25 untold stories Archives

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

by Liza Mundy

This is the story of the American female code breakers whose vital work helped win World War II, but whose work has gone unsung for decades. 10,000 American women served the U.S. Army and Navy as cryptanalysists; their call to action came in the form of a letter that asked them two short questions: did they like crossword puzzles, and were they engaged to be married? A fascinating, thoroughly researched, and well-told true account.

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History

by Nathalia Holt

Who are the animators behind our favorite classic Disney movies? Often, the artists and animators receive little recognition compared to the writers and voice actors. Holt shares stories from interviews and Disney archives to put an influential group of women in the spotlight. These women created stunning artwork and utilized brand new technology in order to create the stories we know and love, all while facing sexist harassment and abuse. Connecting these women to present day achievements in animated filmmaking, this book is a must-read for Disney fans or film history buffs. Reviews say that the audiobook version is excellent, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

by David Grann

This is Grann's all-too-real account of the Reign of Terror, the time between 1920 and 1924 when a shocking number of Osage Indians were murdered for their oil money. J. Edgar Hoover's relatively new FBI was brought in to solve the murders, and the investigation shaped the way that organization functions even today. Rumor has it that Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are developing the movie adaptation.

Broad Band: The Untold Story of Women Who Made the Internet

by Claire L. Evans

The founders of huge tech companies like Google, Facebook, or Apple often come to mind when we think of the people behind today's internet, but we owe much of our online technological achievements to women who rarely get credit for their contributions. Going all the way back to Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter and an incredible mathematician, and up through WWII and the 1980's, Evans share stories of the female pioneers who broke conventions to be "database poets, information-wranglers, hypertext dreamers, and glass ceiling-shattering dot com-era entrepreneurs."

The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight

by Martha Ackmann

The relatively unknown story of thirteen women who underwent astronaut training at the legendary Lovelace Foundation, though they never had the opportunity to journey into space with their male counterparts, widely known as the the Mercury 7. The women underwent the same tests and rigorous programming, sometimes with higher scores than their male colleagues. Though never recognized, these women women nevertheless went on to do great things in a wide variety of fields.

The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor

by Jake Tapper

In 2009, 53 U.S. troops battled 400 Taliban fighters in what was one of the deadliest battles of the war in Afghanistan. Stationed at Combat Outpost Keating in the valley of three mountains, the American soldiers were completely vulnerable to attack. A Pentagon investigation later revealed that they never should have been placed in such a dangerous position. With expert investigative reporting, Jake Tapper follows the troops from 2006 when they were first stationed at the outpost to 2009 when the battle was heroically, but desperately fought. He highlights two soldiers who were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions. This is a heartbreaking read that focuses on one small piece of the war in Afghanistan but illuminates a larger picture of deadly mistakes and mismanagement.

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick

by Mallory O'Meara

From the publisher: "A true-life detective story and a celebration of a forgotten feminist trailblazer, Mallory O’Meara's The Lady from the Black Lagoon establishes Patrick in her rightful place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little has changed since."

Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art

by Mary Gabriel

I've been slowly working my way through this 900 page tome for the last few years. It's fascinating—I've just been picking up other nonfiction reads in between chapters. You don't have to be an art expert to appreciate the way Gabriel weaves the stories of five groundbreaking women artists into a powerful narrative. At a time when women were mainly muses or collectors in the art scene, these artists entered the male-dominated world of abstract art and opened the art world to a new generation of women. Gabriel connects their stories to the larger cultural shifts of post-war America and shares inspiring accounts of what happens when you're brave enough to break all the rules.

The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in WWII

by Svetlana Alexievich

Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich shares stories of women's experiences in WWII "on the front lines, on the home front, and in occupied territories" in this oral history. A powerful collection of untold true stories of sacrifice, patriotism, and danger. Sensitive readers take note: these accounts include gruesome war stories and violence in detail. This would make an excellent pairing with Kate Quinn's The Alice Network or The Huntress.

Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires

by Shomari Wills

Shomari Wills shares the stories of six Black millionaires who made their fortunes prior to the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. One woman put her Gold Rush money behind abolitionist causes. Another built and empire in Harlem with money from her lover. Savvy and inventive, a Mississippi schoolteacher developed land in Tulsa, OK that eventually came to be known as "Black Wall Street." With straightforward storytelling, Wills shares the triumphs and the trials of America's first Black millionaires, offering a glimpse at unforgettable, but overlooked, titans.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

by Candice Millard

I took it as my reading sign when Suzanne picked this narrative nonfiction book on WSIRN episode 242, describing it as "gripping." Millard weaves together three strands—politics, medicine, and technology to tell the story of James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, who only served 200 days because he was shot and eventually died. The world of the late 1800s was just starting to understand germs and antiseptic and washing, but the whole country was lying in absolute agony for months while people were wondering, can we save him? Historic cameo: Alexander Graham Bell, who you'll remember as inventor of the telephone, plays a part as he worked around the clock, desperate to invent a device to find the bullet without injuring the president further.

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

When George Washington moved to Philadelphia to serve as President, he brought nine enslaved people with him from Mount Vernon. At the time, Pennsylvania stated that after six months of residency, all enslaved people must be set free. Rather than comply, Washington sent his household down to the south every six months, just when freedom was within grasp. Ona Judge couldn't ignore the taste of freedom she had in Pennsylvania, so one day, she escaped to New England. Washington used all of this resources for a manhunt to capture Ona Judge and return her as his property. A well-researched account of a woman who risked everything for freedom.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster

by Adam Higginbotham

An in-depth account of the devastating Chernobyl disaster, and its reverberating effects. Higginbotham combines piles of research with interviews and firsthand accounts in this compulsively readable report. Starting at the beginning, in the nuclear power plant control room, the reader follows the tragedy from early mistakes, to government lies, to worldwide disaster response. The political, social, and scientific implications of this event are fascinating and terrifying. This is a must-read for any history-lover or nonfiction fan.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War

by Karen Abbott

I recommended this one in WSIRN Episode 20: Southern classics, sweeping sagas, and spunky women with Sarah Russell Giglio. Abbott brings four little-known stories to life—four women who were spies in the Civil War. Confederate spy Belle Boyd used her southern charms to seduce men into telling their secrets. Emma Edmonds went undercover as a male enlisted soldier. Rose O’Neale Greenhow used her connections and status as a prominent widow to gather intelligence, and abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew covered an entire espionage ring, tricking rebel soldiers with her proper manners. Well-known characters enter the narrative, like Walt Whitman, Pinkerton, and the Lincolns as Abbott takes you inside the war and undercover with these incredibly bold women.

D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II

by Sarah Rose

Three women: a young mother, an aristocrat, and a resistance organizer work behind the scenes in order to set up a successful D-Day invasion. Among thirty-nine other recruited spies, part of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), these women planned careful attacks on the enemy, gathered essential intelligence, and played an important role in WWII. A testament to the power of female leadership and willpower, this well-research account is inspiring and educational.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

by Phillip Hoose

Months before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat, a young teenager named Claudette Colvin did the very same thing—but her story is not well-known or celebrated. On March 2, 1955, Colvin, fed up with a system that placed daily injustices in her path, fought to keep her seat. However, young and pregnant Colvin was shunned and overlooked. Her story didn't end there. One year later, she served as a key plaintiff in Browder vs. Gayle and helped to strike down segregation laws. Combining interviews with Colvin herself and detailed historical research, Hoose gives Colvin much-deserved credit for her important role in shaping history. This award-winning middle grade book is not just for young readers. It's an excellent account of Colvin's story and the Civil Rights Movement.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Simon Winchester

The OED project began in 1857, and took 70 years to complete, even with the help of thousands of contributors. One of the most prolific contributors, submitting nearly ten thousand entries over the course of 20 years, was Dr. William Chester Minor, an American Civil War veteran from Connecticut, who turned out to be an inmate at one of Britain’s harshest insane asylums. A fascinating and mysterious true story. The audio edition is fantastic. This is the audiobook that got me hooked on audiobooks.

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

by Sonia Purnell

"She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The spy in question? Virginia Hall, an American socialite and secret operative for the Allies. She worked her way onto Churchill’s exclusive “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” and completed missions behind enemy lines, as a woman - with a prosthetic leg. She set up spy networks, escaped death more than once, and saved countless lives. This extraordinary account of her exploits is a must-read for fans of The Alice Network.

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II

by Elizabeth Wein

From the author of Code Name Verity, a middle grade nonfiction account of women flying combat planes in WWII. Led by Marina Raskova, three Soviet regiments allowed female pilots to enter combat. Known as "the night witches," these women, many of them young teens, deployed as pilots, mechanics, and navigators. They faced the harsh conditions of war and played a pivotal role in their country's war efforts. My daughter read this and enjoyed learning about this lesser-known part of history.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

by Margot Lee Shetterly

The true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. The women in Hidden Figures were employed as calculators at NASA during the Space Race era. These women were segregated from their white counterparts and were the object of ruthless discrimination, despite their important work calculating flight paths for space missions. They ultimately worked their way up to highly influential positions in science, physics, mathematics, and technology; this book highlights their triumphs and the struggles that came first. Shetterly touches on the culture of the United States at this time relating to the Space Race, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and the women's' rights movement.

The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-boats

by William Geroux

My husband loved this book. During WWII, merchant ships carrying important supplies became prime targets for German U-boat attacks. The captains of these merchant ships faced harsh conditions at sea and wartime dangers with bravery and skill. Eisenhower said, "there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine." Among those deserving more credit were seven brothers from Matthews, County VA fought those dangers down the United States coast. This is their untold story of heroism and of the community who supported them.

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

by M.T. Anderson

I haven't read this, but my son really enjoyed it. I picked it up at Square Books in Oxford; when I described my son's reading preferences they instantly reached for this book. This is the true story of how the Leningrad Symphony played a surprising role on the path to allied victory. From 1941-1944, Hitler's Wermacht surrounded Leningrad, laying siege to the city and preventing supplies from getting in or out. Those three years saw utter destruction, over a million deaths, and horrifying poverty. Trapped yet inspired by his countrymen, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the Leningrad Symphony. Audiobook listeners: this one includes snippets of the music as you listen, providing a layered experience.

The Radium Girls

by Kate Moore

This RUSA Notable Book (Nonfiction) tells the story of more than two dozen women who made their living painting luminous watch faces in the early twentieth century. Many were charmed by the "shining substance"—radium—that gave the watch its glow, but as we now know, radium is deadly. Moore uncovers what happened next. This is a story with heroes and villains, and can be hard to read (because the truth of history is sometimes painful), but it's a good story, well told.

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

by Ben Macintyre

Russian agent Oleg Gordievsky came from KGB parents and attended the best Soviet institutions in the country, but he turned against his country and became a double agent. Partnering with British intelligence, Gordievsky exposed agents, disrupted plots, and helped the West against the KBG for a decade. Macintyre's account of his exploits covers everything from tensions and gamesmanship between MI6 and the CIA to a harrowing escape from a Moscow. For fans of The Americans TV show or The Secrets We Kept by Laura Prescott.

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown

by Julia Scheeres

Traci Thomas of The Stacks Podcast</a> recommended this book on Episode 162 and Episode 212 of What Should I Read Next. Traci knows her nonfiction and says that this book is an excellent account of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. A charismatic preacher, Jones drew people into his congregation with sermons on social justice. When his sermons grew darker, and his behavior more unpredictable, it got harder and harder for people to leave his community. When the U.S. government got involved, it was far too late. Julia Scheeres' haunting account focuses on the people who lived in Jonestown, based on declassified FBI documents, interviews, and rare video footage.

25 untold stories

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