The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So interesting to learn about the originally "secret" new little town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee--which was thrown up by scratch almost overnight during WWII, becoming a city of over 75,000 residents. All of whom were--in one way or another--working on a secret project to hopefully bring about the end of WWII more quickly. And most of the people working at Oak Ridge--at the Clinton Engineering Works (CEW)--many of whom were women, had very little idea of exactly what they were working on...until the day that "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima. Yes, the first nuclear weapon used by humans against humans. Fascinating history told through the eyes of several different women who worked at CEW, as well as some historical context given at the beginning of each chapter. I found it a bit hard to follow the various women whose stories were broken up and told over a number of different chapters--with lots of other characters and info in-between the individual stories. But, overall, it was a well-written and engaging look at a historical first of many sorts. Read on my Kindle; borrowed from the library.


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