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Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker - a review

I picked up Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker by Stephen Galloway without any knowledge of Sheryl Lansing or what she had worked on. But here was a confident woman on the front of a book with raving reviews on Sheryl at the back (rather than the common reviews on the book itself).  My experience with reading this book was one of inspiration, when her story began to pick up. I started and put the book down at least three times, telling myself to just get through it, because even a poor story deserves the second chance opportunity, and for me it really did need that struggle through reading a few of the chapters. It really doesn't pick up until chapter 4/5 and with such long chapters it's hard to say someone will sit with the story long enough to get caught in it.  
When you understand that Sherry Lansing was struggling through all of this in a time where women didn't hold any position of power, that's when you get inspired. Sherry started off as a math teacher in the shifty parts of town who modeled and got small acting roles on the side. Next she's working as executive and producers for big name companies that are still around and thriving today. She also has a philanthropic foot in cancer research, which I wanted to hear more about, but Stephen Galloway never dived into deeply except when something interesting happened in regards to it.  
My favorite parts has been all the detailed information about the behind the scenes and changes to movies I've never heard of, but my fiancé said we're popular enough that he's seen them. (We have a seven year age gap, so her work hits home more with someone born in the 80's than someone born in the 90's) I'm not sure how her name recognition will work with the movies she's worked on with the newer generation, especially since she was against all the sci-fi computer generated things.  
I think this book succeeded in it's mission to inform about Sherry Lansing succeeding in a sexist environment as a woman who was reaching higher than any woman of her time would even consider reaching. It also portrays the stress and challenges of the business of making movies, which shows just how much harder Sherry had to work.  
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. 
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