books, books, books

I am developing a long reading list

     I recently finished reading Radium Girls, a true story about women who worked in factories painting the luminous dials on watches in the early 1900s.     They dipped their brush in a concoction containing radium, then put the brush ibetween their lips to form a better point, then painted the numbers on the dials.
     Everyone told them the material was safe.  Everyone was  wrong.  Dozens of girls suffered horrific illnesses and deaths but the companies kept denying any wrongdoing.
     There is a local connection....one of the factories was in Ottawa, IL, just a few miles away.
     Going from sad to highly entertaining is Gentleman in a Moscow Hotel.   This story takes place right after the Russian Revolution, and the main character is charged with crimes again the state and sentenced to life in a hotel.  If he ventures out, he will be shot.
     There are so many neat characters in this book!  Sometimes I get lost, because the characters have different names depending on who is interacting with them.  I have had to go back a couple of times just to straighten it all out.
     I want to read The Vagabonds, about two car makers who take a trip across America.  And I have a note that simply says Chuck Shaden.  I'll have to Google that to jog my memory.
     Tonight is supposed to be a rainy night.  When I was a teen, I read two books by Jack Douglass:  Never Trust a Naked Bus Driver and My Brother was an Only Child.
     Douglass was a writer for Jack Parr and other early television comedians.  His books were irreverent and funny.  Chapters might be one or two sentences.
     One story he told was about a little boy in Appalachia.  Thunder scared him, so his parents told him thunder was the sound of Rip Van Winkle a bowlin in them hills.
     He was no longer scared.
     One day he was sent down to the store for some supplies.  While he was there, there was a loud clap of thunder.
     The merchant said to him, "Do you know what that was?"
     The little boy proudly answers, "Yes sir,  That is the sound of Rip Van Winkle a bowlin in them hills."
     The store keeper looked at him and said, "No, you damn fool.  That's thunder."
     I still laugh.  I need to find those  books.
     Have a safe night.  Hope none of your basements flood and that we don't have to build an ark tomorrow.

Peace and Love