The Nature of Things

I didn't much like any of the characters in this book with the possible exception of the kid Spencer, and that at first made it hard for me to get "into" the story. But at some point along the way, the plot grabbed me and I was all in for the rest of the ride through all of its twists and turns. The unreliable narrator has become so prevalent, especially in the psychological thriller genre, that it is almost a cliche. Alafair Burke uses the technique quite skillfully in this novel. It is impossible to tell at first whether we are being lied to or not. Is this person trustworthy? Can we rely on what she is telling us? In fact, can we rely on any of these characters? Are they all hiding secrets that they will say anything to keep hidden? Burke is certainly a talented storyteller and once she had hooked me, I loved following her character-driven plot right up until that final twist at the end. I never really saw it coming. Angela and Jason Powell have been married for six ye...

The daytime heat index around here has hovered close to 110 degrees F all last week. The summer sun has been relentless, unforgiving. The summer sun envisioned by Robert Louis Stevenson seems a bit gentler sort. He sees the garden and the gardener as welcoming its "warm and glittering look." But personally, my garden and I would welcome a bit of respite from "his golden face." So would my hard-working air conditioner. Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson Great is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven with repose; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pull To keep the shady parlour cool, Yet he will find a chink or two To slip his golden fingers through. The dusty attic spider-clad He, through the keyhole, maketh glad; And through the broken edge of tiles Into the laddered hay-loft smiles. Meantime his golden face around He bares to all the garden ground, And sheds a warm and glittering l...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  A magnificent Red-tailed Hawk (Krider's phase) surveys his domain from a dead limb. *~*~*~* The courts have dealt gas and oil pipelines a series of defeats this week. The most notable was the order to shut down and drain the Dakota Access Pipeline pending an environmental review. Conservationists hope this will be a turning point in their fight against these dangerous pipelines. *~*~*~* The Bird-Safe Buildings Act that has been introduced in Congress every year since 2010 would help to prevent birds from crashing into glass buildings. This year the act has gained some additional co-sponsors and there is at last some hope that it might actually go somewhere. *~*~*~* The high temperatures and dry conditions in the Arctic have produced ideal conditions for wildfires this summer and, indeed, wildfires have ensued. The blazes in June produced more carbon emissions than any other fires in almost two decades of monitorin...

The "War on Drugs" declared in the late 1970s has been a notably ugly, dirty, and ultimately unsuccessful war. The warriors themselves have all too often been compromised and dirty. Don Winslow introduces us to some of them in this work of fiction that reads as if it is torn from today's headlines. He shows us characters on both sides of the battle, all of them flawed even as they often also have their more humane side. Art Keller is a hard-charging DEA agent working in Mexico when we first meet him. He is fully invested in fighting this war and in destroying the supply chain of drugs that are flowing into the United States and causing untold misery. He is willing to fight dirty if that's what it takes to bring about the desired end. Early in his career, as he is trying to find a way "in" to the drug culture, Keller meets Adan and Raul Barerra. They are nephews to Miguel (known as Tio) who is the current head of the crime family that is sending the drugs acr...

Hidden amid the back streets of Barcelona is the Cemetery of Lost Books, a repository of out-of-print books that have been salvaged by people who love them. It is there that on a trip with his bookseller father ten-year-old Daniel Sempere discovers a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax.  The book is given to him and he reads and rereads it. It thoroughly captures his imagination and he becomes obsessed with the writer. He wants to learn everything about him and to find other books he has written. But as his investigation soon reveals, this may not be possible. It seems that the book that he has is the last surviving copy of that work. Carax's books are being sought out and destroyed by a strange figure who calls himself Lain Coubert. His life's work is to destroy all copies of Carax's books. The really strange thing is that Lain Coubert is the name of one of Carax's characters. In the book, it is the name of the Devil.  Daniel spends the next decade of h...

Claude McKay was a Jamaican writer who moved to the United States in 1912. He was a prominent and influential voice in the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. In 1921, he wrote this poem expressing his feelings about America. I think many of us can appreciate and empathize with those feelings. I am particularly affected by that last stanza: Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand. Often the days ahead appear particularly dark just now and we may feel that we are sinking, but perhaps it really is darkest before the dawn. Here's hoping... America by Claude McKay Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth. Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate, Her bigness sweeps my be...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is the time of summer when Purple Martins start leaving our area to begin their journey south for the winter. The birds are among the earliest migrants to return in the year, arriving here in late January or early February. By July 4, they have finished raising their families and are ready to go. *~*~*~*  Global warming reaches the ends of the Earth - even to the poles. Scientists say that the South Pole has been warming three times faster than the global average since the 1990s. *~*~*~* As climate warming accelerates, millions more U.S. homes will be subject to flooding than had been previously known. *~*~*~* The pandemic lockdown has created an "anthropause" in which humans have been more absent from some of the spaces they normally occupy and that has given other animals an opportunity to reclaim them. And it has given scientists new opportunities for studying those animals . *~*~*~* The Prairie Ecolog...