Sisters Reading Books

La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust) by Phillip Pullman      I am so excited by this new book series. I didn't even realize he was coming out with a new series of books, I can't believe I didn't know. Thankfully Tara reads them and told me about it. This book goes back to Lyra's life when she was a baby. Her protector and the protagonist is Malcolm, a boy who lives near her who develops a strong attachment to her and aids her when the flood occurs. I remember from the books some of the details of this story, that Lyra was first raised among nuns at a convent when a flood occurs, where she is saved and brought to Jordan College, where we find her as a girl in the first book. In many civilizations there is a story of a flood, including in the bible, and this book is an origin book of life, of a new world where Lyra is Eve. Dust is talked about less in the book, maybe as it is the beginning of Lyra's life and less centered on death. The alethiometer is used less in this...

   Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold     I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble as a buy one get one 50% off deal. I don't usually allow myself to get books there but it had been a while. This book won the Pulitzer Prize, don't remember what year but it's recent. It's about a family and town that had a private fracking company come into their town and upend their lives. The company Range came in to a rural PA town where many where not well off, and at first many people including the family this story centered on were enthusiastic about this economic opportunity. Things changed once the water and air became contaminated and the family became sick. In addition to the kids getting sick, over years, animals died or became sick on the farm too. Eventually the family moved off the farm and brought a lawsuit to Range, and won, although they never received much compensation for the years of trouble they went through. From the loss of livestock, their homes, their hea...