I took it as a sign that I HAD to read this Chernobyl book when I saw it on an Instagram feed. He said he read it because he saw the HBO series. Well, I saw that series too and I loved it and was thinking about reading more about it, so here I am with the book in my hot little hands!
That series was stressful. I don’t know how accurate it was about what happened, but since we’re not passive tv watchers, my sons were looking things up, reading articles, and commenting throughout the series, so I felt like it gave us an entertaining overview of it.
I grew up in the 80s. The only thing I was worrying about was whether or not my skates were working well enough or if some boy in my class liked me. I really had no real idea about what was going on outside my neighborhood, let alone way over in Russia.
Riveted by the tv show, I wondered…how did I not know anything about this?! I know about it now, even before the show. I knew it was a nuclear meltdown in Russia, and that the area was still closed off and unlivable. I heard recently that you could take tours of the area from my teenage sons. How they hear about these things, I really don’t know. They seemed to know more about it that I did. My husband, who is a few years older than me, remembered hearing something about it when it happened.
I just cannot imagine dealing with this kind of a situation, working in a nuclear power plant, responsible for so many people’s lives. And then the people they brought in to mitigate the damage?! I can’t even… The most stress I ever had to deal with at work was how we were going to stop a light from falling onto the stage in the middle of a live Elvira performance. True story. Don’t worry, it ended well. No one got hurt because we were damn lucky, but to say it pales in comparison to trying to figure out how to stop a nuclear meltdown from potentially burning to the earth’s core and destroying the planet, is beyond putting it lightly. And this is not science fiction! Yikes!
I can’t wait to share my favorite quotes from this one!
Want to read more about Chernobyl? There are lots of great books out there. I found this article helpful in narrowing down my search for more information, 15 Books You Have to Read About Chernobyl and the Chernobyl Disaster.
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