Review: Women Heroes -- A Must Read

Today I'm reviewing a book that left me choked with awe, sadness, admiration, and gratitude. I urge you to read Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue by Kathryn J. Atwood.

About The Book

The stories of these women who stood up for right against tyranny are organized by country. Young girls, teenagers, and women risked their lives to fight the Nazis in World War II. In everything they did, they knew that their lives were forfeit, but that didn't deter them.

This book is written in such simple language, explaining the historical aspects of World War II -- what country did what and why -- that it's completely accessible for younger readers. Simply and concisely, Kathryn J. Atwood, the author, lays the groundwork for the stories she tells. These are stories that aren't familiar to most, and they are each amazing from the woman radio operator who parachuted into occupied France and transferred crucial messages, the Dutch housewife who hid Jews in her home and was repeatedly interrogated by the Gestapo, a German teenage university student who helped publish an underground newspaper that decried the immoral, heinous acts against humanity.

Move Over Charlie's Angels

These women did it all: sabotage, weapons transport, and assassinations. They lived with danger every moment of their lives. These girls and women should be praised, memorialized, and honored. They should be held up as icons -- role models for girls today. They were bigger action heroes than the fake Charlie's Angels, Lara Croft, or any of the TV and movie female action heroes which are the female heroes most women look to for examples of bravery. The women in this book were real. They lived. They loved. They gave everything in the name of freedom.

Women Heroes is well-researched and includes photographs and a bibliography of relevant books, websites, and films. It is available in a Kindle Edition for $8.77 and a Hardcover Edition for only $13.57.

Takeaway Truth

Gratitude is a feeling or attitude of appreciation or gratefulness in acknowledgment of a benefit received. In this season of Thanksgiving, I am humbled by the sacrifice and bravery of these women, and I am grateful for the benefit received -- freedom.