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During the Second World War more than ten thousand American women, many of them schoolteachers, were secretly recruited to break enemy codes in Washington. They swore never to talk about it, and most never did, until Liza Mundy found some of them and told them their oath of secrecy no longer applied. Her next book followed women in the CIA across three generations, from wartime spies to the analysts who tracked down Osama bin Laden. This guide covers all five of her books in order, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 books · Narrative history · 2007–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Liza Mundy has published five books: Everything Conceivable (2007), on assisted reproduction; Michelle (2008), a biography of Michelle Obama; The Richer Sex (2012), on women's rising earnings; Code Girls (2017), about the women code breakers of the Second World War; and The Sisterhood (2023), about women at the CIA. The last two are her narrative histories, and Code Girls is where most readers start.
Where to Start with Liza Mundy
If you want the famous one
→ Code Girls (2017).
If you want the most recent
→ The Sisterhood (2023).
If you want something contemporary
→ The Richer Sex (2012).
All 5 Liza Mundy Books, in Order
Everything Conceivable
How fertility treatment, egg and sperm donation and surrogacy were reshaping families, told through the people living with it. It received the Science in Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers.
Michelle
A biography of Michelle Obama, written during the 2008 presidential campaign, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to the campaign trail. It was a New York Times bestseller and was translated into sixteen languages.
The Richer Sex
An exploration of what happens to marriage, dating and family life as more women out-earn their partners. The Washington Post named it one of the top nonfiction books of 2012.
Code Girls
More than ten thousand women recruited by the US Army and Navy worked in two makeshift code-breaking centres in Washington and Arlington, cracking German and Japanese codes and helping to shorten the war. Bound by secrecy, they were almost written out of history. It was a New York Times bestseller.
The Sisterhood
Three generations of women at the CIA, from the spies of the Second World War and its aftermath to the women who helped track down Osama bin Laden, and the barriers they faced inside the agency. It is being developed as a television series.
How Many Books Did Liza Mundy Write?
Five books between 2007 and 2023.
- Narrative history — Code Girls (2017) and The Sisterhood (2023). Read the entries →
- Contemporary nonfiction — Everything Conceivable (2007) and The Richer Sex (2012). Read the entries →
- Biography — Michelle (2008). Read the entries →
In What Order to Read Liza Mundy
Her books are not a series, but Code Girls and The Sisterhood read as a pair: both are about women in American intelligence, and the second picks up roughly where the first ends.
A reading path
1. Code Girls (2017)
2. The Sisterhood (2023)
3. The Richer Sex (2012)
Quick facts about Liza Mundy
- Grew up
- Roanoke, Virginia
- Education
- Princeton University; MA in English literature, University of Virginia
- Career
- Longtime staff writer at The Washington Post
- Writes for
- The Atlantic, Politico
- Lives
- Arlington, Virginia, about a mile from Arlington Hall, where the Army's code breakers worked
- Books
- 5, from 2007 to 2023
How Liza Mundy Writes: Recovering Hidden Women
Mundy's histories set out to recover women whose work was secret or overlooked. For Code Girls she combined declassified records with interviews with surviving code breakers, some of whom had never told their families what they did in the war.
Her background is long-form newspaper journalism, and it shows in her focus on individual lives: each book follows a handful of women closely while explaining the institutions around them.
Liza Mundy on Code Girls, on Kansas Public Radio
Listen to the interview on Kansas Public Radio →
Liza Mundy talks to Dan Skinner about Code Girls on Conversations, Kansas Public Radio, November 2017.Frequently asked questions about Liza Mundy's books
How many books has Liza Mundy written?
Liza Mundy has published five books: Everything Conceivable (2007), Michelle (2008), The Richer Sex (2012), Code Girls (2017) and The Sisterhood (2023).
What is Code Girls about?
Code Girls (2017) tells the story of more than ten thousand American women recruited to break enemy codes during the Second World War, and how their work was kept secret for decades.
What is The Sisterhood about?
The Sisterhood (2023) is a history of women at the CIA across three generations, from the Second World War to the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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