Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout

by Lauren Redniss

Hardcover, 2010

Call number

GRAPH N RED

Collection

Publication

It Books (2010), Edition: First Edition, 208 pages

Description

Presents the professional and private lives of Marie and Pierre Curie, examining their personal struggles, the advancements they made in the world of science, and the issue of radiation in the modern world.

Media reviews

Writer and artist Lauren Redniss's Radioactive is no ordinary biography of Marie and Pierre Curie. The story of radioactivity, one of the most exciting discoveries of the past 100 or so years, is brightly visualized through Redniss's imagination in her illustrated book. Ideas, scientific choices,
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motivations and insatiable passions unfurl in her elegant cyanotype drawings and are enacted by ethereal figures set into motion by the author's eloquence.
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1 more
The short history of modern graphic storytelling has produced plenty of books whose visuals dwarf the text. Occasionally, the tale trumps the art. Rare is the book that marries great fiction or nonfiction with visual elements that wow the viewer and have a purposeful, amplifying connection to
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the text. So put this one on your list. The illustrated biography of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie also explores some of the well-known unintended consequences of Curie's work in radioactivity. And the book incorporates contemporary voices of those whose lives would've been vastly different -- better and worse -- without Pierre and Marie Curie's discoveries. All of that informs Ms. Redniss the visual artist, who places her story against a backdrop of historical photographs, collage and neoprimitive drawings, many finished with a special process that lends a graphic glow to some pages. It echoes the energy that lights up skeletons in X-rays and illuminated radioactive watch dials during World War I. . . .
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User reviews

LibraryThing member phebj
I’ve been dragging my feet on writing this review because I know I can’t do the book justice. It’s the tenth book I’ve read in graphic form and absolutely the best so far.

Technically, it’s a biography of Marie and Pierre Curie but Marie is clearly the star of the story. When the author
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interviewed the Curie’s granddaughter for the book, she was told: “There are two traps when writing a biography of the Curies. One: to turn their story into a fairy tale. Two: to forget Pierre.” Redniss says that after reflecting on this warning, she “willfully blundered into the first trap,” but “took pains to avoid the second.”

The first half of the book is about Marie and Pierre--their love story and the work they collaborated on in the fields of physics and chemistry. Together they discovered the elements radium and polonium, coined the term “radioactivity,” and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

The second half of the book is about Marie’s life after Pierre’s accidental death in 1906 when Marie was only 39. This part of the book was amazing to me--the twists and turns of her personal life, her continuing scientific achievements, her death from radiation exposure, and the work and love lives of her children and grandchildren.

Throughout the book, there are sidebars on the repercussions of the Curies’ discoveries (life-saving advances in science and medicine but also events such as Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl). Even the Notes at the end are interesting and not to be missed is the “Radioactive Bestiary and Garden” with facts such as brazil nuts are the world’s most naturally radioactive food.

Up to now, all the graphic books I’ve read have been library books. After reading this one, I immediately bought my own copy. There is just too much good information in this one and I want to be able to refer to it in the future. This is a well-written, informative and interesting true story presented in a unique way that in my opinion is not to be missed. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member msf59
I had heard the name Marie Curie, but I did not know much about this pioneering scientist. Wow, what an eye-opener. She was born in Poland in 1867 and moved to Paris in 1891, to study science at the University of Paris. A couple years later, she meets Pierre Curie, an instructor at the School of
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Physics and Chemistry. They soon marry and begin blazing a path, that will bring both wonder to the world and incredible destruction.
This all will launch, with their discovery of polonium and radium, which sets off a long list of breakthroughs, leading to “radioactivity”, a term they both coined. I think we know where this is heading.
I am not much of a science geek, but I do not think there has ever been a pairing, in the history of science, that has reached these monumental achievements. The couple ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize for physics and eight years later, Marie earned a second one for chemistry.
Yes, this wonderful graphic biography, is a love story and a scientific history lesson but it is also explores the horrible repercussions: “The Fallout” part of the title. Hiroshima, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl make appearances, along with a few lesser horror stories featuring the evils of radiation.
I cannot express how perfect this all comes together, with simple illustrations and a vibrant palette of colors, all held together with a strong narrative drive. Find this book!
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LibraryThing member -Cee-
This is a uniquely creative graphic biography that will grab your attention...fast! Even if you have never tried this format before, you really should give this book a chance to WOW you. The artwork is bewitching; the format exciting. And, oh! the colors... You can't help but be swept away into a
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world of mystery, love, and scientific discovery as you read and absorb each stunning page.

The appearance of the book is obviously attractive, but just as appealing, you have the story of an amazing family - their love, struggles, successes, scandals and enormous impact on the world of their own time, the present and the future. Marie Curie's discovery of radioactivity is held in the light of pacifism, mysticism, wartime destruction, and future potential. She is the heroine of her family and the world.

This book is not fluff. It is not stuffy. I learned interesting details and concepts of substance. And I was charmed!
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LibraryThing member labfs39
Not being an artist or a frequent reader of graphic novels, I approach the genre with hesitation, almost as though it is not meant for me. Occasionally, I will be captivated by a story and how it is enhanced by the illustrations, other times I feel as though I'm looking for a cucumber in the cereal
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aisle. Such was my reaction to Radioactive.

The plot line was fascinating: the lives of Marie and Pierre Curie and their work as scientists. I immediately wanted to go out and get a more comprehensive memoir. This one is almost like a dream sequence or fable of their lives, although seemingly well-researched. The illustrations are bright and large, often covering both facing pages, and are interspersed with photographs. Although both text and art were good, together it felt a bit busy, and I enjoyed it more when I read and looked at pictures separately.
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LibraryThing member jnwelch
"Returning to the roots of her research, Marie began assembling hospital X-ray units. Then she brought the technology directly to the battlefield, rigging an automobile with tubes and screens and electricity to create a mobile X-ray facility. By the war's end, Marie and Irene {her daughter} had
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outfitted 18 such vehicles, which came to be known as "petite Curies" . . . No longer were doctors performing blind exploratory surgeries on already damaged bodies."

Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss is full of interesting stories like this. It tracks the scientific discoveries of Pierre and Marie, and their progeny (e.g. daughter Irene and her husband also won a Nobel Prize), as well as their emotional relationships, particularly Marie's after Pierre dies in an accident. For the reader there is the underlying tragedy that all that study of radium led to poisonous radiation exposure. Their laboratory notebooks are still radioactive more than a hundred years later.

The interlocking lives of great scientists described in the book are fascinating. For example, it turns out that Marie's lover Paul Langevin was one of the leading scientists of his generation, creating the first effective echolocation system for detecting submarines, and escaping from the Nazis after capture. Daughter Irene and her husband discovered that radioactivity could be "provoked", which discovery eventually would lead to the atomic bomb. Irene and her husband's son became a biophysicist and their daughter a nuclear physicist. What a family!

For all of this, I have mixed feelings about the book. I never did find a rhythm in reading it. Dense text pops up followed by wordless or sparsely worded illustrations, followed by photographs and pencil sketches of objects and nameless people, followed by historical photographs of famous scientists, followed by more dense text and chalk drawings of oceanfront. This obviously has worked just fine for some reviewers, but for me it was disjointed and not engaging. I'm glad I read it for the stories I otherwise wouldn't have known, but I can't call the read a pleasure.
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LibraryThing member detailmuse
In Radioactive, Lauren Redniss uses art (primarily illustrations created through a process of “cyanotype printing” that evokes negative images and glowing radiation) to present a biography of Marie Curie ... and of radiation itself, from Roentgen to Hiroshima to Spider-man.

Even the words are
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art, in a font (developed by the author) that looks like delicate hand-printing and is arranged interestingly on the pages. I enjoyed seeing the personal side of Marie Curie, loved learning that Roentgen “dubbed the invisible light an ‘X’ ray, X for unknown,” and can understand how, at the turn of the century, the piling-up of discoveries of so many invisible forces (electricity, radio, telegraph, x-ray, radioactivity) “blurred the boundary between science and magic.”

It’s a part linear, part segue-filled slideshow. Lovely.
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LibraryThing member kayronald
Luminous -- finally a graphic novel for adults with beautiful art work, historical biography, romance, and connections to present day. A masterpiece!
LibraryThing member Sullywriter
A brilliant, vibrant work of imagination.
LibraryThing member jolerie
Marie and Pierre Curie may possibly be one of the most famous couples in the science world who lived, loved, and breathed their work. Their research, discoveries, and advancements eventually garners Marie two illustrious Nobel Peace prizes and a legacy that has echoed through their own children and
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numerous scientists after them.

Radioactive is a graphic novel that has the look and feel of a well put together scrapbook. The pages are filled with vibrant drawings and designs, but is balanced with text that shares with us the story of Marie, Pierre, their love and dedication to their work and to one another. To be honest, I found the science part of the book rather daunting and overwhelming. It reminded me too much of my inadequacy in understanding the complexity of chemistry. I would have been much more interested in the personal story of Marie and Pierre and yet the reality is that their love for the sciences was so much a part of who they were as individuals and as a couple that you couldn't share one without the other. The concept of the graphic novel and the blending of story and artwork was certainly enjoyable, but in the end, the difficulties I encountered trying to bridge the gap between their brilliance and my lack of understanding lead to a rather perfunctory reading experience.
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LibraryThing member VioletBramble
This graphic novel is not just about Marie and Pierre Curie, it's about Radium. The entire history of radium; it's discovery and isolation, radiographs, radiation therapy for cancer,what the French, American and Russian governments did to obtain weapons utilizing radium, Chernobyl, The Three Mile
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Island nuclear plant meltdown, nuclear spies, the Manhattan Project, Hiroshima and other things I've already forgotten. Very informative.
I didn't really like the illustrations but the Cyanotype Printing technique used to make them sounds interesting.
Fun Fact: brazil nuts are the world's most naturally radioactive food
Use of a word from my list of favorite words: ensorcelled (pg 133)
Highly recommended.

It could even be thought that radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature, whether to profit from it or whether this knowledge will not be harmful for it. The example of the discoveries of Nobel is characteristic, as powerful explosives have enabled man to do wonderful work.They are also a means of terrible destruction in the hands of great criminals who are leading the people to war.- Pierre Curie, 1903
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
This is a beautiful story of love, science and magic. I didn't know that Marie's daughter also won the Nobel Prize and that her granddaughter married the grandson of her lover and also is a scientist. What an amazing life. I'm sure if she were alive now certain talk show hosts would call her a
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slut, this genius who saw beauty, connections and magic in life.
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LibraryThing member 3wheeledlibrarian
This is a stunning book. I highly recommend it, not only for students of the history of science, but also for anyone interested in graphics or art. It is the tale, not only of the love affair of Marie and Pierre Curie, but of the field that they founded. Moments in their life together are
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interwoven with modern events like the Chernobyl disaster, and nuclear bomb tests in Nevada during the Cold War. The book is a work of art, many of the pages carefully composed from hand colored cyanotype prints. Each page of text is uniquely formatted to meet the needs of the story at that point. An incredible masterpiece! Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member DebbieLE
I really enjoyed this book. It is a true feast for the eyes, a work of art. Every page has a different layout, different font, different colors. You have two choices with this book, you can read the story by either the words or the illustrations.

Besides the obvious visual interest the book provides
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it also gives you an introduction to Madame and Pierre Curie and the history of the discovery of radioactivity. I found this just an introduction which left me with a curiosity to learn more. I would be really interested in reading a longer biography on the Curies and a more in-depth history of radioactivity. In this aspect I found the book a little bit lacking. I was not satisfied at the end. However the fact that it sparked my interest enough for me to want to seek out further information is to it's credit.

I believe that this book is worth a look if only for the visual feast it is. If you are interested in Marie and Pierre Curie or the discovery of radioactivity you will definitely find this book to be something special!
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LibraryThing member debnance
When I was in second grade, I was bored and my teacher did what all good teachers do when they have students who are bored in class: she assigned me a research project.

My research project was on Marie and Pierre Curie.

Here I was, seven years old, reading about radiation and atomic particles and
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nuclear energy. I was fascinated, even if I didn’t quite get everything I read.

The minute I saw this book, I knew it was a book that I had to read. If nothing else, I wanted to see if I understood radiation and atomic particles and nuclear energy any better this side of life.

Even though this book was a National Book Award Finalist, I could not find it at any of the seven libraries to which I have cards. I finally broke down and bought it.

It was a worthwhile purchase. I’d classify it as a graphic novel, a picture book for grownups, with brilliant illustrations that add to the text.

Lauren Redniss, who wrote the text and created the illustrations, tells the story of Marie and Pierre Curie, a story of the power and destruction that came with the discovery of radiation.

One of my favorite reads of this year.
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LibraryThing member AmronGravett
This unique graphic biography presents the professional and private lives of Marie and Pierre Curie, examining their personal struggles, the advancements they made in the world of science, and the issue of radiation in the modern world. It’s subtle, unconventional storytelling and layout
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exemplify these important scientists. The cover felt even glows in the dark!
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LibraryThing member TeenSpirit
"Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout" tells the fascinating history of Marie and Pierre Curie, and the immeasurable ripples caused by their life and work. The book works chronologically through the Curie's lives, but is broken up along the way with dialogues and disclosures of people who are
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relevant to radioactivity, World War II, the Manhattan Project, radon spas... If the stories weren't sensational enough, the artwork propels the vibrant and emotional tale, much like a graphic novel. An amazing story told in an unusual way, "Radioactive" appeals to a wide audience and would be great for older middle and high school students, as well as adults.
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LibraryThing member clmerle
More than just a biography of the Curies. It's a history of radioactivity as well.
LibraryThing member lalbro
I had picked up this book at the library a while ago, and never quite managed to read it. But a quiet midafternoon meant that I had a two-hour block of unobligated time, and I jumped into the book and devoured it.

"My head is so full of plans that it seems aflame" quoth Marie Curie before she
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became Marie Curie.

How can one not fall in love with a young woman who portrays the promise of life in that way. Last year or the year before I read another wonderful biography of this woman, and was fascinated to learn about the challenges she faced in both her personal life and as a scientist. In this book/art piece, I came to appreciate another dimension to the deep passions that she felt for three men over her lifetime, and how their shared scientific commitments defined their relationships.

The visual dimensions of this book, and the connections that she draws to illustrate the "fallout" from Curie's discoveries, really enhance the emotional experience of her life, and of these novel scientific findings. I can see coming back to this book on more than one occasion, just to dive back into the visual sense of place and time the author created.

Definitely recommended - especially if you loved finding the coolest new picture books to read to your kids when they were small!
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LibraryThing member salimbol
Lyrical, highly unusual and quite beautiful graphic novel that retells the story of Marie and Pierre Curie. It entwines ruminations about their personal lives, their scientific discoveries and the nature of the times in which they lived, while reminding us of the (frequently sobering) impact of
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their work on world history. While the narrative can be quite disjointed, the artwork (literally) shines forth from the pages.
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LibraryThing member Paulagraph
I find Marie Curie endlessly fascinating. I am also intrigued by the replication (as if through DNA) of a model of partner marriage across generations: Marie & Pierre Curie, Irene & Frederic Joliot-Curie, Helene Joliot-Curie & a grandson of Paul Lanegevin. Perhaps proof that the Curies'
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relationship was not just a high-profile fluke but a replicable prototype. The feminist me, as always, finds this encouraging. I enjoyed this easy reading review of the Curies & their associates' scientific accomplishments. Redniss counterpoints the science with these scientists' internecine romantic relationships. Radioactive is more an art book than a text book, however. Although I found Redniss's drawings charming & at times truly appealing, they didn't knock my socks off. I paid more attention to her words than her images while reading, even though the visual would seem to be the dominant mode of expression here. The end note regarding the process of cyanotype printing that Redniss employs for many of her illustrations & its particular appropriateness in a book about the Curies is both interesting & illuminating. It did cause me to take a second, more discerning, look at the art.
Note: I was particularly intrigued by photos of a mutant rose & a mutant zinnia collected from the area near the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant since the "accident" in 1979.
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LibraryThing member ddbrown201
I picked this book up because it looked neat. It is the story of Marie and Pierre Curie. I didn't know much about them and their life. This is a fast read with very interesting images and type. I liked the artistic side of this very entertaining Science filled book.
LibraryThing member klburnside
In Radioactive, Lauren Redniss depicts the lives and work of Marie and Pierre Curie through a combination of text and illustrations. Interspersed within this narrative are related stories about the lasting effects their work, mostly that which concerned radioactivity. These include accounts of
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major events like the Hiroshima bombing, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl. It also includes other stories about those who go to radon mines for the supposed health benefits, factory workers in the 1920s who became ill from putting paint brushes dipped in radium in their mouths to achieve the fine strokes needed for painting glowing watches, and cancer survivors treated with radiation.

I really liked the illustrations in this book. Quite a few illustrations in this book are created by something called cyanotype printing that creates really compelling images in blue and white. (If you aren’t familiar with it, do a Google image search.) In her afterward, Redniss talks about the reasons she used this technique. One, it makes it appear as though the image is glowing internally, capturing radium’s luminosity. Second, the process uses the principles of photographic imaging, which was central to radioactivity, and finally, the chemicals produced by cyanotype printing can also be used to treat the effects of exposure to certain types of radiation. I found these images very striking before reading her reasons for using them, and hearing her reasons made them even more compelling. The cyanotype prints were beautiful, yet at the same time eerie and rather haunting. It highlights the idea that amidst all the excitement surrounding these incredible discoveries, there is this undertone of something just plain sad, knowing how invisibly poisonous the work environment was and all the bad that would come from the principles they were working to uncover.

While reading this book, I wavered between utter amazement of people’s ability to understand and manipulate our complex world and a complete fear of the exact same thing. So much good and bad can come from same scientific principles. The Curies, like so many other scientists of the era, feared the evil that would come from their work. What a complicated dilemma, to be so intelligent and passionate about your work, committed to knowledge sharing in the scientific community, but at the same time knowing what this knowledge can be used for.

On a happy note, there are other practical applications for the work of the Curies. The principles of the Curie point, which is a relationship between heat and magnetism, are used in plate tectonics, measuring caffeine in beverages, and treating hypothermia. The principle of piezoelectricity is used in propelling droplets in inkjet printers, controlling the beeps of smoke detectors, and reducing vibrations in tennis rackets. I don’t really understand these concepts, but it is nice to think about the scientists sitting around trying to figure out how to measure the caffeine content of coffee or how to make a smoke detector beep and not just those scientists making bombs.

I loved one of the photographs in the book that showed Marie Curie lecturing to a classroom entirely filled with men. Way to go, Marie!
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LibraryThing member BraveNewBks
WOW.

This book is a new addition to my list of all-time favorites. Here is a short, incomplete list of the things I loved about it:

1. The subject. It's about Marie Curie, who is one of the most accomplished scientists of all time -- educational and inspiring! It's also about her actual discoveries,
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and how they changed the way we thought about the very nature of things. Double educational and inspiring! PS: did you know she was the first person, man or woman, to receive two Nobel prizes?

2. The breadth. The book isn't careful about tracking the life of Mme. Curie, or talking only about things she accomplished. It has an easy-going, free-association kind of style, like a conversation with a brilliant and well-read friend, that can range from a list of other Polish superstars to Mme. Curie's sex scandal to the scientists behind the Manhattan Project to the story of a couple who think visits to radioactive caves have helped treat the wife's Hepatitis C. And yet it all feels planned rather than disjointed!

3. The art. I'm a huge fan of books-as-art, where the experience of reading is enhanced by font, paper color and thickness, illustration, text size and color, and creative layouts. This book has all of that, and yet I never once thought a page seemed too busy or that anything lacked a purpose. Instead, every time I turned the page, I looked forward to seeing what my eyes would get to encounter next! PS: some of the images on the cover are glow-in-the-dark! And some of the internal illustrations were created using cyanotype, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Not only is it fitting that these illustrations were created using a chemical process, but the result is reminiscent of the soft glow of radium that so entranced Mme. Curie.

4. The size. This is shaped like a coffee table book, tall and wide but slim. This makes it perfect for displaying and a pleasure to read (although there are one or two pages where the layout requires the font to be just a bit too small for my taste -- but then, having to peer closely at a few of the pages is also part of the reading experience!) This would also make a fabulous gift -- maybe for a new high school graduate?

In short, I can't think of another time when I've seen such a wonderful amalgamation of art and science in a single package. Also, I learned a lot, and enjoyed myself thoroughly (two things that I often experience singly, but nothing beats experiencing them at the same time!)

Six exclamation points in this review: this may be a new record. (less)
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LibraryThing member greeniezona
I'd checked this out before and not gotten to it, so I was determined to read it for this readathon. Once I started, it seemed especially appropriate to be reading while I was in the midst of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, because of course there are dozens of interconnections.

I've read a lot about
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Marie Curie, but never an actual biography, so it was gratifying to learn more about her life. I loved the graphic format of this book -- with all its inclusions of drawings, illustrations, and photographs. It does shift back and forth a bit in time, which is sometimes a bit disorienting. This isn't just a story about the Curies, but also about the radiation they discovered. And Redness's opinion of radiation seems to fall a bit more on the negative side than mine, but okay.

A remarkable book, and I'm glad to have read it.
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LibraryThing member AmberTheHuman
AMAZING. It's like someone went into my brain and was like "what would you like to read about?" and I was like "this" and they were like, "okay, here's the book." It talks about Curie - whom, I will admit, I know very little about, and apparently, repeatedly watching Young Einstein will not help me
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with (even if it's a great film), but it also talks about events and history related to radioactivity - so, the Bomb, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, all sorts of things I do know about. The art work is awesome, kind of reminds me in some ways of Maira Kalman. GREAT book.
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Awards

National Book Award (Finalist — Nonfiction — 2011)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Science & Technology — 2010)
Physics World Book of the Year (Shortlist — 2011)

ISBN

0061351326 / 9780061351327

UPC

884384317332
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