The results are in! The winner of our poll is The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, by Kate Moore. Radium Girls was in the lead in the first round of voting but only received 40.9% of the first choice votes, so we implemented ranked choice. Two of the books were tied for last place, so both were eliminated in the first round. When those ballots were redistributed to those people's next highest choice, the remaining two books were tied for first place. The tiebreaker rule we implemented (from Robert's Rules of Order) was to go back to the first round votes and see which book had more first choice votes — so Radium Girls was our winner. Thank you to everyone who voted! If you didn't hear about the poll or otherwise have not been receiving Meetup messages, email one.drink.minimum.book@gmail.com and we'll be happy to add you to our mailing list. Your email address will remain private as we send all messages blind cc.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 2017 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY • NAMED AS ONE OF 12 NOTABLE NON-FICTION BOOKS OF 2018 BY THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
All they wanted was the chance to shine. Be careful what you wish for…
"The first thing we asked was, 'Does this stuff hurt you?' And they said, 'No.' The company said that it wasn’t dangerous, that we didn’t need to be afraid."
As the First World War spread across the world, young American women flocked to work in factories, painting clocks, watches and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous — the girls shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in dust from the paint. However, as the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. It turned out that the very thing that had made them feel alive — their work — was slowly killing them: the radium paint was poisonous.
Their employers denied all responsibility, but these courageous women — in the face of unimaginable suffering — refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
Drawing on previously unpublished diaries, letters and interviews, The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.
— description from the publisher Simon & Schuster UK
More information available at https://www.theradiumgirls.com/
"This fascinating social history – one that significantly reflects on the class and gender of those involved – [is] Catherine Cookson meets Mad Men . . . The importance of the brave and blighted dial-painters cannot be overstated."
—Sunday Times
"Kate Moore’s The Radium Girls tells the story of a cohort of women who made history by entering the workforce at the dawn of a new scientific era . . . Moore sheds new light on a dark chapter in American labour history; the radium girls . . . live again in her telling."
—Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
"Kate Moore’s gripping narrative about the betrayal of the radium girls – gracefully told and exhaustively researched – makes this a non-fiction classic. Moore’s compassion for her subjects and her story-telling prowess . . . bring alive a shameful era in America’s industrial history."
—Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail
Attendance policy: Please be considerate of others!
- RSVP: Sign up if you plan to attend.
- Cancellations: If you need to cancel, please update your RSVP as soon as possible.
- Attendance: Show up if you are on the “Going” list.
- Emergencies: If a last-minute emergency arises, please communicate as soon as you can.
- Consequences: Repeated lack of consideration may result in removal from the group.
Available in local libraries:
If you have any trouble signing up, please comment on the event, message Chris or Gary, or email one.drink.minimum.book@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to add you.
