the writing style is weird. I found it weird too - talking about one thing then suddenly saying that "Sputnik" means "Traveler". Weird. But honestly, I got so absorbed, it fled into the background. 2) No citations. This likewise bugs me - but the author hints that she may have done interviews which is why you don't see a bibliography. These women's stories have been shut up for years; I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first and only book about them.)

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will disappoint most readers. We have been raised to expect a book to be organized, either in chronology or by subject. The book jumps around, crosses the objective gates, and follows few rules of logic.

Astronaut Wives Club starts off in an introductory manner, letting the reader know about the original Mercury astronauts. The reader would then expect to meet the wives as their husbands' careers evolve. Such is not the case.

Initially the author builds up to reveal the "founding" of the "Wives Club", but then deserts the reader. She refers to the wives by first name, despite several wives sharing the same name.

There is little new material here, no true insight into the wives.

There is not even a focus on the actual wives' club, content of its meetings, a list of membership, how it changed as the astronaut corps changed, or even insight into the thought process of the wife.

When I finished the book I knew little more than I did when I began the book, which was extremely disappointing.

If you were planning on purchasing a copy, please don't. This book is one of the benefits of having a public library -- read and then return.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Astronaut Wives Club

I decided to read this book because of the television series that is going to be starting soon and I wanted to see what it might be about. This was an okay book and it was a good story but it seemed to jump around alot. It was hard to keep up with all the wives as it jumped from one to another. I did like it though.

[Rose Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointing mess. I so looked forward to this book because I love love love the Space Program. But I have to say I agree with other reviewers here at Goodreads who also rated it one-star. Poorly written, poorly done. And full of ludicrous inaccuracies that should have been caught and corrected. Doesn't Hachette have copy editors anymore?

For instance, on page 20 she refers to Senator (sic) Richard Nixon and the Kitchen Debate with Krushchev. Excuse me? Nixon was at the time serving his 2nd term as Vice President of the United States! Another glaring error is on Page 48, when she refers to the comedian "Will" Dana. Actually the man was BILL Dana and he was quite well-known at the time. Didn't an editor even glance over this manuscript? Offhand errors and inaccuracies like that make me wonder what else the author got wrong.

I expected better. What a letdown.

Also, I feel I need to mention that a golden opportunity here has been squandered by the author -- the opportunity to record in depth the experiences of these women who were so closely connected to Project Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The chance to make a huge contribution to the historical record of the space program.

I was expecting a book as well-written, as seriously researched as A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin, or The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Joke's on me, I guess.

BTW you can actually find out more about the lives and backgrounds of the astronaut's wives by reading Chaikin's and Wolfe's books than you ever will reading this waste of paper. Amen!

[Brittany McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this may not be the DEEP DIVE or a TELL-ALL that many might want, it was a nice just below-the-surface look at the lives of the original nine and then some of the later wives.

It predominantly deals with the wives' dealing with the press, the deals made for money, and some of the issues covered up in the marriages.

The picture portrays the women as being there for one another and not liking being compared to Army wives.

Overall, there's not a lot of depth, but it was short and entertaining to have a few tidbits. I'm not sure there is anything Earth-shattering or new, but the audio was worth a listen.

3.5 Stars.

[Nicholas Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out in paperback for the summer, it spotlights the lives of the first American astronauts and their families as told from the perspective of the wives themselves.

[Shelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the author says that she spoke to some of the Astronauts Wives Club, I never got that impression from reading this book. I felt the extent of her research was reading Life magazines and watching Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, and Charlie Wilson's War. I was never engaged with any of the wives. At. Any. Time. I never cared or felt anything for any of them (other than the one that committed suicide - I don't remember her name though so you can take it for what it's worth).

The book organization is a mess. I read some of the most useless anecdotes that did nothing for the book. Wives names rolled passed so quick that I was confused as to who was who. The timeline is loose so I never truly knew what year I was in.

I sat dumb founded when Julia Roberts' name is mentioned . I have yet to figure out why. I think the author was paid by the word and she just threw words in as filler.

This book could have been so much more if the author narrowed her focus. My only lasting impression is that she wrote about their fashion (clearly from her Life research).

I originally gave this book 2 stars - 1 star for reading magazines and watching movies for research material; 1 star for getting a publisher to pay her. I then took 1 star back for wasting my time. She's lucky I have OCD that I had to finish it - even though it took about 3 weeks of struggle. I actually felt sad when I had to pick up my iPad to read this book. =o)

[Miriam Murcutt · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
This book is not so much rocket as dud squib. Not surprisingly, therefore, it never really takes off. Koppel has some interesting material to work with: a group of ordinary women propelled from obscurity to super stardom on the backs of their often-testy astronaut husbands. The book tries to include something from the lives of the wives of all of the astronauts from the Mercury Seven Program, which started in 1958, through the Gemini and Apollo Programs, which ended in 1972. This means that there are far too many wives– not to mention the occasional supplementary girlfriend – for the reader to get to know. If Koppel had chosen to focus on only a few of the wives she might have been able to write a more meaningful book As it is, she hops aboard too many of the lives of too many of the wives far too briefly. This is both confusing and unsatisfying for the reader. This book needed more substantial information and more meaty insights, which I am sure must have been lurking somewhere had Koppel taken a proper look. As it is, we have to endure too much information about the clothes the wives wore, the drinks the wives drank and the ciggies the wives smoked. As a result, this book ends up a disappointing piece of fluff.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a retired military spouse, I could very much relate to some of the situations these ladies found themselves in...moving, spouse being deployed, being a married, but "single" parent most of the time, sending your spouse into harms way (for me, a war), worrying about how those issues will impact your kids, and forming strong, bonded relationships with the other spouses living that life with you.
Even in this day and age, we are told to help our spouse focus on the mission & keep things running smoothly at home. You feel that you need to present yourselves as the "perfect" family. Only today, I think it might be a more subtle message, but it is still the message is still there none the less.
However, I can't imagine imagine the stress of blasting your spouse off in a rocket & having reports in your home recording your reactions!!! Following you around for days and weeks. Oh my, these women are true heroes to me!
I was also amazed that this went on for years and involved so many families.
Although, because the book covers so many people, it lost an intimacy that I was hoping for.
That being said, I love that these women are finally having their stories told & what that experience felt like from their side of the moon.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first heard of this book and saw all of the pre-publication hype it was getting, I dismissed it as fluffy chick-lit (not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just not my thing.) But then I read a blurb by Douglas Brinkley - a well-respected serious author of historical non-fiction so I gave it a shot. How I wanted to love this book. I'm a big space nerd and have read lots about the astronauts. So this seemed like a natural fit: the familiar story but told from the other side. And there was some of that, yes, but unfortunately too much of the book was just one slightly or not-so-slightly humorous anecdote after the other and descriptions of dresses and shoes. And the "action" at times had all of the drama of a Wikipedia article. I did learn a few things (I never knew that Loudon Wainwright was the journalist assigned to write about the Mercury wives for Life magazine) so it wasn't a total waste. But it could have been great.