From the (Library e-)Bookshelf: Midnight in Chernobyl

There seem much cheerier things to be reading right now than a book about a nuclear power plant disaster, and to try for a “see, things could be worse” take seems all too much like tempting fate. Earlier this year, though, I’d got around to watching the five-part “Chernobyl” series shown on HBO and found it unsettling and compelling. Aware in general of “realities behind representations,” though, I did want to double-check some details and started looking up old National Geographic articles I remembered and taking chances on Wikipedia pages. Reading a book on the subject seemed that much better, however, and I did know there’d been one published not that long ago. On my last visit to the area bookstore before it closed for public health purposes, I found paperbacks of Adam Higginbotham’s Midnight in Chernobyl, but didn’t buy a copy. Afterwards, I was stuck with thoughts of buying an ebook version. Just to touch every base, though, I searched the catalogue of my local library’s ebook lending service, and found the book there. Signing it out did mean getting on a waiting list, and I did wonder if I’d have to wait until May to read the book even as I recalled the disaster had begun in April. However, checking the waiting list every day produced a few jumps forward, and I was able to sign out the book sooner than I’d expected.
( Villains and heros? )