Kathleen Garber's Reviews > Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium

This was an interesting look into Radium and related chemical elements such as uranium. The book flip flops between too complicated for me to understand to very basic explanations. I think a specific education level should have been picked and then stuck to. However I understood the majority of it (I only have high school education) and learned quite a bit.

When I told my husband about this book he told me about Radium Girls and so I expected to read about it in the book. I was surprised that they weren’t mentioned till near the end of the book and not as much as I expected. The book is more about how Radium was used and less about the side effects or results of using it.

While the book was interesting, I feel like it was too long. It seemed like some things were gone over many more times than was needed and the book could have been 300 pages instead of 400 easily. If you are into chemistry you will definitely find this book interesting. If not though, it will probably be to scientific for you.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.