The Radium Girls

The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

De: Kate Moore

Narrado por: Angela Brazil

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Drawing on previously unpublished sources - including diaries, letters, and court transcripts as well as original interviews with the women's relatives - The Radium Girls is an intimate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

Fascinating

Any additional comments?

Such an interesting and heartbreaking account of the history of the dial painters. I grew up near Ottawa, Illinois and had never heard of the Radium Girls! After listening to this fascinating book, I asked friends and relatives if they had ever heard of the Radium Girls, and they all said yes. Some had friends whose mothers, grandmothers or aunts died of cancer years after working as dial painters.

The book moves seamlessly between New Jersey and Illinois, and it is easy to get lost in the era - to imagine these young girls so full of life, the stylish clothes they purchased with income from their new jobs as dial painters, their pride in the contribution they were making to the war effort, and then the horror they felt as their health rapidly declined.

Definitely worth a listen!

Narration Does Get Better

Fantastic book and I have read it in print several times and wanted to listed while at work.

Narrator does get better as the book continues but I almost didn’t want to listen because Brazil doesn’t seem to understand how to read a comma versus a period and would stop in the middle of a sentence. As she gets more comfortable, the narration becomes enjoyable.

Lots of details to pay attention to but very worth it. Highly recommend if you can get past the first three or so chapters of bad narration.

Book itself is Great

The book is great, looking into the women’s lives and giving names and history of the actual women who fought to change the laws and the world is wonderful and meaningful. The reader, unfortunately, sounds like a robot. I listened to it at 1.3x speed to make it bearable.

Narrator brings vocal poisoning to the book

Would you consider the audio edition of The Radium Girls to be better than the print version?

Never, as the narrator does a horrible job. I was so excited to learn about this part in history only to be crushed by the performance. If anyone asks about it in oral form, I will have to tell them to read the story--not listen to it! This is the first book in all the years I have been an Audible customer that disappointed me because of the reader. Yes, the written word has to be better.

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite characters were all of the women who painted the dials, unknowingly poisoning themselves because no one told the women the dangers that came from using the powder.

What didn’t you like about Angela Brazil’s performance?

I have never written a review, good or bad before, but felt obligated to do so for this book. Ms. Brazil's reading is horrible. As a teacher, who taught children to read, she lacks the skill needed to keep her audience captivated. Her words are read in a very choppy manner and she often adds inflections that I feel, are of her own intention. Oral reading should flow smoothly from one word to another, but Ms. Brazil's pronounces each word as if she were calling them out in a spelling lesson. When people speak, there is a smoothness from one word to another, yet it is lacking in this edition of the book. The only reason I keep listening is because I paid for the book and want to know how the story will end. From now on, I will make sure I find another narrator that makes listening to the book inviting and a pleasurable experience. No more choppy words, no more sounding like a sing song spelling test is being given, no more Angela Brazil.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The faith that the women had in their healing process. Total devotion by their husbands was another great characteristic of the people in the early 1900's.

Any additional comments?

I could not recommend this book to anyone in it's present day oral form. The story captivates the history of the women and how the US learned of the dangers of the radium but the reader is horrible. Change narrators and I will invite my friends to listen to the book, otherwise, read it to learn

Great Non-Fiction

The performance of the voice draws you in. The stories of these women keep you hooked until the very end.