
Switchboard Soldiers
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Saskia Maarleveld
About this listen
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I—the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory.
“An eye-opening and detailed novel about remarkable female soldiers. . . Chiaverini weaves the intersecting threads of these brave women’s lives together, highlighting their deep sense of pride and duty.”—Kirkus Reviews
In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed telephone operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.
At the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women—but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them.
More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard instructor with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College; Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer; and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium.
They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. Army under the Articles of War. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds.
Deployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flu. Not all of them would survive.
The women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now.
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Christmas Bells
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Chiaverini
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1860 the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow family celebrated Christmas at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publication of Longfellow's classic Revolutionary War poem, "Paul Revere's Ride", was less than a month hence, and the country's grave political unrest weighed heavily on his mind. Yet with his beloved wife, Fanny, and their five adored children at his side, the delights of the season prevailed.
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I had a hard time following the story line
- By ypsiabby on 05-27-16
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The Keeper of Hidden Books
- A Novel
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things during times of hardship: books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler’s forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also in need of saving. With the death count rising and persecution intensifying, Zofia jumps to action to save her friend and salvage whatever books she can from the wreckage, hiding them away, and even starting a clandestine book club.
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Audiobook of the year for me, truly exceptional!
- By john on 08-02-23
By: Madeline Martin
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Fates and Traitors
- A Novel of John Wilkes Booth
- By: Jennifer Chiaverini
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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In Fates and Traitors: A Novel of John Wilkes Booth, New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Chiaverini renders for the first time as fiction the compelling interplay between these pivotal actors - some willing, others unwitting - who made an indelible mark on the history of our nation.
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Read more like Wikipedia than a novel?
- By Star on 09-30-16
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A View Across the Rooftops
- By: Suzanne Kelman
- Narrated by: Alan Medcroft
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Would you risk your life to save just one person? An incredible story of love, hope, and friendship; and a testament to humanity and courage in history’s darkest days. 1941, Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Professor Josef Held has never recovered from the loss of his beloved wife - and has no intention of ever letting anyone new into his quiet, safe world. But then the Nazis come for the Jews - and Mrs Epstein is killed. And Josef, in an impulsive act of courage, offers his student Michael Blum a place to hide.
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Didn’t want it to end!
- By Daylelianna on 10-30-19
By: Suzanne Kelman
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Two Wars and a Wedding
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Willig
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1896: As an aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into a very male-dominated field and find work at some of the world’s most famous excavation sites. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in philanthropist Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously.
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Spanish American War
- By Tracy on 06-23-23
By: Lauren Willig
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The Quilter's Apprentice
- Elm Creek Quilts, Book 1
- By: Jennifer Chiaverini
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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An engaging tale full of warmth and wisdom, The Quilter’s Apprentice is the first novel in best-selling author Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series. Sarah McClure takes a job helping elderly Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate for sale. Sylvia, a master quilter, agrees to share the tricks of the trade with Sarah. As the two women grow close, Sylvia shares her family’s tragic past, compelling Sarah to look at her own life more closely.
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A Mixed Bag
- By Potato Potato on 09-19-13
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A Shadow in Moscow
- A Cold War Novel
- By: Katherine Reay
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Vienna, 1954 After losing everyone she loves in the final days of World War II, Ingrid Bauer agrees to a hasty marriage with a gentle Soviet embassy worker and follows him home to Moscow. But nothing within the Soviet Union’s totalitarian regime is what it seems, including her new husband, whom Ingrid suspects works for the KGB. Inspired by her daughter’s birth, Ingrid risks everything and reaches out in hope to the one country she understands and trusts—Britain, the country of her mother’s birth. She begins passing intelligence to MI6, navigating a world of secrets and lies, light and shadow.
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Powerful
- By Jocelyn Green on 07-19-23
By: Katherine Reay
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Mrs. Lincoln's Rival
- By: Jennifer Chiaverini
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln' s cabinet, while aspiring to even greater heights. Beautiful, intelligent, regal, and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society and as a future presidential candidate.
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dull
- By rosalinda lucero on 10-21-14
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The Girl from the Train
- By: Irma Joubert
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Six-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl's unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor.
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Excellent story covering the middle of the 20th C.
- By john on 04-12-16
By: Irma Joubert
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The Librarian Spy
- A Novel of World War II
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.
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Good story, disturbing narration.
- By John on 09-22-22
By: Madeline Martin
Though much of this story might have been fictional, it was based on real events. I’m sure conditions were even more difficult than were described. The ladies that were brave enough to answer the call of duty and to march into the largely unknown (including going up against the prejudice of some men who were not thrilled about women in the military), have my UTMOST respect!
For me, the book started off very slowly (I wasn’t sure I would be able to stick with it, but I’m glad I did). There was a long introduction to each of the main characters and their home lives before joining the military. It was Chapter 8 before the women got to their first overseas posting and began their journey overseas and began forging lifelong friendships.
The book began to pick up from there, although there were places where I felt the story lagged. I often set my timer at night so the novel would play for 30-minutes, and I would often fall asleep before the timer finished. The next day, I MIGHT wind the story back six or seven clicks, I might not. It was easy enough to keep going and figure out what I might have missed.
During the story I found myself repeatedly thinking how amazing these ladies were as individuals and as a cohesive group. They held themselves to extremely high standards, and even in the face of great danger, the refused to leave their posts until the last male soldier left theirs. They realized what an important role they had and would not abandon their post until a building was literally crashing down around their heads and they literally had to be DRAGGED away from their switchboards!
I would be remiss to not mention what a great job the narrator did in this novel. She has a lovely voice as well as a lovely French accent. I would be HAPPY to listen her read again.
I have to say, the Epilogue to this book made me ANGRY! The Epilogue reveals that once the women were no longer needed in Europe and were returned home, they found they had not been granted the status of “soldiers,” and as such, were not entitled to any of the benefits their male counterparts received. This just infuriated me. No Veteran’s benefits, no healthcare, no recognition of their service and sacrifices as soldiers…NOTHING.
I was never a fan of Jimmy Carter. But after hearing in the Epilogue that in 1977, a full 60-years after the womens’ distinguished service, Carter granted them full soldier status, and all the benefits attached to this status, his “stock” went up immeasurably with me!
It truly angered (but didn’t surprise) me that despite all they had given, all they had sacrificed to be part of that important time in our world history, the government/military screwed them over. It’s a little late now to fix it, but I’m glad the 50 female soldiers still alive at the time they were awarded soldier status and this book was published, were still alive to see their services recognized and APPRECIATED! They were finally recognized as being TRUE soldiers. It should have been done from the moment they signed on. They never should have had to fight and beg for the status they EARNED. The government’s poor treatment of these women is SHAMEFUL.😡
BRAVE WOMEN — PIONEERS FOR THE FUTURE OF WONEN IN THE MILITARY!
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Loved this book!
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Switchboard Soldiers
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Amazing
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how much danger the women faced
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Really good story
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Having lots of trouble with the narration
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amazing courage and loyalty
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Thank you
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I Loved This
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