Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini

 I enjoyed this historical fiction about women who served as essential telephone switchboard operators in France during World War 1. These women endured harsh and dangerous living conditions so they could ensure that vital communications between all the military units and their leadership enabled successful military operations. Fiction and fact weave in a balanced narrative that provides yet another perspective on a historic World War

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

 "Words have power". In this historical fiction, the main characters operate within the World War 2 Resistance movement taking place in France and Portugal. One character is part of a group in Lyon printing and distributing facts about the horrific German War Machine. Another character represents the efforts of a group of librarians recruited to obtain "intel" on the enemy. These individuals traveled to Lisbon to gather and copy information from a variety of foreign publications. Connections to other characters within the Resistance Movement reveals the horrible consequences to these brave individuals who endured constant fear, discovery and capture by the Nazis, and if rounded up, horrific torture and often execution. While many novels about wars focus on the horrendous experiences of soldiers or in the instance of World War 2 the tragic victims of the Holocaust, it is essential to also understand how civilians away from the battlefields confront the pervasive consequences of wars. This novel provides an affecting perspective.