an excellent slice of WWII history.

Women's roles in wars throughout history has always been an interest of mine. I love reading about women who did their part, stepping up like a man to fight (in their own ways) for their countries. I'm inspired, and continue to be inspired by women who are fighting (literally) today. That being said, I absolutely loved Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II.

In 1943, thousands of young women were recruited by the U.S. government to serve the top-secret Manhattan Project. Project organizers determined that the ideal workers would be young high school girls, especially those from rural backgrounds, because “they did what they were told” and “they weren’t overly curious.” Kiernan tells the never-before-told story of the Manhattan Project through the experiences of several of the women who lived and worked at Oak Ridge. She tells of how they were recruited, what they did at the reservation, and what happened to them afterwards. It wasn't until after Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the people at Oak Ridge learned they had been building the atomic bomb.

Holy crap this was a good book.