Review: Dark Tracks

Dark Tracks by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the fourth story in Philippa Gregory's Order of Darkness young adult series. The story follows Luca, an inquisitor for the Lord of the Order of Darkness in 1461, along with his band of friends, Brother Peter, Frieze, Isolde, and Ishraq. The men are sent out to investigate why a town of people have suddenly taken to dancing. They are not merely just dancing but are falling into a trance-like state and dancing through town to the beat of a piper and drummer. It is the job of the men of the order to find out why they are dancing and if it can be stopped. Isolde and Ishraq, the ladies of the group, join the men on their quest as they travel toward Isolde home where her brother has overthrown her and taken control of their home, Lucretili. The women are taken hostage by a con man disguised as a peddler.

This is a great series for young adults that introduces them to the history of the Inquisition. Although the story is completely fictional, it has roots in historical truth. Philippa Gregory never disappoints with her series of books. They are all well written and engaging and leaves the reader wanting to learn more.

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Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Radium. It's the wonder chemical that glows in the dark. For years, in the early 20th-century clock and watch dials were hand painted with a mixture that included radium to allow the numbers and hands to glow. They were handy to own and almost essential for military personnel. The factories that painted the dial hired women to painstakingly paint each dial by hand. Using fine pointed brushed, each painter would take their brush and dip...lip...brush and then repeat over and over every work day. To get such a fine point on their brush they would use their lips to wet the brush to a fine point. They were told time and again that radium was harmless and was even good for your body. Brush it on your teeth for a bright white glow. Amaze your boyfriends with glowing lips using a little radium to spread on like lipstick. These women would come home looking luminescent from the paint spatters on their body from a hard days work. It was great money and as long as it was safe, the women continued to work and enjoy the camaraderie with their fellow painters.

Companies like the United States Radium Factory quite knowingly lied to these women to make a substantial profit. Many if not all of the companies management and scientific team knew that radium could be harmful and possibly deadly. They kept the truth hidden to keep the women working and supply a product that was in demand. After several women became severely ill and in some cases, died, legal action against the companies involved was filed and a fight began.

Kate Moore tells the story of these women from their viewpoint from the early days of dial painting through the litigation and aftermath. Like any radioactive component, the harmful effects of the poison lives on for many years, in some cases 1600+ years. These brave women fought for justice and for workplace safety. They literally gave their lives for industry-wide reform and rights for those affected by radiation poisoning. Moore pulls the reader into their lives and gives them a voice that cannot be ignored.

It is easy to see why Radium Girls has received the accolades that it has. I hope Moore will find another subject to delve into.

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Review: An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew

An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The title of this book would be more appropriate as "The Many Loves of Allene Tew." This book is more about the people that surrounded Allene than it is about herself. Through most of the book, Allene is a secondary character. Allene Tew was a young woman from the late 19th century who came from a pioneering family and married into a higher social status. Although her first husband was from a wealthy family, he was not highly regarded and less so once he married the young woman from the country. Her husband Tod Hostetter was the first in a long line of husbands. Each marriage seemed to edit her social status, not always for the better and she eventually wed a Dutch prince and a German count. She suffered some tragedies in life but also found sources of great love and strength.

I wanted to like this book but I felt that Tew was a very one-dimensional character. I never felt that we truly got to know her. Most of the book was dedicated to the men in her lives, giving the reader great details of their rise and fall in society. The book also seemed to be more of a history lesson on life during the periods that Tew lived. This information was at times very elementary and even repetitive. The reader learned more than once that John Jacob Astor died on the Titanic.

Although this was a non-fiction book, I think it would have been more enjoyable as a historical fiction story and the author could have envisioned Tew's character and thoughts. The way the book came across was more of "here's the facts." Tew did this and then did this based on newspaper articles and genealogical records. I do wonder how much of the flatness of the story and the elementary discourse was due to the translation from Dutch to English.

All in all, the information was interesting but the overall story just seemed to drag on with the minutia of detail on everyone and everything except Allene Tew. Perhaps the story is more interesting in its native language, but I suspect it comes across the same. This would be a good book for someone not familiar with the Gilded Age through World War I.

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