pickA timely & horrifying book. Vaillant depicts with intensity & vividness the 2016 wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta that overtook the city. He described the hours leading up to it in great detail & I almost felt sick knowing what was coming. The picture inserts has one from someone who took it from his car as he & his family fled the town, & it was an infernal scene. The latter half of the book outlines our economic system's path of destruction.
batsy Really a hard book to sit with as more & more destruction from wildfires "colliding" with cities & towns become almost everyday news at this point. Also pretty mind-blowing was learning about how much stuff is petroleum-based, & the difference between older furniture & flammability compared to modern houses (literally takes only minutes to completely go up in flames). 8mo
Graywacke That‘s a little freaky about modern homes. (Great review!) 8mo
jlhammar Yes, so intense! Great review. 8mo
See All 18 Comments
batsy @Graywacke Thank you! I was freaked out to read about it, as well. Generally a lot of freaking out throughout the entire book. 8mo
batsy @jlhammar Thank you! He's a good writer who's able to put a lot of dense info into a readable narrative for a general audience. I was impressed. 8mo
LeahBergen Great review! 8mo
Leftcoastzen Great review!there are so many factors now involved in ramping up intensity of fires. 8mo
batsy @LeahBergen Thank you! 8mo
batsy @Leftcoastzen Thanks! And yes, it's actually so scary 😟 8mo
Leftcoastzen My friend lost power for a week , lucky he‘s not actually in the 57k acre smith river complex fire near California /Oregon border. Started because dry lightning started 13 fires in rural areas. It hasn‘t been in the news , started around time of Hurricane turned tropical storm hitting Southern California 8mo
merelybookish Totally off topic but saw that there's a #spinsterseptember reading challenge running on IG. 👵Thought of you! 😃 8mo
batsy @Leftcoastzen Goodness, that is scary. Yeah I do wonder what other extreme climate incidents are going unreported. Is your friend OK and do they have power now? 8mo
batsy @merelybookish Aaah! I didn't know this was a thing; thank you for letting me know! I'm following the challenge on IG now & am definitely going to try to read at least one #spinsterlit book 🤓 8mo
Leftcoastzen They are ok, he‘s taking care of his 97 year old mother . They had a small generator, the fire , though growing is not headed their way. The power company did a work around with their large generators.Still to dangerous to check the transmission lines through the fire area. 8mo
batsy @Leftcoastzen With an elderly mum too 😟 that is scary. I hope it remains safe and they are OK 🙏🏾 8mo
rubyslippersreads @merelybookish I thought of @batsy too when I saw the #spinsterseptember tag. 🙂 7mo
merelybookish @rubyslippersreads Great minds! 😀 7mo
batsy @rubyslippersreads @merelybookish I'm touched! 😆 7mo