One of our members said she “essentially enjoyed reading it as it was historical,” that she learned some things she had no idea about, drew some parallels with the book re: Russia’s brazen attempts to annex Ukraine, with the role of Hannie and the others likened to Zelenskyy and his forcible fortitude. “However,” she said, she “would have enjoyed the book more if there had been less dry history and more about the actual heroines of the story. They seemed to be in the background while historical facts dominated the foreground.” The rest of us agreed—it’s an amazing story of three ordinary-turned-extraordinary young women joining the Resistance in WWII in the Netherlands. They learned to tote ammunitions, committed assassinations, posed as prostitutes, and one as Nazi-sympathizing nanny in an attempt to save a group of unknowing children. These women were so heroic that their names should be household words. Maybe this book will accomplish that, but during the reading, they took too much of a backseat to the developments of the war.

The Federation Book Club meets via Zoom at 4:00 PM on the first Thursdays of every month.

• February 2: The Night She Disappeared, novel by Lisa Jewell

• March 2: Horse, novel by Geraldine Brooks

• April 6: The Clockmaker’s Daughter, novel by Kate Morton