Welcome to Litsy!

This was a fascinating examination of a part of history I didn‘t know much about: the girls and women who worked painting luminous watch dials with straight-up radium and the resulting court case against the US Radium Corporation. This book is very hard to read at times—radium poisoning is a horrifying way to die, and Moore doesn‘t shy away from giving us every detail. I would have liked more personal details about the women.

Kate Moore- you make me grit my teeth while reading. Thank you for telling truths, for riling people up with your storytelling, for compelling readers to speak up and out about wrong doings in history so that going forward we can do better.

This is a heartbreaking account of women seen as disposable by industry fighting for their lives & justice while corporations made millions. A nonfiction following the short lives of women doing glamorous work painting clock & watch faces & military instrument dials with glowing radium paint. The women‘s history spans before WWI to WWII, telling stories of their friendships, families & fight for future industrial hygiene & workers‘ compensation.

Happy beach day in Pensacola! Although glowing, not so bright for the girls of Orange, NJ and Ottawa, IL in the 1920s.

This was a very difficult subject matter. I pretty much read this straight through.
To be honest I probably sped through this to avoid having my mind sit on the horrible, tragic lives these women led.

My #roll100 pick for February. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Moore‘s undertaking of this tragic (yet critically important) moment in American - and world - history was a gripping narrative. Difficult to read at times, one can only imagine the suffering the women endured.

This was a #TrappedonanIsland pick for January. I made it about 55% through and can't read anymore. Maybe someday in the future I'll try to finish it.

@aperfectmjk

First book of 2023! What a sad, tragic story.

@Pigpen_Reads Here are the books I chose for you to read for Januarys #TrappedOnAnIsland. 💛. You had so many interesting ones on your list, that it was hard to choose! 💛

First book of 2023

📕 Radium Girls
📓 Ruth Rendall
📽️ Rear Window
🎸R.E.M.
🎤Revolution (Beatles)
#manicmonday #LetterR

I enjoyed the first 35% or so of this book, reading in horrified fascination. But life is too short for this writer's soppy style and it just hasn't kept my interest.

I got some solid Candy Crush time in earlier while I listened to more of this gripping book. Good as it is, Moore does enough obviously fictionalized scene setting that I‘ve gotta wonder if the details that plausibly came from interviews and court documents actually did, or if she‘s just led me to assume so. Can anyone who read the print edition tell me if it‘s got thorough footnotes or endnotes? #audiogaming #deweyoct #readathon

Phenomenal book about the women and girls working in the nation‘s radium dial factories after WWI. They fought against the corporations that knowingly allowed them to be poisoned, and their contributions to science, history, and labor law can not be lauded enough. Marketed as a biography, I consider this to have true crime elements due to the atrocities these companies committed. #scarathlondailyprompts #poison #teamslaughter

My Library book club read this as our first narrative non-fiction selection and it was enjoyed by all!

#BookMoods #MadeYouMad

Radium Girls made me cry & made me VERY mad. Kate Moore‘s second book The Woman They Couldn‘t Silence is in my Kindle #TBR & from the description, I‘m sure it will make me equally angry! 🥵😡🤬

I didn‘t cry until close to the end, but now it‘s hard to stop. An incredibly moving, often infuriating, telling of an important story. What these women endured, and the callousness of the companies that employed them, is a story that everyone needs to know. It‘s not a perfect book, but it accomplishes its purpose in making the reader care. No higher purpose or praise.

Another library hold came in, and I‘m having trouble putting this down. I watched the movie a couple weeks ago, which I know is a dramatization, and thought it did a good job of telling a horrific story. It turns out that it doesn‘t hold a candle to what actually happened. This is making me angry as well as heartbroken, because I know that there are still industries with so little regard for their workers.

A part of history that I knew nothing about. This read has been very interesting so far.

I hate giving this book a so-so😔 I have so much respect for the women in the dial painting industry for without them I would not have the protections I would probably have as an X-ray tech. But I just don‘t like how the author put the story. It felt redundant and confusing at times with way too many characters involved without much differentiation. Still a fascinating and horrific read about occupational hazards and workers rights!

Haven‘t checked in in a bit but hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Been reading this for my work book club, a group of X-ray techs💀💀, and this book is extremely harrowing! All that these women went through! Can‘t seem to put it down🧪🧪

An absolutely heartbreaking, heart wrenching true story I got so angry while reading this and I cried a lot . The negligence on behalf of the girls employers to do the things that they did . It was so callous and cruel . I went on a rollercoaster of emotions as the girls f fought for justice and as they fought to hang on to live to see that justice . Wow this book is something else .

Sorry @suvata @Jerdencon @IndoorDame I just couldn‘t hold on to this story. If I knew it had a happy ending, I might have held on. It‘s just way too sad. Hoping the other three books in this swap will be less tragic. 🥺

#Two4Tuesday

1- Tagged book, Night, The Diary of Anne Frank, Ghost Soldiers and many more. Of course nonfiction changes your view because it is actual experiences of others that are very different from yours. Fiction can definitely effect you as well.
2- Not usually.

Wanna play? @Elizabeth2 @hannah-leeloo @5feet.of.fury @Blueberry @DaveGreen7777 @BookDragonNotWorm @TheRiehlDeal @eanderson @persephone1408 @Cazxxx @Mavey

Spending my Sunday afternoon trying to remind myself that the point of the swap I joined is to write down and share my thoughts as I read. I accidentally skipped that part in chapters 1 through 4. I‘m also working to get over my aversion to writing IN books and wondering if this really was the best swap to join, but I love the idea so I‘m just going with it. Sticky notes and pencil are helping. @suvata @Jerdencon @IndoorDame #markcuppostalbookclub

I‘m so glad this round of #markuppostalbookclub starts on my day off from work! Now I can indulge in a #chunkster of a book, enjoy a big ass mug (my husband calls it a BAM) of coffee, and avoid getting out of my robe for much longer than I usually can. Happy reading @Jerdencon @suvata and @IndoorDame #LMPBC #Round14 #GroupA

I watched the Netflix movie based off this book. The book is so much better! It was hard to read at times, because of the suffering of the dial painters. These young women were consuming RADIUM, yet they were told it was safe. Even though the corporations knew otherwise. In the end though, these young women changed federal health standards for all workers. They have saved countless lives. Their story is one of courage, & strength despite the odds.

@Jerdencon @suvata @IndoorDame I don‘t have a huge home library like some Littens do. These are the only two books I could find that fall under the category of Historical Fiction. Let me know what you think. I love any excuse to go back to the bookstore, but figured I‘d start with what I already have. #LMPBC Round 14 Group A.

This was very disturbing to read the graphic description of what these women went through. It was also frustrating to read how the corporate lawyers were acting.yet this was very interesting and informative.

Thank you so much @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks for this sweet holiday surprise and to everyone else who has sent me such sweet holiday cards. Work has kept me extremely busy over the last few months, so I‘m way behind on responding to anything, but I received several and loved every one of them. 😘

#WondrousWednesday
@Eggs @TheSpineView Thanks for the tag!

1. Downsizing and moving my library 📚 painting the interior of my house and getting rid of 2 large dumpsters of belongings I no longer need.

2. The Radium Girls and We Begin At The End

3. End of Covid and changes in the midterm of government

Anyone reading this is tagged!

#12Booksof2021 #3rdBookof2021 #March

So sad what these young women went thru!

Today is my birthday! 🥳 Yesterday my hubby took me to see the Radium Girls memorial in Ottawa, IL. He knows how to make me smile. Very cool for this book nerd.

Kate Moore does such a great job bringing historical women to life. Her ability to write about average women & their experiences in a way that brings them to life is second to none. This book is a look at the women who painted luminous dials & watches in the first half of the 1900's & their fight for compensation. As women's rights are again in peril, this book gives a voice to the women that fought when their voices were much smaller. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I couldn‘t put this book down. The story told is one of strength and perseverance to a degree I cannot even comprehend. The first chapter made me do a full stop when the process of painting the watch dials with luminescent dye containing minute amounts of radium was explained in detail. These women fought their bodies and the legal system for justice.

Highly recommend to all.

December #bookspin complete!

1. Hanging at home with my kiddos. No traveling yet with an unvaccinated two year old.

2. Kate Moore ❄️ Tana French ❄️ Wally Lamb

3. A Blanket of Melancholy Pizza Rolls 😂😂😂

Thanks @Eggs and @BeeMagical for the opportunity!! That fantasy book title is helping my mood. 😀

“That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.”

The final line of the book (seen above) was as powerful as the first chapter. All events in the book take place after 1915. All of the pain and heartache could‘ve been prevented.

I‘m ready for another round of #bookspinbingo.

I probably won‘t get a bingo due to the craziness of the holidays but it‘s always fun to try. Happy reading everyone!

Y‘all I‘ve been obsessed with audiobooks lately. And to top it off I‘ve been obsessed with nonfiction audiobooks. I don‘t even know who I am anymore. 😂 But seriously. Life has been hectic and audiobooks have saved me. And I‘ve enjoyed every single one that I‘ve picked up. So if you have any audiobook recommendations leave them in the comments.

A few I‘ve been loving: https://wildwoodreads.com/2021/11/10/audiobooks-that-ive-been-loving/

“… everyone wanted a slice of the radium pie.”

#NonfictionNovember #PieinLit #ReadListenTandem

Aside from the bad, clunky writing, and the horrible narrator, it was a very informative book about how horrific these girls were treated and dismissed by “the company”. This isn‘t the first bad treatment of profit over people and it sadly will not be the last.

Still working my way through this book, but just had to share a behind-the-scenes picture of my 16yo before dress rehearsal as she plays Kathryn Schaub in her high school's production of Radium Girls! (This is a wig; her hair is straight & she wears bangs, so this is quite a different look for those who know her.) What an amazing story of such resilient young ladies! Their story has really touched the teens in the cast - yay for book adaptations!

#FallTreasures

These two books have a strong #LaborDay vibe as both revolve around the need and fight for labor & workplace safety rights. The Radium Girls I read a few years ago & Uprising (about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is on my Kindle in my #TBR

And now on to the book (read the play on Wednesday) since my daughter was cast in the role of Kathryn Schaub. What a horrible, fascinating story.

My initials are highlighted in the title. My daughter claims this is not a coincidence. 😉

#conflictedworlds #death

The fight for compensation for radiation poisoning suffered by women employed in the 1910s and 1920s to paint numbers on watch dials and other instrumentation dials with radium-laced paint to make them luminous.

Exasperating. The techniques used that caused most of the trouble were only used in the US. Why can't countries learn from each other? And as usual the original fault was made much worse by the cover up.

Book 119

I give some points for research. But the writing was melodramatic and often repetitive. It became tedious to slog through. This took me years to finish because I had to keep putting it down and almost nearly gave up. Which is unfortunate because it really could have been a good book.

O.M.G. This book. Painstakingly researched. Beautifully written. Heartbreakingly tragic. I learned about the Radium Girls a few years ago, but was ignorant of the depths of their suffering and their contributions to science. I will be haunted by this book forever. Unfortunately, we still see behavior like this from corporations today. I sobbed through the end of this book. 10,000 stars. Top ten favorite book. Read this immediately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Import part of American History that everyone should learn about. My only complaint is that the writing style simply lacked. The women deserve better.