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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Shocking
An eye opening book. I had no idea the extent to which the Denver Metro area remains contaminated. My grandchildren enjoy spending time at the wildlife refuge. I can't imagine taking them there ever again.
An eye opening book. I had no idea the extent to which the Denver Metro area remains contaminated. My grandchildren enjoy spending time at the wildlife refuge. I can't imagine taking them there ever again.
So, while I had a bunch of downtime at work this week, I finished reading Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen. I have been reading this book for sometime because, including the Big Event and starting this new job, I’ve just been generally busy during the week.
But this week I finally finished it. And I have a lot of feelings about it.
Full Body Burden is a combination of investigative journalism and memoir. Iversen tells the story of her life growing up in Arvada, CO, complete with puberty, family problems, relationships and financial troubles. This story is told in parallel to the story of the Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons production facility based in Arvada. The Rocky Flats Plant was responsible for producing plutonium triggers, called “pits,” that assisted in producing the fission that would resulted in the explosions of the nuclear warheads of the Cold War. Iversen, through years and years of research, provides readers with a comprehensive description of the plant, how the pits are made, corners cut and the consequences that follow.
Long story short: the corporate companies that managed Rocky Flats in partnership with the government were extremely lazy and cut corners to gain more money and produce more pits, regardless of safety or respect for human life. Due to these cut-corners, plutonium is continually released into the surrounding environments where housing continues to grow and more people move and live within miles of the plant. Plutonium leaks into the soil, groundwater and pollutes the air. Accidental fires only serve to worsen the leakage. As a result, hundreds of people and animals in the immediate area suffer immense health problems — mostly cancer of various areas of the body — with Rocky Flats being the obvious reason. But the corporate companies are never held responsible.
Oh my gosh, guys. This story made me so mad.
Read my full review on my blog here: https://pleasantryblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/reviewing-full-body-burden/
But this week I finally finished it. And I have a lot of feelings about it.
Full Body Burden is a combination of investigative journalism and memoir. Iversen tells the story of her life growing up in Arvada, CO, complete with puberty, family problems, relationships and financial troubles. This story is told in parallel to the story of the Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons production facility based in Arvada. The Rocky Flats Plant was responsible for producing plutonium triggers, called “pits,” that assisted in producing the fission that would resulted in the explosions of the nuclear warheads of the Cold War. Iversen, through years and years of research, provides readers with a comprehensive description of the plant, how the pits are made, corners cut and the consequences that follow.
Long story short: the corporate companies that managed Rocky Flats in partnership with the government were extremely lazy and cut corners to gain more money and produce more pits, regardless of safety or respect for human life. Due to these cut-corners, plutonium is continually released into the surrounding environments where housing continues to grow and more people move and live within miles of the plant. Plutonium leaks into the soil, groundwater and pollutes the air. Accidental fires only serve to worsen the leakage. As a result, hundreds of people and animals in the immediate area suffer immense health problems — mostly cancer of various areas of the body — with Rocky Flats being the obvious reason. But the corporate companies are never held responsible.
Oh my gosh, guys. This story made me so mad.
Read my full review on my blog here: https://pleasantryblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/reviewing-full-body-burden/
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Will always make my top 5 memoirs list. Absolutely beautiful book— combining science, nature, politics, and her personal life so seamlessly into one story. When someone says “the government wouldn’t do that…” in response to something awful or poisonous to us, I think of this book as a prime example.
Everyone in the Front Range of Colorado should read this book.
Part memoir, part investigative journalism piece, the factual story of the Rocky Flats plutonium trigger plant is woven chronologically with the author's personal account of everyday life living just downwind of the troubled site. Though the subject matter is difficult at times, the writing is thoroughly engaging as it describes yet another example of the tragedies that ensue when human and environmental factors are set aside in the name of secrecy, security, and profit.
4.5 stars. Listened to the audio book. Part memoir, part history lesson, part investigative journalism. I knew of Rocky Flats and knew it was known as being a contaminated area, but I had no knowledge of the extensive environmental atrocities that occurred there.
This book had quite a bit of technical and scientific information in it, but it's written with a narrative that makes it easily readable. I didn't always understand the nitty gritty of the science that Iversen was writing about but I could understand the points she was trying to make anyway. I don't have much of a head for science so that is probably mostly my fault anyway.
I liked how she alternated the story between what was happening at Rocky Flats and what was happening in her own personal life. Though it was sometimes hard to make a direct connection between the two, both stories were compelling.
If you care anything about the environment or life on this planet, reading Full Body Burden will make you mad. It's unbelievable the amount of irresponsibility involved with the management of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Even though it wasn't a feel-good book by any means, I think it's still an important book to read. The more aware we are of these types of situations, the harder it will be for the people involved to keep shirking responsibility - I would hope anyway.
I liked how she alternated the story between what was happening at Rocky Flats and what was happening in her own personal life. Though it was sometimes hard to make a direct connection between the two, both stories were compelling.
If you care anything about the environment or life on this planet, reading Full Body Burden will make you mad. It's unbelievable the amount of irresponsibility involved with the management of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Even though it wasn't a feel-good book by any means, I think it's still an important book to read. The more aware we are of these types of situations, the harder it will be for the people involved to keep shirking responsibility - I would hope anyway.
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced