The Woman Who Smashed Codes

Author: Jason Fagone
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2018
Pages: 464
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizabeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the US government, and he soon asked Elizabeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the "Adam and Eve" of the NSA, Elizabeth's story, a vital piece of women's history, incredibly has never been told.

In The Women Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation's espionage history for forty years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a convert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizabeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an Army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma - and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life. 

Review: I learned a lot reading this novel - about espionage, counter intelligence, and about a couple integral to American History, but of whom I had never heard. The author did a great job explaining a technical topic in a way that was accessible to a novice, and he kept it interesting.

The Lumbar Baron's Wife

Author: Lynn Austin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, 2026
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: After a devastating loss, Hannah Wagner never imagined she'd leave her comfortable home for the harsh, unfamiliar wilderness near Lake Michigan. But when Henry Abernathy, a friend of her husband, John - offers them a fresh start in a booming lumbar town, where John's skills as a doctor are sorely needed, Hannah reluctantly agrees.

Review: This was such good historical fiction. Sometimes I struggle with dual-timeline novels, but some authors have a talent for weaving the past and present and various characters together. Kate, Hannah, and Ashley spoke to me. What a novel.

Heart Life Music

Author: Kenny Chesney and Holly Gleason
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2025
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Heart Life Music shares the stories of a kid from small town East Tennessee with a dream fueled by sports and music around him. When high school football came to an end, he knew there must be something more. In college, Kenny Chesney found himself on a bar stool with a guitar and an unexpected connection between people, life, and songs. His heart caught fire. With Nashville's vibrant creative scene, characters, legends, and places now long gone from the city he encountered in those early days, Chesney explores the quest to find himself as an artist and a man, as well as a sense of home anywhere there's an ocean. These are the stories of the unlikely game changer who became the sound of coming of age in the 21st century, made friends with his heroes, rocked stadiums, and founded a No Shoes Nation.

Review: I flew through this memoir. Kenny comes off as a normal, likeable guy. His "normal" changes after he becomes famous, but how could it not? I really liked his older music (in the 1990s) and have a lot of great memories tied to this songs.