They say we never know what we have until it is gone. Yesterday, in a very small way, I was able to experience a reminder first hand.
First let me say "Kudos" to Comcast for bringing our area Internet outage under control in about 7 hours...but more importantly because it occurred only minutes after I had finished watching (pre-recorded) the Season Finale of Game of Thrones. If this had happened in the middle of the episode, you would have undoubtedly heard the wails and obscenities from where YOU are sitting.
And I will discuss the finale later this week...it is still much too early for spoilers. Let me just say it was absolutely PERFECT.
Anyway, although it put a tiny crimp in my virtual Ireland plans, postponed the Blarney Castle, and necessitated evening wine with Idgy on the phone instead of our usual goodnight online chat...it also provided a relaxing tech free evening, facilitated a sitting-on-the-patio watching the fireflies and the sunset with the Tucker-Cat (purr therapy), and made time for a candle lit bubble bath before bed.
So taken for granted in this age of instant connectivity...and not at all bad.
Up early this morning to coffee and chat, basking and a bit of weeding before the heat begins...and The Stacks.
Having just scratched the surface of this Summer's TBR list.
Recently finished both Proulx's: Barkskins and the new Joe Hill: The Fireman.
I love historical fiction and can spend hours in a Ken Follett creation. Last year I spent most of the year face down in his Century Trilogy and loving it!
Proulx's Barkskins is a novel which spans 300 years and generation upon generation of a French-Indian timber cutting family.
It is a very interesting read that would have been exceptional if she had, perhaps, released it as a Trilogy. To try to compress so many generations and 300 years of time into less than 1000 pages was...crowded. Distracting. All well written characters. They deserved more than the tiny time fragments they were allotted. Don't we all? Over all you spend a lot of time with the impression "They die. They all fucking die" I am pretty sure this is not what she was going for. I liked the way the family evolved from clear-cutters to environmentalists over time. It was the books saving grace. Overall a disappointment, though. She has done so much better.
3/5
And Hill's The Fireman.
Face it. This guy just gets better and better! Seriously! I believe he has surpassed his old man. In case you didn't know, that would be Stephen "Want me to read you a BEDTIME story???" King. It is worth noting that this book has been 4 years in the writing and has seen 4 re-writes (3 rough drafts) before its publishing.
An Apocalyptic/Post Apocalyptic story about a spore that brings about a form of human evolution...or causes you to spontaneously combust. It's kind of a fifty-fifty. More than anything it is a closer look at mankind and how they cope psychologically when things "...turn to shit..." It brings you in during the very early days of Draco Incendia Trychopyton (Dragonscale) through the eyes of a school nurse, and keeps you riveted to the very end...
Or is it?
One of my favorite bits from the book
(being the "news junkie" that I am)
Fox News said The Dragon had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980's. MSNBC said sources indicated the 'scale' might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelations. CNN reported both sides.
All through May and June, there were roundtable discussions on every channel in between live reports from places that were in flames.
Then Glenn Beck burned to death on his Internet program, right in front of his chalkboard, burned so hot that his glasses fused to his face, and after that most of the news was less about who did it and more about how not to catch it.
Well written and totally engaging from the first page to the last...with a spoiler for the next novel in the acknowledgements at the end of the book...so keep reading after the story is over.
5/5
Still in queue for Stephen King's latest...the conclusion of the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy.
With Proulx, Hill and King to kick off the 2016 Reading it is going to be an AMAZING Literary Summer!
More anon...
