Can you penalize a secret?

Everyone has at least one secret in their life. It can be something simple, it can be something silly, it can be something that will upset someone, it can be something you were told/ordered to keep because of your job, it can be something that changes not only your life but someone else’s, or it might even change multiple lives. There are some secrets that actually should never be told, they are ones that would only cause tremendous hurt and heartache in people’s lives. So as the saying goes it is better to take it to the grave.

As time has passed us by, there are more secrets, more information coming out about what took place in World War 2 and the people who kept those secrets. A lot of women were involved in breaking codes, deciphering information and more which eventually led on to helping the Allies win the war. What these individuals went through was absolutely amazing and it is exciting to see so many books coming out about them, whether it was in the US, the UK, or elsewhere, these men and women put their lives at risk to make sure that they do their part in helping to win the war. There are countless books out now, many fiction about Codebreakers, Radar, Bletchley Park and more. They are ones that you definitely need to add to your ever expanding TBR (To be read pile). I have put a list of some of them below. They are all allowing us to see things in different ways, especially when it is proving time and time again how women were given the short end of the stick when it comes to how much knowledge they have and what they could do. For many of them they never received the true recognition, let alone the benefits and thanks they truly deserved until decades later. Which for some of them was far too late. Over the years I have worked in a predominately male job and dealt with lots of questioning looks as well as doubts I could do the job. But the one thing I did know is that I didn’t have to put it up with it the way all those ladies did back then.

These are just some of the books I have read in the past year and definitely think you should take a look at them. There are countless others out there that expand into areas that you never would have imagined from creating a library in a tube tunnel during the London Blitz to handling everything for the railroads to taking over all the land/farming done by the sons and husbands and so much more. What so many of them had to over come is just amazing and many of their stories have been sadly lost. I have posted reviews on some of them on sites such as Goodreads, BookBub and Amazon.

Codebreaker’s Secret – Sara Ackerman. Is set in 2 different time frames, 1940s in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and a woman who works with the government. 1960s on the Big Island where a journalist meets a photographer and together they can solve not only a murder but some secrets.

Radar Girls – Sara Ackerman. Another novel set in Hawaii just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Women are replacing men in many jobs including ones where they need to prove themselves over and over.

The Flight Girls – Noelle Salazar. A novel about how women became pilots in WW2 for the military delivering aircraft to various locations in the US after intense training.

The Bletchley Girls & Code Name Elodie (2 books)– Anna Stuart A 2 book series about women who worked in Bletchley Park, a place most never even heard about. Where people, especially women, from all sorts of different backgrounds came together to work out the secrets of the codes being used by the Germans. Some of which had to then put their lives on the line in order to help get an advantage in the war.

The London Girls – Soraya M Lane. Women recruited by the Royal Navy to become motorcycle dispatchers riders during World War Two. These ladies would risk life and limb in order to get special messages and classified orders to various locations throughout England.

The Little Wartime Library – Kate Thompson. Based on a historical place forgotten about, the Bethnal Green Tube Station went from an abandon project to a home, a library, a school, a beauty shop, a theater and more for thousands of people during the Blitz and then throughout the rest of World War Two. One woman along with her friend was bound and determine to make sure books were always available to read.