Why am I passionate about this?

 As a military wife, and daughter, sister, mother, and mother-in-law to military members, I gained a strong perspective of what it is like to be behind the scenes, keeping the family together and building my own career while supporting the important missions of the men around me. In my reading, I’m drawn to historical fiction, as I feel it makes the stories come alive for me. I love a good story, and what entertains and informs even better than the documented facts are the dialog, relationships, and emotions of the characters. So it seems only natural to write about the amazing women behind the curtain in history in the engaging and memorable form of novels.


I wrote

The President's Wife

By Tracey Enerson Wood,

Book cover of The President's Wife

What is my book about?

The incredible story based on the First Lady who clandestinely assumed the presidency.

Socialite and widow Edith Bolling has been…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of President in Love: The Courtship Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt

Tracey Enerson Wood Why did I love this book?

 This is a collection of the letters between President Woodrow Wilson and his future second wife, Edith Bolling.

I already knew a bit about the role of Edith Bolling Wilson during her husband’s presidency. Reading their actual letters both shocked and entertained me. Woodrow Wilson, unlike his staid, professorial reputation, was quite the romantic.

It made me realize there was much, much more to their story, and it sent me on a journey to discover a relationship that changed the course of history.

By Edwin Tribble (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked President in Love as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

225 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Houghton Mifflin Company (ISBN 0395294827).


Book cover of Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Tracey Enerson Wood Why did I love this book?

 After learning of the intense relationship between Woodrow and Edith Wilson, this was the next book I turned to in order to learn more about both of them and their role in history.

It provides an excellent foundation on Edith’s upbringing and adult life before she met Woodrow, which informs her actions during their marriage. It provides wonderful photographs, illustrating the era and the close circle of associates that helped and hindered them on their journey.

By William Hazelgrove,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Madam President as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

After President Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in the fall of 1919, his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, began to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the Executive Office. Mrs. Wilson had had little formal education and had only been married to President Wilson for four years; yet, in the tenuous peace following the end of World War I, Mrs. Wilson dedicated herself to managing the office of the President, reading all correspondence intended for her bedridden husband. Though her Oval Office authority was acknowledged in Washington, D.C. circles at the time--one senator called her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled…


Book cover of Finding Themselves

Tracey Enerson Wood Why did I love this book?

This collection of letters home by Chief Nurse Julia Stimson is an enlightening account of nursing during World War 1.

As a retired Registered Nurse myself, I wanted to learn more about those important and challenging times for the profession. There is nothing like reading a character’s own words to help you understand their daily turmoil and triumph. It provides a window into not only medical and nursing care, but of the vast challenges of the day, putting our own troubles into perspective.

By Julia Catherine Stimson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Finding Themselves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and…


Book cover of Silent Builder: Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge

Tracey Enerson Wood Why did I love this book?

Emily Warren Roebling was a woman we all should have heard of, but few have.

I grew up in northern New Jersey, and am fascinated with the history of New York City. When I learned of Emily’s role in building the Brooklyn Bridge, an impressive feat of engineering and icon even today, it set me on a path to learn all about her, and later to learn and write about other women who are lost in the shadows of history.

This non-fiction account of her life sheds light on not only Emily Roebling, but of the fascinating time from Reconstruction to the Gilded Age in New York City.

By Marilyn E Weigold,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silent Builder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When 21-year-old Emily Warren married Union Army engineer Washington Roebling, she had no idea that she would become the "silent builder" of a wonder of the modern world. But when injury and illness killed her father-in-law and sidelined her husband, she boldly stepped into the breach and pushed construction of the Brooklyn Bridge to its triumphant completion in 1883. Her accomplishments in a field dominated by men have inspired young women ever since in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This second edition includes substantial new information about Emily as well as a new chapter about the…


Book cover of The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and Her Famous Brothers

Tracey Enerson Wood Why did I love this book?

Every schoolchild learns the story of Orville and Wilbur Wright and the famous first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk.

But how many know of the brilliant, irrepressible, and extroverted woman who supported them throughout and is a key reason for their success? The woman who travelled to France and met with presidents, kings, and queens to sell the idea of aviation, when the American people weren’t yet believers?

In keeping with my desire to learn the rest of the story, especially the women in the background who made the grand events possible, I am studying the story of Katharine Wright Haskell.

Both heartwarming and tragic at times, it is a story of the American dream at a time when it seemed anything was possible.

By Richard Maurer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wright Sister as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Not many people know that the Wright brothers had a sister, Katharine Wright. She supported her high-flying, inventor brothers through their aviation triumphs and struggles. This is her story.

On a chill December day in 1903, a young woman came home from her teaching job in Dayton, Ohio, to find a telegram waiting for her. The woman was Katharine Wright; the telegram, from her brother Orville, announced the first successful airplane flight in history. In this, the first authoritative biography of the Wright brothers’ sister, Richard Maurer tells Katharine’s story. Smart and well-educated, she was both confidant and caregiver to…


Explore my book 😀

The President's Wife

By Tracey Enerson Wood,

Book cover of The President's Wife

What is my book about?

The incredible story based on the First Lady who clandestinely assumed the presidency.

Socialite and widow Edith Bolling has been in no hurry to find a new husband, preferring to fill her days with good friends and travel. But the enchanting President Woodrow Wilson wins Edith over and she becomes the First Lady of the United States. Edith must contend with the demands of a tumultuous country, the secrets of Woodrow's true condition, and the potentially devastating consequences of her failure. At once sweeping and intimate, The President's Wife is an astonishing portrait of a courageous First Lady and the risks and sacrifices she made to protect her husband and her country at all costs.

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Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

By Amy Carney,

Book cover of Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

Amy Carney Author Of Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Historian Professor Curl up with a good book reader Traveler – Berlin is my happy place!

Amy's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more on topic, but it would be more accurate to say that I wrote a book about SS men as husbands and fathers.

From 1931 to 1945, leaders of the SS, a paramilitary group under the Nazi party, sought to transform their organization into a racially-elite family community that would serve…

Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

By Amy Carney,

What is this book about?

From 1931 to 1945, leaders of the SS, a paramilitary group under the Nazi party, sought to transform their organization into a racially-elite family community that would serve as the Third Reich's new aristocracy. They utilized the science of eugenics to convince SS men to marry suitable wives and have many children.

Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS by Amy Carney is the first work to significantly assess the role of SS men as husbands and fathers during the Third Reich. The family community, and the place of men in this community, started with one simple order issued by…


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Interested in American first ladies, letters, and pilots?

Letters 34 books
Pilots 47 books