
Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of five books, including CODE GIRLS, and her latest, THE SISTERHOOD. Published in 2017, CODE GIRLS tells the story of more than 10,000 female code breakers recruited during World War II to perform work that saved countless lives, shortened a global war, and pioneered the modern computer and cybersecurity industries. Available October 2023, THE SISTERHOOD is a gripping history of women in the CIA across three generations--beginning with unlikely female spies who served in the war and its aftermath, through to the women who tracked down Osama Bin Laden. Her other titles include MICHELLE: A BIOGRAPHY; THE RICHER SEX; and EVERYTHING CONCEIVABLE. In addition to her work as a narrative non-fiction author, Liza, a former staff writer for The Washington Post, writes about history, culture, and politics for publications such as The Atlantic and Politico. At various points in her life as a working parent she has worked full-time, part-time, all-night, at home, in the office, remotely, in person, on trains, in the car, alone, in crowds, under duress, and while simultaneously making dinner.
by Liza Mundy
Rating: 4.1 ⭐
• 2 recommendations ❤️
NATIONAL BESTSELLER"Prodigiously researched and engrossing."---New York Times Book Review "Fascinating.... Addictively readable."---Boston Globe "Code Girls reveals a hidden army of female cryptographers, whose work played a crucial role in ending World War II.... Mundy has rescued a piece of forgotten history, and given these American heroes the recognition they deserve."---Nathalia Holt, bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket GirlsRecruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.
A thrilling and monumental new history of the CIA that reveals how women have always played crucial, often unacknowledged roles in American spycraft, a hidden “sisterhood” of spies, analysts, operatives, and manhunters who, over a half-century, kept the free world safe and, more than once, saved it—from the New York Times bestselling author of Code GirlsUpon its creation in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency instantly became one of the most important spy services in the world. Like every male-dominated workplace in Eisenhower America, the growing intelligence agency needed women to type memos, send messages, manipulate expense accounts, and keep secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—these clerks and secretaries rose to become some of the shrewdest, toughest operatives the agency employed. Because women were seen as unimportant, they moved unnoticed on the streets of Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets under the noses of the KGB. Back at headquarters, they built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer.These women also battled institutional stereotyping and beat it. Men argued they alone could run spy rings. But the women proved they could be spymasters, too. During the Cold War, women made critical contributions to U.S. intelligence, sometimes as officers, sometimes as unpaid spouses, working together as their numbers grew. The women also made unique sacrifices, giving up marriage, children, even their own lives.They noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. In the final years of the twentieth century, it was a close-knit network of female CIA analysts who warned about the rising threat of Al Qaeda. After the 9/11 attacks, women rushed to join the fight as a new job, “targeter,” came to prominence. They showed that painstaking data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful efforts to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden and, later, Ayman al-Zawahiri.With the same meticulous reporting and storytelling verve that she brought to her New York Times bestseller Code Girls, Liza Mundy has written an indispensable and sweeping history that reveals how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age.
She can be funny and sharp-tongued, warm and blunt, empathic and demanding. Who is the woman Barack Obama calls "the boss"? In Michelle, Washington Post writer Liza Mundy paints a revealing and intimate portrait, taking us inside the marriage of the most dynamic couple in politics today. She shows how well they complement each other: Michelle, the highly organized, sometimes intimidating, list-making pragmatist; Barack, the introspective political charmer who won't pick up his socks but shoots for the stars. Their relationship, like those of many couples with two careers and two children, has been so strained at times that he has had to persuade her to support his climb up the political ladder. And you can't blame her for occasionally regretting it: In this campaign, it is Michelle who has absorbed much of the skepticism from voters about Obama. One conservative magazine put her on the cover under the headline "Mrs. Grievance."Michelle's story carries with it all the extraordinary achievements and lingering pain of America in the post-civil rights era. She grew up on the south side of Chicago, the daughter of a city worker and a stay-at-home mom in a neighborhood rocked by white flight. She was admitted to Princeton amid an angry debate about affirmative action and went on to Harvard Law School, where she was more comfortable doing pro-bono work for the poor than gunning for awards with the rest of her peers. She became a corporate lawyer, then left to train community leaders. She is modern in her tastes but likes to watch reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Brady Bunch.In this carefully reported biography, drawing upon interviews with more than one hundred people, including one with Michelle herself, Mundy captures the complexity of this remarkable woman and the remarkable life she has lived.
by Liza Mundy
Rating: 3.5 ⭐
A revolution is under way.Within a generation, more households will be supported by women than by men. In The Richer Sex , Liza Mundy takes us to the exciting frontier of this new economic she shows us why this flip is inevitable, what painful adjustments will have to be made along the way, and how both men and women will feel surprisingly liberated in the end.The bestselling author and Washington Post writer goes deep inside the lives of the couples on this cutting edge to paint of picture of how dating, marriage, and home life are changing. How does this new generation of breadwomen navigate paying for a night on the town? In whose interest is it to delay commitment? Are men for the first time thinking of marriage the way women used to—as a bet on the economic potential of a spouse? In this new world of men marrying up, are women learning to value new realms of male endeavor—like parenting, protection, and a margarita at the ready?The future is here, with couples today debating who must assume the responsibility of primary earner and who gets the freedom of being the slow track partner. With more men choosing to stay home, Mundy shows how that lifestyle has achieved a higher status and all the ways males have found to recover their masculinity. And the revolution is Mundy takes us from Japan to Denmark to show how both sexes are adapting as the marriage market has turned into a giant free-for-all, with men and women at different stages of this transformation finding partners in other countries who match their expectations.The Richer Sex is a wild ride into the future, grounded in Mundy’s peerless journalism, and bound to cause women and men of all generations to rethink what this social upheaval will mean.
Award-winning journalist Liza Mundy captures the human narratives, as well as the science, behind the controversial, multibillion-dollar fertility industry, and examines how this huge social experiment is transforming our most basic relationships and even our destiny as a species.Skyrocketing infertility rates and dizzying technological advances are revolutionizing American families and changing the way we think about parenthood, childbirth, and life itself. Using in-depth reporting and riveting anecdotal material from doctors, families, surrogates, sperm and egg donors, infertile men and women, single and gay and lesbian parents, and children conceived through technology, Mundy explores the impact of assisted reproduction on individuals as well as the ethical issues raised and the potentially vast social consequences. The unforgettable personal stories in Everything Conceivable run the gamut from joyous to tragic; all of them raise questions we dare not ignore.From the Trade Paperback edition.
by Liza Mundy
Criada após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a Agência Central de Inteligência (CIA) contou com as mulheres, mesmo enquanto tentava limitar seus talentos. Elas enviavam comunicações secretas, realizavam operações discretas e mantinham os segredos da agência. Apesar da discriminação – e até por causa dela – mulheres que começaram como escriturárias, secretárias ou esposas não remuneradas, ascenderam para se tornar algumas das agentes mais astutas da CIA. Elas eram espiãs improváveis – e isso as tornava perfeitas para o trabalho. Vistas como pouco importantes, as pioneiras da inteligência feminina se moviam despercebidas por Bonn, Genebra e Moscou, roubando segredos sob o nariz de seus adversários da KGB. Nos quartéis-generais, as mulheres construíam os arquivos críticos da CIA – primeiro manualmente, depois por computador – e percebiam coisas que os homens não viam. Quando a CIA enfrentou uma crise de identidade após a Guerra Fria, foi uma rede de analistas femininas que identificou a ameaça crescente da al-Qaeda – embora seus alertas fossem repetidamente ignorados. Após os ataques de 11 de setembro, mais mulheres se juntaram à agência quando uma nova função, a de targeter, ganhou destaque. Elas mostraram que a análise de dados seria crucial para o cenário de segurança nacional pós 11 de setembro – um esforço que culminou, de forma espetacular, com o sucesso da CIA em localizar Bin Laden em seu esconderijo no Paquistão. Impulsionado pelo mesmo rigor investigativo e narrativa vívida que deram vida a Code Girls, A história das espiãs da CIA oferece uma nova perspectiva sobre a história, revelando como as mulheres na CIA abriram caminho para a era moderna da inteligência – e como o seu silenciamento tornou o mundo mais perigoso.
by Liza Mundy
Michelle Obama har sin egen måde at sige tingene på så man tror, man kan alting. Humor, personlig stil, varme, hun kan være stærk og sej og alligevel ikke virke negativ. Hun har timing. Hun kan sende en et blik, så man bliver nødt til at le. Lydbogen fortæller om en moderne, selvstændig og veltalende kvinde. En kvinde, som efter sigende har været udslagsgivende for Barack Obamas historiske sejr, men også en kvinde, der har udtalt sig skarpt og kontroversielt om ømtålelige USA's internationale omdømme, ligestilling mellem kønnene og ikke mindst landets lange og smertefulde historie om race og diskrimination.Please This audiobook is in Danish
by Liza Mundy
Criada após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a Agência Central de Inteligência (CIA) contou com as mulheres, mesmo enquanto tentava limitar seus talentos. Elas enviavam comunicações secretas, realizavam operações discretas e mantinham os segredos da agência. Apesar da discriminação – e até por causa dela – mulheres que começaram como escriturárias, secretárias ou esposas não remuneradas, ascenderam para se tornar algumas das agentes mais astutas da CIA. Elas eram espiãs improváveis – e isso as tornava perfeitas para o trabalho. Vistas como pouco importantes, as pioneiras da inteligência feminina se moviam despercebidas por Bonn, Genebra e Moscou, roubando segredos sob o nariz de seus adversários da KGB. Nos quartéis-generais, as mulheres construíam os arquivos críticos da CIA – primeiro manualmente, depois por computador – e percebiam coisas que os homens não viam. Quando a CIA enfrentou uma crise de identidade após a Guerra Fria, foi uma rede de analistas femininas que identificou a ameaça crescente da al-Qaeda – embora seus alertas fossem repetidamente ignorados. Após os ataques de 11 de setembro, mais mulheres se juntaram à agência quando uma nova função, a de targeter, ganhou destaque. Elas mostraram que a análise de dados seria crucial para o cenário de segurança nacional pós 11 de setembro – um esforço que culminou, de forma espetacular, com o sucesso da CIA em localizar Bin Laden em seu esconderijo no Paquistão. Impulsionado pelo mesmo rigor investigativo e narrativa vívida que deram vida a Code Girls, A história das espiãs da CIA oferece uma nova perspectiva sobre a história, revelando como as mulheres na CIA abriram caminho para a era moderna da inteligência – e como o seu silenciamento tornou o mundo mais perigoso.
by Liza Mundy