Book #63: Bomb: The Race to Build--And Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

One of the book bloggers I follow gave this book such a glowing review that I didn't want to pass it up, so I ended up requesting it from the library. It's an interesting genre for me--it's a historical look at the atomic bomb race, but it's written for a younger audience, not children, but maybe young teens? But really, the only signal that this is for a younger audience is how Sheinkin explains people and events, in a way that readers who have no idea who they are or what happened would be able to understand. And, this history is much quicker to get through than it probably would be if it were for an adult audience. I could see this book being 450 dense pages if it were a normal non-fiction look at the atomic bomb race, but this was 250 pages and moved very quickly, but it still provided a ton of information and introduced all the main players and events in a really engaging way. So I kind of liked how it was shortened and thinned out, since I learned everything I wanted to about it and didn't feel like I had to be stuck in this big heavy book for days and days.

Sheinkin writes about three separate storylines in the book: how America worked to build the first atomic bomb, how America was trying to sabotage Germany's similar attempts to do the same thing, and how the USSR was trying (and succeeding) to steal all of America's secret plans for the atomic bomb. It was really neat to learn about the Norwegian rebellion groups who blew up the heavy water plant the Germans needed for their a-bomb testing, and to read about the Russian spies and collaborators who were trying to get a hold of someone in the Manhattan Project and what their techniques were. And crazy to learn about the people who gave over the a-bomb secrets to the Russians and why they did it! And, of course, devastating to read about the effects of the bomb in Japan and the psychological effects of that realization of what they'd created on the physicists who worked on the project. It's unbelievable how quickly they were able to create it, considering they only barely discovered that fission was possible in 1939, and they managed to create a working atomic bomb only six years later (with hundreds of scientists working non-stop on it for that time).

This was definitely a fascinating read, with plenty of historical information and lots of detail that kept me involved, but quick-paced and not too heavy. I'm really glad I picked it up!