For a well-researched and easy to read history of the women in the NYPD, look no further than The Girls Who Fought Crime: the Untold True Story of the Country's First Female Investigator and Crime-Fighting Squads, by Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder. While mostly a biography of Mae Foley (and what a dynamic woman she was), it's also about many of the other women who patrolled the streets, worked undercover, arrested the bad guys, and, of course, did a lot of the paperwork the men wouldn't do.

Reading Hermit With Dog