Riveters and Ration Books

She learned to fire a rivet gun before she learned her husband was coming home wounded. She did ration-book arithmetic in a grocery line with three children under her skirts. She packed artillery shells on the night shift, humming hymns with the other women when the building went quiet.Riveters and Ration Books brings you twelve fictional voices from a single invented Midwest town during World War II - women who traded aprons for coveralls, stretched sugar stamps into birthday cakes, and waited for V-mail letters shrunk down to postcards by the censor's camera. This is not the story you've read before of soldiers overseas. It's the story of who kept the lights on - carefully, behind blackout curtains - back home.Inside, you'll meet:- A young wife who becomes one of the plant's best riveters while her husband serves overseas- A mother of four who turns rationing into a quiet, exhausting art of survival- A farm wife who runs two hundred acres and a full canning season alone- A widow who turns her house into a boarding home for five women bound together by war- A telephone operator who lives one street over from every telegram in town- A schoolteacher who runs blackout drills for a town that has never had to go dark beforeEach woman's story stands alone - and together, they form one interconnected town, its women crossing paths at the ration board, the church canning basement, and the boarding house kitchen table, the way real small towns actually held together under strain.What's inside:- Twelve full first-person chapters, richly researched and entirely original- Seven pieces of invented period "ephemera" - ration notices, a newspaper clipping, a USO program card - for texture and authenticity- A clear author's note establishing the fictional nature of every character- A substantial afterword separating documented history from invention- A home front timeline, glossary, recipes, discussion questions, and further readingA clearly labeled work of historical fiction - warm, respectful, and grounded in real research, written to honor a generation of women whose ordinary courage rarely made it into the history books.Perfect for readers of women's historical fiction and home front history, book clubs looking for rich discussion material, and anyone who wants to give a grandmother, mother, or history-loving friend a gift that honors what women carried during the war years.