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Amity and Prosperity
Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America | Eliza Griswold
15 posts | 7 read | 1 reading | 19 to read
In Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy booms impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one womans transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist. Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking boom comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania. Intrigued by reports of lucrative natural gas leases in her neighbors mailboxes, she strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company. Soon trucks begin rumbling past her small farm, a fenced-off drill site rises on an adjacent hilltop, and domestic animals and pets start to die. When mysterious sicknesses begin to afflict her children, she appeals to the company for help. Its representatives insist that nothing is wrong. Alarmed by her childrens illnesses, Haney joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate whats really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage thats being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for their fate, and for redressing it: The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values, and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice.
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review
suffisaunce
Pickpick

This is an excellent, excellent book; I will be invested in news of the people involved for long after the last pages. If you are interested in reading a nuanced, sensitive treatment of the fracking problem--timely too in its Pennsylvania setting--I cannot recommend this one more highly.

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Reagan
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I‘m handling the ongoing pandemic by buying and not reading these and also potentially getting a 5th cat...

Texreader Sounds like a perfectly reasonable response to a pandemic to me! 4y
Soubhiville The books will be there when you need them. ❤️ 4y
AutumnRLS I've bought more books than I could possibly read in a whole year during this pandemic and got a third dog. You are not alone! ❤ 4y
Soytoosaucy I‘ve been doing the same! Just buying and buying books. Lol so I can read endlessly I guess 🤣 4y
Reagan Ahh these responses hit me right in the feels! 4y
55 likes5 comments
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suffisaunce
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One thing that this book is genius at is drawing all the lines.

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suffisaunce
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I too live in a part of the US where energy production is a reality of life, and I know that there are greys. And this book is making me want to scream ...

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suffisaunce
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As good an argument for valorizing reading and critical thinking as anything I've seen. This book is intense and beautifully written; I'm sure I'll have more to say once done.

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Pedrocamacho
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Pickpick

This is one of my tops for the year. “Amity and Prosperity” both disturbed and angered me. Yet, I couldn‘t put it down.

Pedrocamacho It is especially galling when you think that most of this story unfolded pre-Trump. Similar to the situation in Flint, the EPA was almost completely ineffectual. One can only wonder how bad it must be now. Given the amount outright lying and fraud along with the almost total lack of real oversight, Americans have no reason to believe a single claim made by anyone associated with an extractive industry. (edited) 5y
9 likes1 comment
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cathysaid
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😡 😡 😡 And this poor family that is the focus of this book is suffering from arsenic and glycol poisioning through air and water. Even the animals are dying. But the company is protected from almost all government regulation. Infuriating.

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alisahar
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From the opening of Eliza Griswold‘s Pulitzer-winning book on fracking in Pennsylvania.

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DocBrown
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Pickpick

David takes on Goliath but this time Goliath wins. This Pulitzer winner is well written and compelling, and I kept hoping for vindication but none came. Frustrating as hell!! Prepare to be outraged by corporate greed, governmental incompetence, and citizen powerlessness in this story of the human (and animal) cost of fracking.

Suet624 Ugh. I don‘t think I can read this one. I feel such a weight every day because of the many injustices occurring. 5y
63 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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Hoopiefoot
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Pickpick

I was so happy to see this book win a Pulitzer. Eliza Griswold tells a compelling story about the ways fracking has affected an entire community, for better or worse. My family lives in Washington County, PA and this book hit close to home for me.

MicheleinPhilly Have you read this novel? I loved it. 6y
Hoopiefoot Yes! I loved it too! 6y
Christine Oh, wonderful! I have this checked out of the library but haven‘t gotten to yet - must fix that! And yes, @MicheleinPhilly , Heat and Light is so good! 6y
54 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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SamAnne
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Listening and ready this well-written and heart breaking story of the damage fracking has done to two Pennsylvania towns.

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WanderingBookaneer
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Current read

SamAnne Starting this week. 6y
WanderingBookaneer @SamAnne : I found it riveting. 6y
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catiewithac
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Pickpick

This is an engaging true corporate crime story of a nurse and single mom of 2 who fought a fracking giant for clean water. Range Resources was negligent on multiple fronts but never really faced consequences. If you liked the story of Erin Brockovich you will probably like Stacey Haney and the husband and wife lawyer team who took her case. Justice is elusive. But we should still seek it. Equity before the law is a worthwhile goal. ⚖️

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Hoopiefoot
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This is where my username comes from. And this book is breaking my heart 💔

SamAnne Starting it this week. 6y
SamAnne Just started listening to this heartbreaking story. I‘m from a small town damaged by the logging industry and it resonates with me. 6y
63 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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catiewithac
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A story of corporate crime and greed perpetrated against the poor. Environmental pollution kills animals and devastates families. This is a gripping true story. 💧

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