I've been trying to read a bit more WWII non-fiction in the past couple of years, and I love to read science history so Sisters in Science was the perfect combination for me. It also ticked the box for reading outside of the life sciences as it is focused on scientists in physics and chemistry.

Campbell might start with the WWII years but she tells these women's stories from the start of their careers before the war (mostly the 1920s and early 1930s). So in that way, we get much more science history.

I have read several books (both fiction and nonfiction) that showcase the plight of women in the early years of science. If books like A Lesson in Chemistry or A Lab of Her Own sparked your curiosity and interest, then this book should definitely be on your list to read.

I already knew about some of the challenges and obstacles women faced such as being uncredited authors of papers and being left out of notable awards. But I don't think I realized how much unpaid work these women took on to pursue their passion. And definitely with this book, there is the added layer of cultural and political discrimination that was occurring in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Perhaps it's because I'm not as familiar with physics and chemistry (but more likely because they are women), I've never heard of the four women who are the focus of the book. However, I did recognize many of the male scientists mentioned, such as Albert Einstein (theory of relativity), Max Planck (Planck's constant), and Erwin Schrödinger (Schrödinger's cat). One central person who is male, but I don't remember ever hearing about is James Franck. He was definitely a champion for women's rights, so I'm glad his story also got told in this book.

Having three women whose names start with H was a little difficult to keep straight. The structure of the narrative jumped between the women so sometimes I would forget who had done what. The world of science was small back then and there is a lot of overlap which didn't help. It also made me realize that Campbell used the women's first names but mostly used the men's last names (I've started to really notice this in society today as well during the election as we referred to male candidates by their last names but women by their first name).

I learned more about Germany in the years leading up to WWII and it was eerie how some of it echoed today's rhetoric.

Just as Campbell covered the early years of these women's careers before the war, she follows through to the end of their lives, years after the war ended. You get to see the full breadth of their accomplishments and what might have been lost with so many people massacred by the Nazis.

If you have an interest in WWII, science, gender issues, or social justice, then I recommend getting this book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Sunday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2024/12/sisters-in-science-by-olivia-campbell.html

I read Olivia Campbell's "Women in White Coats" and loved it, so when I saw she had a new book coming out (and on such a fascnating topic) I was thrilled to get an ARC.

Unfortunately, "Sisters in Science" seems to suffer from a case of too much research and a book that wants to be too much, and fit it all in, when narrowing the focus a little might have helped the power of the narrative better. Each of the four women Campbell introduces us to are powerhouses of science with fascinating stories. They respresent the difficulties involved in being a woman of science when men didn't want women studing science (let alone teaching science), the gender inequality women had to fight every day, and then the increased fight and danger being a woman professor as well as Jewish in the case of two of the women, once the Nazis came to power. Getting out of Germany was never easy, and only got more difficult-something Campbell shows us in tension filled detail. The stories are terryfying and heartbreaking.

Large chunks of the book go into detail about why the Nazis wanted to remove women from professorships and other teaching possitions, their beliefs about women's place in the home and how it clashed with the new German equal rights so recently granted to women, and the slow erosion (at first) of rights for Jewish citizens in Germany. Once the main women in the book try to leave Germany we get plenty of information on the quotas and necessary requirements to immigrate to countries like Sweden and America and how difficult it was. All of this is important information and helps build the historical context for the women we're following, but it became repetitious and I found myself overwhelmed by the information presented, losing track of the main story.

That was frequently a problem I had with "Sisters". I wanted the information Campbell had researched to give me a solid historical background and to understand the world and the circumstances her four scientists were facing. I had no idea how difficult immigrating to another country at the time was, even when the countries finally undestood how dangerous Nazi Germany was! So I definitely appreciated that research and understanding what was going on. But there did come a tipping point where there was too much of the same information and I was overwhelmed. There were also places where the information was presented in ways that seemed out of order and clunky. Streamlining the information throughout the book and a bit of rearranging would have easily taken the book from 2 to 4 stars for me.

"Sisters in Science" is a reminder of how we are still learning the stories of women whose voices were hidden by the men they worked with, and how strong they had to be every day to fight for their place in the classroom and the lab; a heartbreaking account of those who escaped the Nazis and those who didn't. There's a small section of biographies of women scientists we know were sent to camps and were murdered (or joined the resistance and were killed) that had me crying. But it is also a beautiful and powerful story of people working together to save as many scientists as possible. A story of the networks of friendship and hope and how some people can come together in the worst of times to do their utmost to make a difference.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A deeply researched and well written look at four women scientists- Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen- who were ahead of their time but forced to leave their homes due to antisemitism. These were unfamiliar names but they deserve recognition even though most of the credit their work was assumed by their male colleagues. Campbell managed to obtain a trove of primary source material and brings them to life. This does feel a little disjointed in spots but I learned a great deal. Thanks to the publisher for the arc. It's a good read and one I'd also recommend to the YA crowd.

A Disjointed Dive into Four Female Scientists Who Fled Nazi Germany

While delving into an extraordinary topic and uncovering the stories of four women who were almost lost in Nazi Germany, Sisters in Science fell flat for me. Unfortunately, Campbell’s writing didn’t just dabble, but fully embraced, a couple of transgressions of historical writing. First, there was a significant amount of projection that happened throughout the book. Too often, Campbell described how the women must have felt and thought. The only places I see this working is in an author’s note or epilogue. When the sources and evidence aren't there to back it up, leave it alone or to the purview of historical fiction. Secondly, there were several instances of unnecessary commentary from the author. Her addition of rhetorical questions were simplistic and sought to lead the read to a particular line of thinking. My last major criticism is the use of first names. Almost exclusively the author referred to women by their first name and men by their last. There needs to be one choice that is followed consistently for both. As a historian, I appreciated the context chapters, but had a difficult time following the organization of the book. It wasn’t chronological and it didn’t just follow the story of one woman and move on to the other. It just felt disjointed and haphazard throughout.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Park Row for providing me with an advanced reader copy of Olivia Campbell’s Sisters in Science.

What a well-researched and detailed book about Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen. These four brilliant women had to overcome sexism, anti-Semitism, and two World Wars to become contributing scientists in the world of physics and chemistry. They had to flee Germany in the 1930s and 40s to Sweden and America to survive and continue their research. Each woman had their own challenges and path to their discoveries. If not for other scientists, mostly men, that helped find new positions with other academic posts, these women may not have survived WW2. Their research helped with medical breakthroughs as well as setting up the foundation of fission where the men created the atomic weapons.
As I was reading about their research, positions, and lives during WW1 and the 1930s, I was amazed that they persisted to attain PhDs in their fields. Unfortunately, we don't about their contributions because the men, and society, pushed them down and did not give them the credit they deserved in scientific papers and journals. What I found fascinating was the amount of primary sources that were available to the author, such as the plethora of letters the women wrote and the letters written to them. Also, the travel methods were by train and by ship where trips could last for days and weeks instead of the hours on an airplane today.
If you are looking for more information about women who changed the world, I highly recommend Sisters in Science!
#SistersinScience
Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and Net Galley for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Will share review on BookBub when book appears, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, my instagram, facebook and twitter accounts.

A very powerful book. I loved this story from page 1. I loved how they persevere through WWII. If you love Historical Fiction. I suggest getting this book

Thank you publisher and netgalley. All my thoughts and opinions are my own and isn't influenced by anyone else

Four brilliant women, Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hildegard Stücklen, are making their marks on science. They are heralded for their brilliant scientific minds and making new discoveries in physics, chemistry, and other scientific disciplines. They are some of the first female lecturers in universities and well respected in their various disciplines. Then, political times change. Women are sent out of universities in disgrace, they can't find positions that are up to their intellectual abilities, they can hardly find positions to even keep themselves fed, clothed, and housed. Then they try to leave Germany under the Nazi Regime. Leaving colleagues and family to save their own lives and continue their science they walked down a dangerous and lonely road.

This book jumped around a bit and at first was a bit difficult to follow. Once I was invested in the lives of these real people, it was a fascinating read. So much history in this book that everyone should have been taught! These women's names should be right up their with Einstein and Oppenheimer! Following the difficult lives of these 4 women of science as they continued to to do their work even in such depressing conditions should make all of us strive to go forward even when the outlook is bleak. An outstanding read!

This book is deeply researched and I love a story about women in science. I also love stories about people thwarting the Nazis and making it out with their lives. What I struggled with is the pacing, it felt quite slow and didn't pull me in like I had wanted. At any point, I could have put it down and stopped reading with no need to keep going. I think these stories would have been quite good as a movie. Perhaps all of the scientific terms made it harder to enjoy. It was okay, and it was probably done as well as it could have been. Just didn't connect with me.

reviewed after assignment for the web newsletter Shelf Awareness. review can be found in full at https://www.shelf-awareness.com/

Detailed and interesting. I loved the view of history from the lives of women scientists. They were groundbreaking in so many ways - scientifically and scholarly.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC.

This was a very interesting and detailed nonfiction book about the role of certain women in science. Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read the book for a honest review. However, I found a lot of mistakes throughout the book. A lot of misspelling words. Examples include: flame, flying, flee, and fluoride. They were spelled as f and then a space in between the rest of the words. Also in chapter 7, the word suspicious was not spelled correctly. It was spelled as asuspicious.

“Sisters in Science” is a non-fiction book by Olivia Campbell. This book follows four female physics scientists before WWII and trying to escape Germany during Hitler’s regime. This book was extremely well researched - both in the work the women did at their various schools and in the journeys to safer havens. I did, sometimes, get some of the scientists mixed up - but that’s due to three of them having names starting with the same letter. My fault, obviously, not the author’s. I did like the delving into the science each woman did - though I did a bit of online research to understand it a bit better (or possibly make it a bit clearer before I queried my science friends with additional questions). This book is not a fast read - there are many people mentioned, there are many of Hitler’s policies explained, and also history about what jobs were/were not available to women then. The author puts in her few cents about the current standing of women in the sciences, which while connected to this, felt a bit heavy handed to me - but I don’t work in either an academic setting or in the science field.

There was so much I loved about this book. The stories are riveting and touching. It is one of those rare books where when I finished reading it, not only was I sad to say goodbye to the author, but also to the four women the book is about. The tone is conversational and is a great history of science. Thank you to Netgalley and Park Row for the digital review copy.

The story of these four women and the incredible journey they had to take simply to survive is one of inspiration and hope. Each of their stories shows how differently women were treated, even before the downward spiral of the Hitler era regime took power. Through their stories, you will find hope in the people around you and within self. Strength lies in finding purpose and these women's story of purpose has impacted history and science for all time.

The book is not a fast read but it is fascinating. There is a bit of jumping back and forth between stories and, while it eventually makes sense, it did add to the difficulty of putting together a timeline of what was going on, both in the world and in each lady's life. There are so many people in this book, because no one is an island and it takes a village for things to happen. Especially in war time, when women and Jews were so limited in all aspects of life.

This story is absolutely worth the time it takes to read. It is eye opening. It does go a bit heavy handed once in a while on the author's belief about the current state of women's standing and I could have done without those moments. They were out of place and felt unpleasant. Other than that, I enjoyed this book.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author through NetGalley. All views expressed are my honest opinion.

*Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book was very interesting and a great insight on powerful, brilliant women. To read both about their accomplishments, and how they had to flee Nazi Germany was very eye opening. Each woman had an incredible life and story to tell, it kept me as a reader absorbed and wanting to learn more. The layout of the book was a little odd to me, but something that can easily over looked.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

Unfortunately I'm having issues with the PDF format again, and it won't properly send to my Kindle or Kobo in a readable format.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishing company and or the author for giving me the opportunity to read and review Sisters in Science.

It was eye opening.

How a group of women scientists decided that they wanted to get away from the Nazis.

I loved this one I love books featuring strong and brilliant women and their impact on the world and that give hope to the non trad wife women . It teaches them their potential is limitless
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

I Love historical books about women in medicine. This was such an informative story. I didn’t know this before reading the book, but I learned so much.