Three Enjoyable Non-Fiction Books About Daring American Women

I have been wanting to write about some recent book recommendations I have for you, and it just so happens all of them are true history stories, about American women of excellent achievements, and notable bravery.

1.) My first recommendation is the suspenseful & enthralling Larry Loftis book, The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War ll Spy Aline Griffith. I absolutely adored this story about a  beautiful young lady from a charming, protective, old fashioned small town. Looking for work, Aline becomes a model in NYC for the very famous fashion designer Hattie Carnegie. In this new fashion industry lifestyle, Aline becomes refined in her manners, social skills, and style. This later comes into play in for the rest of her life.

When her two brothers go off to fight in WWll, she was disheartened because she wished she too, could do meaningful work in the war for the United States. She felt modeling was silly during a war, and revealed that thought to a unique gentleman at a dinner party. This man saw the great potential Aline had, and before long a series of mysterious events led her to becoming a decoder and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) spy in Spain.

Aline’s life becomes exceptionally interesting, even eventually becoming a Countess, and a very close friend to Audrey Hepburn, the Duchess of Windsor, and a fashion icon who Balenciaga himself liked to dress. I would have to say this is one of my favorite books I have read in the last year, as it was full of glamour, spy adventure, and danger, with a touch of fashion.

2.) Keeping with the WWll theme, my next recommendation is also a page turner, and a New York Times bestseller, by Sonia Purnell; A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. Virginia Hall was quite beautiful, and it was thought, by her mother, that she should marry well, and live a comfortable, quiet life. But Virginia had an innate desire to be incredibly adventurous, to fight with every ounce of her being against tyranny of the Nazis, and as it turned out, she felt most alive when she was under exceptional danger of likely torture and death. She thrived under those circumstances (like Aline, she too worked for the OSS), and she bravely risked her life countless times to save others. Even when she would become safe from the imminent danger of the Nazis, she would find a way to sneak back into occupied France and keep working to sabotage their totalitarian efforts and assist those who were in danger, or concentration camps with escape routes.

 Early in her career, she accidentally shot her own leg, and it had to be amputated, but that didn’t stop her one bit. She utilized a wooden leg, and even escaped through the infamous Pyrenees Mountain escape route with it corset bound to her thigh. Some entire novels are just about that single topic of crossing the Pyrenees Mountain escape route, but Virginia’s life was so compact with incredible details, that the grueling journey was a smaller mention.

I loved this book because Virginia had an insatiable drive to destroy tyranny, she was unusually brave, she was humble. She wanted absolutely no acknowledgement for her heroic successes, and she didn’t care what anyone thought about her, or the restrictions put on her being a female, or a person with a disability. Virginia trusted her intuition entirely, and acted accordingly. In the end she became a hero, albeit, a lesser known hero until this book was published. This is truly and excellent read, that would appeal to a wide array of readers.

3.) The third book I would like to tell you about is, Fly Girls: How five Daring Women Defied All Odds and made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien. This book explores the golden era of flying, when air races were popular (and very dangerous) spectator events. While most of us are familiar with Amelia Earhart, one of the main characters in this book, this research goes deeper into exploring four additional women in aviation history you may have not heard about such as Florence Klingensmith, Ruth Elder, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden. All of these ladies have unique stories about becoming pilots in a time it was highly dangerous and dominated by men. As a flight attendant, I really enjoyed reading this 1920’s and 1930’s account of what these early days were like in aviation. I meet several female pilots in my work, and even today they are a bit rare. I think it is an excellent career for women, however. This book may just inspire more ladies to become pilots, as it was an inspiring and interesting read.

I hope you will enjoy these reccomendations in light of it being “woman’s history month”. Please comment below if you end up reading any of these, or if you have another non-fiction book you like about a woman in history. I am always looking for new books to read.