Oct. 12, 2026 – Code Girls: the Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II (2017) by Liza Mundy is riveting.

Code Girls is a fascinating book about thousands of female college math students who were recruited to be code breakers during World War II. The Army and Navy hired the girls to focus on breaking Japanese naval codes. British intelligence at Bletchley Park outside of London worked on decoding the German Enigma machine although some Code Girls did work on it. Based in Washington D.C., the female cryptographers told their families they were doing secretarial work. Sadly, when their jobs were eliminated after the war, many women who wanted to continue in cryptography tragically could not find jobs. Their post WWII experience was similar to the WASP who were disbanded in December 1944 and could no longer fly military planes. Years after the war, many Code Girls were still hesitant to talk about their work because of confidentiality agreements they had signed.