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West Metro Mommy Reads

Blogging From the Pacific Northwest

Book Review: “The Atomic City Girls” by Janet Beard

February 6, 2018 by Melinda

The Atomic City Girls Janet Beard
Date Finished: February 1, 2018
Date Published; February 6, 2018
ISBN: 9780062666710
Genre: Historical Fiction (World War II)
Source: TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins

Summary:
In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn’t officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months—a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders.

The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the government’s plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with June’s search for answers.


When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself.

My Thoughts:
One of the trends in books, and in entertainment in general, that I particularly appreciate is recognizing the scientific achievements of women.   As the mother of a daughter, this is a welcome trend and one I would like to support.  So, when I heard about this book, I knew I had to give it a try.

Here’s the thing, though.  I feel like I’m the victim of a bait and switch.  This book is not about the “Atomic City girls.”  There are two story lines and one of them does involve a young woman, but not to the point that it got into any sort of scientific achievement.  Instead, it was more a case of girl finds herself in a not entirely appropriate relationship.  The other half of the relationship, the physicist Sam, actually seems to be more of the focus of that particular plot.  Because of this, it all just felt off.  The title told me that the whole book was about June (or June and others…the “girls” is plural!) and then it gives more weight to the male character?

The other story line centers around an African-American man, Joe.  This was the more interesting of the two plots for me (ironic, given the title of this book!).  I felt that Joe was a more well-rounded character and that his actual story was far more nuanced.  I would have rather read a book based solely on this plot than one where it tried to focus on two.  When a novel runs two parallel stories, there needs to be a point where the stories become intertwined with each other.  In this book, there is a scene where Joe passes June’s roommate on the street and…that’s it.  As a result, the story never felt finished to me.

There were a few things I liked.  As I said, Joe’s story did hook me, and I liked that Sam and June’s relationship was believable throughout the book.  At tines, Beard made the setting of Oak Ridge, Tennessee and actual character in the book, and I wished she had done that more often.

This was not a successful read for me, although I think the potential was there (and it might have been more successful with a different title and more accurate synopsis!).  I would be open to read more from Janet Beard in the future, although I can’t say that I would recommend this book.

Filed Under: Review

Saturday Snapshot – September 2

September 2, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


One of my more recent reading endeavors is for Numerology. Using this numerology calculator I found that I’m a Life Path 7.  It says that I am always looking for the answers to life’s mysteries. well I think that God has all the answers, so I wouldn’t say I’m looking much. But what I did find interesting is that I like to “always get the last word”, which I can completely agree with… Ask my husband. Other Life Path 7’s you may have heard of, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, and Johnny Depp.

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – August 26

August 25, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


As many of you know, this past Monday was the big eclipse!  Being in Oregon, we had a great view.  We originally had plans to head south to my brother’s house, which was in the path of totality–but we decided to stay put and avoid the traffic.  We were at 98%, so it was still a great experience.

Unfortunately, I don’t have great pictures of it.  My husband tried to get some pictures of the actual eclipse, but none of them turned out.  I was going to try to do a time-lapse video, but the kids were too excited and kept knocking my iPhone tripod over.  So, here it is…the one eclipse picture I have!

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – August 12

August 12, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


Well, we’ve had another week of heat and smoke (although the foot problem is markedly improved), so we didn’t do much this week…which means I have no pictures to show for it.

So, I went back through my phone and realized how many Girl Scout related pictures I have.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that my daughter is a Brownie and I am her troop leader and, well, it’s kind of big thing in our house.  I haven’t posted many pictures from our Scouting adventures, only because almost all my pictures feature children who are not mine.  I’m not comfortable posting pictures of other peoples’ kids (just as I wouldn’t want someone else posting pictures of my kids).

I did, however, dig through a bit and found a few from the past year that have only my daughter to share…so enjoy!

Filed Under: Momming

Saturday Snapshot – August 5

August 5, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


I was really hoping that I’d have some exciting pictures to share this week, but you may have read in earlier posts that we had a bit of an injury in the house.  We’ve also had not only a heatwave, but also terrible air quality (which we can blame on Canada), so we’ve been pretty much homebound all week.So, this is my daughter right after I brought her home from her last day of Girl Scout day camp:

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – July 29

July 28, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


This was my daughter’s second week in day camp and my son and I did absolutely nothing interesting all week…so here are some pictures from when we went to the Zoo last week.

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – July 22

July 21, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


This week was the first of 2 day camp weeks for my daughter.  This is the 3rd year that she has attended this week’s camp (it will be the first year for her at the next camp, but the camps are similar–both Girl Scout camps and at the same location).  Wednesday was “crazy hair day,” which my daughter loves (and I much prefer it to pajama day).
This last picture was taken on the last day and it is my son’s favorite shirt. It was project in his kindergarten class and it has the handprints of all his classmates (and it is his favorite color!)

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – July 15

July 15, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


Here are a few more pictures from the 4th of July, but from earlier in the day.  That morning we took the kids on a little hike on Bainbridge Island.  The hike was in Grand Forest Park and our guidebook indicated a 2 mile trail.  I think we may have not done exactly what it said, but it was still a nice walk.

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – July 8

July 7, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

I’m writing this on July 5th, up at my father-in-law’s house…I thought I’d better get this post ready to go in case things get crazy on Friday (the plan is that we will still be here, but that may change) and I don’t get a post up in time.

Anyway, we had a great 4th up here..the weather cooperated (which is always a big question mark!) and my husband had a good stockpile of explosives to entertain the kids.  Here are a few pics from the day…

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot – July 1

June 30, 2017 by Melinda

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.


This week was Vacation Bible School week for us (my kids go every year and I volunteer), and that has pretty much been our life.  Because of that, I have another set of unrelated and scattered pictures to share this week…

Filed Under: Saturday Snapshot

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