Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

As a lover of history, women, and astronauts, this was the perfect book. It was a well-written piece about the first female astronauts working for NASA. It provided a glimpse into the lives of these phenomenal women and the work that they did.

I would recommend this book to all!

Though initially excluded, women were invited to become NASA astronauts in 1978 when the Space Shuttle program began. This engaging and readable book tells the stories of the first six to be chosen. This book is a good choice for fans of HIDDEN FIGURES, or for anyone who enjoys biography, space exploration, and women in STEM.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Sometimes, we forget how fortunate we are to be able to go to university, apply for jobs that aren't allowed ot discriminate based on sex or even just have dreams beyond what's expected of us. The Six reminds us that even women who were overqualified to be astronauts had to fight to be there.

Sometimes it's staggering to realize that some of the brightest minds of this age are balancing pregnancy, full careers, and training for other goals? I can't stress enough how much I think this book should be included in curriculums for schools?! All young women need to read Loren Gush's latest!!

NOTES:
- Would be a FANTASTIC audiobook!!
- I think this also goes into my list of books perfect to give as gifts!!

**Thank you to Scribner & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR

Growing up, I heard the names Sally Ride and Christa McAuliffe, but I never learned about the six first female astronauts at NASA. I enjoyed this book so much! I love the back stories of each woman and how their personal lives meshed with their profession.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to read more about pioneering women astronauts.

I got an ARC of this book.

A bit overwritten. It took a while to get used to that, but after that I really enjoyed learning more. I enjoyed seeing how the stories intersected and time periods overlapped.

I just wish there were citations so I could see what was added for flavor and what came from interviews. It would have been interesting to know just what little detail came from where and what was used as flavor. Without those citations I just kept going "did she really feel that?" and "did she really say that?" a lot. Pretty sure my partner was getting annoyed with me before I finished chapter one.

This non-fiction story of the six trailblazing women who joined NASA in the late 1970s to become the first women astronauts read like a novel. You may know two of the six women, Sally Ride and Judy Resnick, but the other four, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon, made important contributions to NASA and the space shuttle program as well. I found each woman's story engaging and detailed to better understand why they wanted to become astronauts. Each woman had their own reasons and their own journey to get there, but once they became part of NASA, they each had similar sexist experiences and they handled them in their own style. These amazing women worked hard and overcame each hurdle to become a part of history and go into space on shuttle missions. I remember watching Sally Ride's first mission into space and Judy Resnick's catastrophic ending on those Florida shores on TV in the 1980s. It helped me believe that women can do anything. If you enjoy books that celebrate women groundbreakers, like the women in the book Hidden Figures, I highly recommend this book.
Thank you Net Galley for a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

Once NASA decided to allow women into the program, they selected 6 women to be part of their 1978 astronaut candidate class. This book follows their selection and the beginning of their careers.

Although the book had a slow start, it quickly picked up steam once the women were selected and training for missions. I was amazed at both the bravery and determination of these women. It couldn't have been easy to be among the first, where being good, just wasn't enough, you had to be the best. Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated by space exploration. I was barely a toddler when the Challenger exploded and in high school during the Columbia tragedy, which dampened public opinion about the NASA program. Yet, I remember being in awe when the Mars Pathfinder landed or John Glenn returned to space.

I’ve read several books the Apollo missions and the astronauts who were part of the Apollo missions or the original Mercury Seven. All of them were about men, usually former fighter pilots, since that’s all NASA accepted in its original program. I was delighted to see a book about the first six American women in space and couldn’t wait to read it.

I was not disappointed. I liked learning about each of the astronauts, all mission specialists, though they all learned how to pilot too. Most attention in media has been given to Sally Ride since she was the first American woman in space. She like Neil Armstrong was an introvert just looking to do her job and not one to welcome the spotlight.

Six gives equal attention to each of the six women, providing background on their lives before astronauts, what made them want to apply for the job, their training, home lives, and their missions. Funnily enough, I thought each subsequent mission was more interesting than the one before. Shannon Lucid might have been the last to fly, but the details in the chapter about her mission - having to share a ride to space with a prince, greeting her son on the return and the little boy just wants to know what’s for dinner, and refusing to be called an “honorary man” just to appease Saudi royalty - stuck with me the most.

If you like reading about space exploration, people who are pioneers in their field, or about strong, intelligent women, I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

This book has reawakened my inner space nerd. I loved being able to learn more about the astronauts I already knew and about the ones I didn’t. I’ll admit it took me awhile to get through the book but that was mostly due to me constantly jumping into Wiki wormholes to learn more. Absolutely worth the read to find out how these six remarkable women blazed trails both big and small for the women that would follow them.

A great read about the history the first NASA women astronauts. I enjoyed following these six courageous women from the selection process through their careers at NASA and beyond. The author’s writing style is very pleasant for a non- fiction book.

4 stars! I wanted to love this book but found some of the narration jarring. We go from present tense to fact giving. I wonder if an audio version might convey this better? Overall I think this story is so important to share, and I LOVE learning about important women in history overcoming societal norms.

An absolutely fascinating look at these six women astronauts.so well written so informative. I found their stories so interesting so involving will be recommending.

First, thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have been following NASA and all things space since I was a youngster so was very excited to see this book based on the story of the first women astronauts. While I did enjoy reading it, I found the chapters to be very long and somewhat disjointed. I also thought the extensive writing about the investigation into the Challenger disaster was not really necessary in the context of this book. The fact that one of the Six was involved and that Sally Ride was involved in the investigation should have been where the discussion ended. I was also curious why in the wrap up at the end that the 2 women astronauts involved in the Columbia disaster ( Laurel Clark and Kalpana Chawla) were never mentioned. Kalpana was the first woman of Indian origin to fly in space……other firsts were mentioned so why not this one? I do recommend reading The Six particularly if you are a woman with a love of all this space related like me.

As a self-avowed space geek, I loved The Six, which focuses on the lead-up to the selection of six women as part of the 1978 astronaut class, their initial missions to space, and the Challenger disaster that once again forced NASA to take a hard look at their hardware and safety processes. There were moments in the book where I was so aggravated on the women's behalf, with the outright sexist attitudes and remarks that were pervasive during the time that they were breaking boundaries (and not just out to orbit). It's frustrating that so many people have to go through these battles to prove that things like gender, race, religion and orientation are not limitations on capabilities. Even knowing many of the events in the book, I still would get goosebumps as I was reading sections where the women were waiting to launch to space. The excitement of getting the selection call from NASA. And the sense of dread as the launch of Challenger prior to exploding is recounted. While the deaths of two of the six prior to publication, and the lack of direct access to two more because of contractual obligations limits Grush from being able to fully inhabit the journey of each woman, extensive research and access to interviews and crewmates still gives the reader a good feel for the battles this group of women experienced, their passion for being astronauts, and their desire to be known for their accomplishments, not their gender. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a comprehensive, well-researched overview of the first six women to become astronauts. The level of detail provided definitely adds to the immersive aspect, and it feels like the reader is living the experiences alongside the astronauts. A discussion of the history of the endeavor to send women to space is also included, and gives welcome context to the political and social environments of the 60s, 70, and 80s. Because of the level of suspense and tension achieved (particularly when describing countdowns to launches), this book was incredibly fast, easy, and fun to read. Although this is non-fiction, the organization of events narrated was done well and felt perfectly "plotted." The book closes with a discussion of more recent space-related events and some future ones, with a last line that really encapsulates the whole experience. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in space travel, NASA, or a "behind the scenes" look at astronaut training and mission selection.

This was such an interesting, informative, and engaging book. It was about the groundbreaking six women who answered NASA’s call for women to join their team. They were: Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. Of course, I was familiar with the history making event of Sally Ride and the heartbreaking explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger which took the lives of seven astronauts including Judy Resnik and Christa McAuliffe who was on board as the first teacher in space. However, there were four other extraordinary women who were not really household names but definitely should be. All six were role models for future female astronauts.
The author’s thorough research took her reader from the lives of these women before they even thought about becoming astronauts to their dedicated work ethics, some juggling careers and motherhood, as well phenomenal skills as astronauts.
The six was such a riveting read from beginning to end and highly recommended.

Space shuttle flights have fascinated me since the early days. I vividly recall the loss of Challenger and Columbia. Reading about the first six women was enlightening. Much is already known about Sally Ride and Judy Resnik. The four others shine through here. Shannon Lucid has become my most admired astronaut of The Six.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Starting from when when going to space was potentially discussed and why it was thought to be a bad idea (you guessed it, it's all sexist nonsense), The Six outlines the early lives of the astronauts, their fascination with space, their selection process and details their career and first launches. There is some focus on their later lives and 1986 Challenger disaster but the narrative is still on the women themselves.

I read this in a couple of sittings despite it being non-fiction. There are definitely some overlaps in the narrative as six people in parallel are discussed. The amount of research that went into this, with personal anecdotes from the astronauts' families and acquaintances definitely showed. It's also not surprising that Grush has great journalism skills, since is a space and science reporter.

The strength, hard work and resilience the six needed to have was definitely inspiring to read about. I loved learning about their early lives and how much they've always wished they could go to space. It's also always fun to get a behind the scenes on politics and launches. I will definitely recommend this to anyone interested in space or feminist history.

Some other interesting points:
- One of the reasons women started being considered for astronaut roles was because they figured if men went to space they would eventually need supporting staff like secretaries. 60s had their priorities straight.
- NASA and the media's obsession with someone being the first X to do Y: I loved how these women cared a lot more about just going to space and worried less about the titles.

Thank you so much to Scribner for the ARC of this one.

This is a riveting narrative nonfiction book that tells the story of the first class of astronauts selected by NASA that included women. In 1978, NASA accepted 35 new astronauts that included 6 women. This is the story of these women, the challenges they faced as women in scientific fields, their decision to apply to NASA, and their subsequent training and missions on the space shuttle.

You will know these women after reading this well researched, amazing story. Their personalities, strengths, work ethic, friendships, adventures, frustrations, and even their heartbreak all come through the page. I love a nonfiction page turner and that’s what this is. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

“The Six” by Loren Grush is an essay-style telling of the story found of the first six women austronauts. Grush was able to effortlessly portray all of these amazing women and show case all of their struggles. Interesting read that made me think for a long time after. My respect to those who contributed to these stories and i will definately be recommending this to my friends.