The Girls of Atomic City: the Untold Story of the Women who Helped Win World War II

           Written by journalist Denise Kiernan, this is the story of the beginning of the atomic warfare era and the women who helped make it happen. Beginning in the 1930s, the idea of atomic energy began to develop within the international scientific community. Then with the advent of World War II and its horrific cost to human life, the United States government decided to achieve the development of atomic warfare, before the enemy did. They established several worksites to conduct this mammoth project; the largest one located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee is the one that Kiernan examines.

            Using in-depth interviews of some of the surviving workers, along with historic documents, news articles, and other sources, Kiernan describes how this project influenced such sociological trends as working women, segregation of the races, mingling of the sexes, and the rapid development of a community. This mix of history and memoir is both informative and enjoyable to read. Historic photos of the worksite accompany the text.

A Thread of Grace: a Novel

    A historical novel written by Mary Doria Russell, set in Italy between the years of 1943 and 1945, when Jews were struggling to escape the reach of Nazi Germany by traveling over the Alps into Italy. Italian citizens, intimidated by the occupying Nazi army, act kindly towards the Jews and attempt to hide them from the Nazis. This resulted in more than 43,000 Jews being saved. However, many others still were captured and killed.

    Into this setting, the author focuses on several characters, presenting their experiences: Jewish refugees, Italian freedom fighters, priests, rabbis, Nazi officers, and others. We see the hardships of war, the joys of simple everyday life, the horrors endured by prisoners and soldiers. Survival or death is dependent on the luck of the draw.

    Well-drawn characters, descriptive language and in-depth research of the culture and history make this an enjoyable albeit poignant book to read.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

     Here is a novel written entirely in personal letter format. It was co-authored by Mary Ann Schaffer, who became ill before the final editing process and her niece Annie Barrows, a children’s writer, who prepared the book for publication.

    The setting of the novel: Post World War II Guernsey Island, a part of the United Kingdom that was occupied by the Nazis during the war. The main character, writer Juliet Ashton, a straightforward and goodhearted woman in her early thirties who has had some literary success but now is searching for a new project. Her personal life is a mix of successful relationships (we read her correspondence with her close childhood friend and the friend’s older brother who also is Juliet’s publisher) and uncertainty (she is in a whirlwind courtship with an attractive but overbearing American publisher.) Then Juliet receives a letter from a Mr. Dawsey Adams, the purchaser of a book about Charles Lamb once owned by Juliet. Juliet is intrigued when she finds out that Dawsey and his friends formed a literary society during the German occupation; its original purpose was to provide relief from the restraints on their lives. Surprisingly, many of these members who never read much before now enjoyed it. In short order, several other society members begin writing to Juliet about their experiences. Juliet decides to visit these new friends and in doing so finds her life changed forever. Humor, sorrow, romance, strength in adversity, and more are all feelings that the characters, and the reader, experience in the telling of this story.