WISE GALS offers a fascinating glimpse into WWII-era spy craft through the often unsung female heroes who shaped modern espionage. This book features incredible, human storytelling that dovetails perfectly into broader, sweeping surveys of espionage history. Highly recommend!

I'm so very glad that Nathalia Holt has taken the time to mine the stories of the pioneering women who helped form and shape the CIA from the very beginning. What a tale it is. There are a lot of details that I wouldn't have known, but yet I wished for more details in how they operated within the CIA as well as what had happened to some of their marks. But, let's be perfectly honest here, some stories are never meant to be told and some secrets aren't meant to be shared. This was a fantastic look at how these four women were able to do what hadn't been done before, even with the odds stacked against them. Enlightening and motivating. Well done!

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the topic as well as the writing. This is the story of four of the earliest women who were part of the OSS and then the CIA. Perhaps it still is but in the early days of the late 1940’s and 50’s, spies were white males. Certainly not a profession for a woman. Yet, these four women often starting as overly qualified secretaries move up through the ranks while still being under-paid and under promoted. I found this an excellent compliment to Scott Anderson’s The Quiet Americans which reports on four of the early men in the CIA. I checked the index of Anderson’s book and none of the women appear in his book. Wise Gals not only presents the difficulties the women encountered in being accepted by the men but puts it into the times so that we can see what role they played and did so in Gary Powers being shot down over the Soviet Union in his U2, the Bay of Pigs, the fall of the Shah of Iran as just a few examples. And like the CIA men, the sacrifices they made to defend America were enormous. As a result, two of the women became alcoholics as their time in the CIA ended with mandatory retirement at 60 yrs. old. Gender does not matter, when you can-not speak to family and friends about your work and often are isolated in dangerous countries with no safety net. If one is interested in the history of intelligence in the US this is a book that certainly should be read.

Have you ever wondered about the roles women played in espionage in the post-WWII era? READ THIS. This book is composed of the thrilling stories of the women of the CIA - from before the CIA was even the CIA. These women have been overlooked by history but their stories are brought back to life here.

👍🏼👍🏼 a great non-fiction biography of the women who helped found the CIA

Starting with World War I through 2001, Nathalia Holt traces the lives of the women who were instrumental in developing our modern CIA in her newest book, Wise Gals.

Largely based on primary sources and declassified documents, each woman’s personal and professional stories are told including their brave and brazen missions as well as their struggles to receive recognition and equal treatment in a male-dominated organization.

This book stands as a tribute to the brave women who served their country with quiet honor. Our nation and their CIA are better because of their actions.

Read Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt when it comes out September 13, 2022 if you enjoy women’s history, military history, and strong female characters.

First off before presenting this review, I'd like to congratulate Nathalia Holt on providing thorough detailed in creating this book. I was impressed to learn about these four women who were part of the founding of what we know today as the CIA. History seems to always reveal new information to us over time because everyone is a walking story filled with facts about our lives.

The Wise Gals represents the stories of Eloise Page, Jane Burrell, Addy Hawkins, Liz Sudmeirer, and Mary Hutchinson, all of whom worked for the O.S.S, or known today as the CIA. These women were highly skilled and trained holding skillsets in foreign languages, cryptoanalysis, and held doctorate degrees in their field. For example Mary Hutchison held a Ph.D. in archaeology and was fluent in four languages. You can feel how much these women fought a position in the CIA.

"She wasn't going to be stuck typing letters and fetching coffee for men with less education and experience than herself."

It was astonishing to learn about the difference between the male and female employees. For example, if a woman died on their mission, they weren't given a military funeral during the earlier days of the O.S.S. (CIA).

I did have some difficult in following each of the stories particularly when there are more than one of the women being mentioned. There were moments where I had difficulty following the timeline of the book. Overall, this book is a great representation of these women and it's an honor to learn of their lives and their affect on being representing the women of the CIA.

Couldn’t finish, wasn’t my style and I did not enjoy it unfortunately. I only got about a quarter through before I had to put it down.

Wise Gals
By Nathalia Holt

When World War II ends and the Cold War begins, the US updates and modernizes the international intelligence services, creating the CIA. A group of women takes on the challenge and jumps into these roles that have never before been filled by women. Not only do the women thrive, but the CIA develops into the best intelligence gathering agency in the world.
The story of these “wise gals” is the story of women pioneering in new roles in new situations. These women became incredible advocates and showed amazing courage and persistence as they fought the agency for equal rights and pay with their male counterparts. Women like them have paved the way for so many both in the CIA and in our present world. Their advocacy continues to inspire as many women are still fighting for equality in the workforce.

The only reason I won't be recommending this title for book clubs and events, is because I buy for a high school library. We currently don't have a book club or any type of events centered around the library. If we did, I absolutely would recommend this book. So intriguing! I've always known women got the short-end of the stick when getting credit for their work, but I truly had no idea how deeply their spy work went and how much risk to their lives it entailed. Fascinating, infuriating, and a real page-turner. Loved it.

An utterly spectacular non fiction book showing how women contributed to the creation and operation of CIA, and just how many of their efforts were purposely hidden by the men there.

A very interesting view on what does on behind the scenes and how they are involved behind the scenes and the sacrifices made.

Full review on Goodreads.com
What an interesting read. So many things I did not know about the history of the CIA (and even the country at the time it was being formed) and some great information about the women who were a part of it. Really eye-opening to the sexism (and some racism here) that occurred at the time. These kinds of books are so important for people to understand the ENTIRE history of our country.

An important book for all to read. I’ve always been intrigued by books about the Cold War, the CIA, KGB, tv series like The Americans..

What an amazing reminder of women working against all odds and fighting battles still fought today. Some acknowledged for their loyalty to their country, some not at all. So many sacrifices made and personal triumphs. Some ending in tragedy.

I greatly enjoyed the honor of getting to know some of these women and to now know their names.

Add this one to your TBR list!

Wise Gals follows 5 incredible women in the early days of the CIA, as they helped to shape the agency and the US intelligence community.

Addy Hawkins, Eloise Page, Jane Wallis, Mary Hutchinson, and Elizabeth Sudmeier
fought for equality in a time, and at an agency, where men were the default choices for promotions and power.

From hunting former Nazis after WWII to Baghdad in the 50s to Cold War espionage and the emergence of global terrorist organizations, these dedicated women were instrumental in developing the US intelligence community as we know it today. And they did it, oftentimes, being compensated less than their male counterparts.

This book was fascinating and eye-opening, and while many of the details of the women’s work must be kept secret, the author does an excellent job of bringing their personalities to life.

Definitely check out this book if you like non-fiction accounts of amazing women doing incredible things (especially in historically male fields)!

as someone who has consumed a lot of reading material regarding american intelligence and early espionage, wise gals is most definitely one of my favorites and one of the better books on the subject. holt has such an incredible voice when telling the stories of these influential women--all of whom i'd never heard of before.

my complaint about this is similar to other reviews: the transitions are clunky and i would have liked to go further into the operations led by burell, hawkins, hutchison, page, and sudmeier.

i understand that this book aims to introduce the public to the history of women in the formation of the CIA and memorialize their efforts--so if it went into depth of the operations it would have muddled the focus.

i also can see how holt has tried to connect these women and their work to each other, which is why the transitions read as hasty and clunky. it's difficult to go from Hawkins in Washington to sudmeier in the middle east without losing some of the flow.

all in all, a great book if you're looking for a history of women in the CIA.

There was sexism in the early days of the CIA? I am shocked as you are.

Nathalia Holt tells the story of multiple trailblazing women in the early days of the CIA and how they tried to dispel the notion that only men could be good agents. What I really appreciate about Holt's approach to this book is that they actual fight for equal pay and access takes up very little of the narrative. Holt highlights the absurdity of the CIAs unspoken (and sometimes spoken) policies by telling short vignettes on each of the women throughout their career. This is not a treatise on equal rights. Instead, Holt lets the women's actions speak for themselves.

This book flies by. Holt does not spend a tremendous amount of time on any one woman or episode. For someone who wants a deep dive into the CIA in a particular time-frame, they will be left wanting much more. For someone like myself, who did not know much about the internal workings of the CIA, this book was a great read.

(This book was provided as an advance copy from Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam. The full review will be posted to HistoryNerdsUnited.com on August 16, 2022.)

I absolutely loved this book. I found it incredibly engaging and informative. The pace moved at a good clip, the women I learned about were fascinating, and I found myself aching for more when the book ended. I truly enjoyed learning about these women and more about our history after 1945. I've never held much interest in the Cold War Era, but I couldn't put this book down. I will definitely be buying a physical copy when it is released in September. I loved it!

Full review has been posted on my blog.

The Wise Gals has a great storyline and captivated me with its historical fiction and importance in women’s history, but it was a slow read. I enjoyed the timeframe and the story of these women, but I wasn’t as drawn into it as I was hoping. I would recommend it but I personally did not enjoy it.

While I was very excited to dive deep into the lives of the women who helped build the CIA, I was a bit let down after the anticipation. Holt is incredibly thorough and knowledgeable in her writing, but I never felt very connected to the “Wise Gals.” This wasn’t a book that kept me coming back any chance I could because I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I wanted to be. Nonetheless, this memoir is incredibly well-researched and important, especially to the family members who didn’t know of these women’s contributions until they had died. All in all, a great read for woman history buffs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Nathalia Holt is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Rise of the Rocket Girls." With "Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage," Holt once again takes us inside the complex universe of women who changed the world, in this case specifically of espionage, and yet whose roles have largely been disregarded until now.

"Wise Gals" is an impeccably researched account focused largely on four women - Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier - whose influence on the early days of what is now known as the CIA is undeniable and whose "wise gals" moniker recognizes both their quick-witted ways and their sharp intelligence that helped serve as a foundation for America's burgeoning spy program in the post-World War II years.

In the early days, Holt makes it clear that this was a world that was traditionally "male, pale, and Yale" but these were smart, courageous, and incredibly gifted women whose work continues to be essential to America's security today.

While Holt's work here is undeniably an intelligent and important work, I struggled to fully engage with "Wise Gals," a book that promises one thing but seems to deliver something else entirely. While Hawkins, Hutchison, Page, and Sudmeier are woven into the foundational tapestry of "Wise Gals," the book spends as much time or more time focused on the organizational structure and operations of the early CIA itself. At times, the notion of the "wise gals" feels like more gimmick than untold story as we learn as much, if not more, about the men in this story as we do the women whose lives we're being asked to understand and admire.

While on some level the tone in "Wise Gals" makes sense, after all these were essentially spies whose lives were never fully engaged with their peers, it became difficult after a time to remain fully invested in stories that never became fully fleshed out and to somehow connect with these women whose exploits never quite feel as larger than life as one might expect from a story like this one.

We're told, repeatedly, that each of these wise gals struggles against the male-dominated culture in terms of professional advancement, salaries, and opportunities. Yet, simultaneously, we're asked to embrace that these women "changed the future of espionage" in ways that never really come to life here but at least start to gain some tangible expression toward the book's end.

This doesn't mean I didn't like "Wise Gals." In fact, I did. I simply never felt truly immersed in it and I found it rather easy to put down. I was never tempted to give up on the book, though I found "Wise Gals" an easy took book to put down for the night not because I needed to let the material soak in but really because the material itself never completely grabbed me and made me pay attention.

As a comparison, I might use "Hidden Figures," a book that became a motion picture bringing to life women who were essential in the growth of NASA yet whose efforts were largely unrecognized for many years. "Hidden Figures" brought these women's lives to life in a myriad of ways and it was easy to connect with who they were and what they'd accomplished. By the end of "Wise Gals," I didn't feel like I knew these "wise gals" and I'm not sure I fully understand the accomplishments that each one had fully offered during their service. Sure, I understood that they were accomplished women working in male-dominated fields but if we're being honest that was pretty much true across the board in the 50's and 60's.

I think it's fair to say that I went into "Wise Gals" with unrealistic expectations for a tale of intrigue, suspense, and political insight. No, I wasn't expecting a female 007 to come alive within these pages but I was expecting to gain some sense of what it truly meant to be an American female spy domestically and abroad in the early days of the CIA. Instead, I feel like I got the fairly familiar tale of male-dominated culture that we've read and heard a zillion times before because we already know it was true. Yes, the aspect of it occurring with the CIA adds some intrigue to it but anyone who has ever worked within the government, as I do, knows that it's often the last system to effect cultural change.

I guess it comes down to the simple fact that I expected more from "Wise Gals" than I got. Instead of getting "the spies who built the CIA and changed the future of espionage," more often than not I got "the spies who tried really hard to get promoted but mostly didn't because of those "male, pale, and Yale" fellows except for the occasional one who believed in me and so I was able to accomplish way more than anyone else expected."

There's a difference there.

For those into American history, behind-the-scenes political tales, and tales of influential women, however, "Wise Gals" likely offers enough to give it at least a modest recommendation. While it didn't fully work for me, the research alone here is remarkable and these women do, indeed, have stories that deserve to be told even if I can't help but wish Holt had done a more effective job of telling them.