The Sisterhood, Liza Mundy
The Sisterhood, Liza Mundy
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The Sisterhood
The Secret History of Women at the CIA

Author: Liza Mundy

Narrator: Liza Mundy

Unabridged: 18 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/17/2023

Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “rip-roaring” (Steve Coll), “staggeringly well-researched” (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, “electric with revelations” (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin Laden, from the bestselling author of Code Girls

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A FOREIGN POLICY AND SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In development as a series from Lionsgate Television, executive produced by Scott Delman (Station Eleven)

Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives.

They were unlikely spies—and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda—though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.

After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound.

Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous

About The Author

Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of four books, including Code Girls. A former staff writer for The Washington Post, Mundy writes for The Atlantic, Politico, and Smithsonian, among other publications.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ed on January 19, 2024

If you've ever wondered just what lady spies and CIA agents do, this informative, clear-eyed nonfiction is a solid place to start. I learned a lot. The author uses a lot of quotes from the female subjects who paint the picture. Of course, the good-old-boy office politics play an unfortunate role in......more

Goodreads review by Sue Em on January 07, 2024

Powerful and meticulously researched history of both the CIA and the roles women have played within it from its establishment to the search post-9/11 years and the search for bin Ladin. From the "sneaker ladies" to Alec Station to targeters and clandestine officers, the roles have changed and expand......more

Goodreads review by YJ on September 04, 2024

Not only is The Sisterhood a detailed accounting of the history of how women have historically been instrumental in the formation and continued success of the CIA, it is also a helpful history on the CIA itself. As a reader with only a cursory knowledge of the CIA, I gained a solid understanding of......more

Goodreads review by Jenicca on October 28, 2023

I loved Code Girls, so I was excited when this book came out. I’m glad someone is gathering interviews and primary sources from these remarkable women, but I think it is just too soon to look back on this history with the type of definitive lens that was applied. The book felt didactic and forced. I......more

Goodreads review by Sydney on November 12, 2023

Sooooo good. So much to think about, so much I didn’t know. So cool. And yes my writer brain has kicked in… Bottom line—it’s not that women are better than men, but we bring something to the table that’s missing if we aren’t there. And these women were badasses. I’m enthralled.......more

Quotes

“Based on more than 100 interviews, published histories, academic articles, declassified documents and personal writings, The Sisterhood is a deeply researched, exhaustive read spanning seven decades of CIA history.”—Smithsonian

“Liza Mundy recognizes how rescuing stories from the past can illuminate bias and abuse, and she does so in her latest book. . . . The Sisterhood offers a different and valuable inside look at an agency that has long fascinated American culture.”—Washington Post
 
“Staggeringly well-researched . . . Mundy, who has written four other books, including the similarly sweeping Code Girls, delivers suspenseful stories of women like Heidi August, a onetime clerk who went on to spend three decades in the C.I.A. and became one of its first female station chiefs; and Lisa Manfull Harper, who worked menial jobs for a decade before being permitted to complete certification as a sleuth.”—The New York Times
 
“[This] well-written history provides remarkable insightsinto the Central Intelligence Agency’s agencies successes and failures as well as pertinent advice about how to keep American institutions strong. Mundy comes to the subject with experience and skill.”—Margaret Coker, The Current
 
“[The Sisterhood] touched me in ways I did not expect. . . . [A] deeply researched and highly readable book . . . Compelling.”—Valerie Plame, Foreign Policy

“A rip-roaring read about spycraft and the CIA’s inner workings . . . an inspiring group portrait of extraordinary CIA women whose careers are multisided profiles in courage.”—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ghost Wars

“An indispensable history, untold until now, The Sisterhood has stellar reporting, sparkling writing, and shocking revelations of power struggles inside the world’s most famous secret intelligence service.”—Tim Weiner, National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes

“A must-read for anyone interested in national security, secrets, and the CIA.”—Annie Jacobsen, bestselling author of Surprise, Kill, Vanish

“Liza Mundy is a prodigious reporter and a wonderful writer who has uncovered the stories of the female spies and analysts who helped make the CIA what it is today.”—Peter Bergen, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

“Every page is electric with revelations as Mundy vividly and perceptively portrays the remarkable women who covertly elevated this complicated, controversial, yet essential government agency.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Another winner from Mundy, who tells a story that deserves to be told about women who deserve to be remembered.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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