The Radium Girls

The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

The year was 1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks, and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous - the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.

As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive - their work - was in fact slowly killing them: They had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering - in the face of death - these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly and instead became determined to fight for justice.

Drawing on previously unpublished sources - including diaries, letters, and court transcripts as well as original interviews with the women's relatives - The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring 20s who themselves learned how to roar.

©2017 Kate Moore (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Loved the story but...

I loved the story, the history in it, the shadiness of big business. Everything like that. The story was what compelled me to finish the book. The narrator on the other had was extremely difficult for me to handle. The reading was fine, speed and accent was fine. However you could hear every swallow, mouth movement and lip smack. It was so distracting and I could barely handle it. The editing of this was horrible. It seemed like every sentence you could hear it. So I could not listen to this with ear buds or else I would be so distracted and annoyed about it. Great story but should have just bought the book not the audio version

The Performance Is Terrible And I’ll Tell You Why

The pauses in between words are way too long and her emphasis in words seems odd. At first I thought it must be read by an AI because it seemed so irrationally exaggerated at the wrong words. After the first chapters though it started making a bit more sense but it was still too cheerily read for the context. I’m sure the writing itself doesn’t lend itself well and I believe she’s trying to exaggerate to make distinctions when there are quotes but it’s pretty awful. The story itself is interesting but the writing is rather lackluster.

Kirk, is that you?

I was. unaware. that Captain Kirk. had a sister, but. apparently. he does, and she Narrates books. 🤦‍♀️
Other than the weirdly robotic way it is read, this book is excellent. I was not familiar with this part of history and it's completely heartbreaking. We take so much for granted when we don't know where things come from.

Very important and yet very difficult emotionally

Difficult subject matter. Narrator reading was like reading to a kindergarten class. very choppy. awkward pauses

Sad and poignant

Interesting and so sad. While you knew the story in part from the beginning it was very interesting throughout.