Literati Book Club

Literati Book Club meets the third Monday of every month. 

Our Next Literati group will be 

Monday, November 17, 2025, at 6:30 p.m.

The book will be:

The Sisterhood: The Secret History of the Women in the CIA

by Liza Mundy

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

Come join the fellowship and discussion.