The book I chose to independently read is the book called "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin. The book is based off of the amazing story of the race to build an atomic bomb. The book begins by introducing Harry Gold, a soviet spy during World War 2. The author then goes on to introduce Dr. Oppenheimer, the leader of Los Alamos. He introduces Dr. Oppenheimer by telling a short story about him, it was about a time when he was on a date and he excused himself from the car to go walk for a while, the girl agreed. While Oppenheimer was out, his date fell asleep in the car. She awoke hours later without the return of Oppenheimer, she called the police and they began a manhunt. They went to his house to look for clues and they found him sound asleep in his bed.I believe that this short story depicts Dr. Oppenheimer very well because he was an absent minded young man, but at the same time, he was one of the most brilliant men in the U.S. I also think that it is a good way to introduce him like this because it shows us some of his characteristics and how he acts, it also gives us something to go off of to compare throughout the entire story.
Proceeding the short story and background of Dr. Oppenheimer it explains a little bit of the current state of being of the world, it explains how Nazi Germany is quickly expanding its empire using its lighting war to crush opposing countries. Then it shows the pictures of all of the significant figures of the Manhattan project along with soviet spies and German scientists. This gives us an image of all of the people involved which some people could see as a negative thing while others see it as a positive thing.
