The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II

I first stumbled upon Svetlana Alexievich’s work about ten years ago, when I visited the library and randomly picked up a copy of her brilliant Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of Nuclear Disaster. Of course, Alexievich has been around much longer than that; Voices from Chernobyl was published 20 years ago, and she’s been chronicling

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

A century ago, radium was one of the most exciting wonders of modern times. Not only could it make things glow in the dark, it also had healing properties that could be used for medicinal purposes. Then America went to war, and the demand for radium products skyrocketed. In 1917, many young women from Newark,

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution

I’m giving away several books throughout March in honor of Women’s History Month. Win a copy of this book, courtesy of yours truly! Read on for more information. Marie Antoinette symbolizes many things to many people, but the things that usually stand out are “let them eat cake,” and the sky-high pouf hairstyles. Carefully cultivated from

A Train in Winter

Caroline Moorhead’s A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France tells the startling story of what would come to be known as the “31,000 Convoi,” a group of 230 non-Jewish French women from all over France who were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1942 for their roles in