Kelly McMasters

I enjoyed reading parts of this book, but other parts were too technical for me. I think the problem lies in the way the book is the book is organized, namely chronological. All it three parts run together: the personal narrative, the town's narrative and the scientific information. It would have worked better if this was divided into separate chapters. That said this is a n important and necessary book about how the government weasels itself out of community concern and is blind to the incredible suffering they bring to innocent people in the community.… (mais)

I enjoyed this book as a memoir of a young woman's youth spend in Shirley, NY. I did not take this to be a scientific thesis on contamination from the nearby laboratory, or a history of the town of Shirley itself. Just as two people can have different memories of the same event, so can different people have different experiences growing up in Shirley. I don't see the point in bashing the author over this book. I enjoyed the book as I have enjoyed other books of personal memoirs. I didn't take everything she said as gospel truth. You can't really do that without citing resources of any kind.… (mais)

Told in the form of a personal narrative, this book contains a lot of interesting information about Long Island local history, especially the East End. There's also a lot of interesting information about nuclear pollution, which might make anyone question the water they drink. Unfortunately, much of this book also reads as an indictment of Brookhaven National Laboratory, which may or may not be justified. To be fair, McMasters credits BNL for having improved their practices in recent years, but the book still comes across as being agenda-driven and biased, which undercuts the message more than a little bit.… (mais)