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Girl's Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America's Secret Desert
Girl's Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America's Secret Desert | Karen Piper
A poignant, surreal, and fearlessly honest look at growing up on one of the most secretive weapons installations on earth, by a young woman who came of age with missiles The China Lake missile range is located in a huge stretch of the Mojave Desert, about the size of the state of Delaware. It was created during the Second World War, and has always been shrouded in secrecy. But people who make missiles and other weapons are regular working people, with domestic routines and everyday dilemmas, and four of them were Karen Piper's parents, her sister, and--when she needed summer jobs--herself. Her dad designed the Sidewinder, which was ultimately used catastrophically in Vietnam. When her mom got tired of being a stay-at-home mom, she went to work on the Tomahawk. Once, when a missile nose needed to be taken offsite for final testing, her mother loaded it into the trunk of the family car, and set off down a Los Angeles freeway. Traffic was heavy, and so she stopped off at the mall, leaving the missile in the parking lot. Piper sketches in the belief systems--from Amway's get-rich schemes to propaganda in The Rocketeer to evangelism, along with fears of a Lemurian takeover and Charles Manson--that governed their lives. Her memoir is also a search for the truth of the past and what really brought her parents to China Lake with two young daughters, a story that reaches back to her father's World War II flights with contraband across Europe. Finally, it recounts the crossroads moment in a young woman's life when she finally found a way out of a culture of secrets and fear, and out of the desert.
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review
NotCool
Pickpick

This was a well written memoir of growing up at China Lake. It was also a look into a particular American experience that I haven‘t been exposed too much, so I appreciate it. I have some questions that will probably never be answered. For example “How could two scientists be so willing to send their children to such a horrible school?”

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SW-T
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You can create life and tell stories, stories that are true.

In this age of “fake news” and “alternative facts” true stories are a valuable commodity.

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SW-T
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Mehso-so

Eh. I liked the parts about the missile base, but not so much her personal life.

#memoir

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SW-T
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So far an interesting look at growing up on a missile base.

#memoir #memoirlove #memoirs

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LectricSheep
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Mehso-so

If you liked Hidden Figures. . .
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Karen Piper grew up at China Lake, a rocket testing facility where both her father and her mother worked on the sidewinder missiles.
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This book wasn‘t my favorite— it delves into Piper‘s adult life, which I found less interesting than her descriptions of China Lake. However, it did deepen my understanding of female “computers.”
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Here‘s an excerpt published today on Nautilus: https://tinyurl.com/ybfrng69

LectricSheep Photo taken from the linked Nautilus article. Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC. 6y
69 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Christine
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Pickpick

I liked this memoir - an interesting story, artfully written. I enjoyed how she linked her personal and family history to moments in the history of American politics, war, and activism. Definitely makes me want to learn more about the China Lake weapons facility (just a few hours away from me, but I knew nothing about it before hearing the author talk about the book on Fresh Air).

52 likes2 stack adds
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ReadingEnvy
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Pickpick

A Girl's Guide to Missiles by Karen Piper is about her childhood in the Mojave Desert while her parents worked designing missiles at China Lake. It's also about civilian vs military life, fundamentalism, and how much of childhood can be held on to. Plus some funny descriptions of Eugene and Oregon weather from the perspective of someone accustomed to desert climate. I got a little bogged down in the middle but came back around.

77 likes4 stack adds
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PirateJenny
Pickpick

This was a wonderful memoir about growing up on China Lake Base and growing up in general. But it doesn't come out until August. I will remind you all then.