Chasing Lakes by Katey Walter Anthony (TLC Book Tours)

 

What is your passion?  While you can definitely guess that books and reading is my passion, water resources and engineering is my professional passion. Even better is when I can combine both my love of water and reading. Chasing Lakes is the perfect book for this situation.

Katey Walter Anthony grew up loving science and the great outdoors.  Her research on methane brought her to Siberia where she had adventures trying to figure out how to capture methane for her research.  Her adventures continued in Alaska, but as she grew older, she started to realize there was a piece still missing in her life, which was faith.  She also discovered love along the way with Peter, a Minnesota farmer.

I enjoyed everything about this memoir, the great outdoors, the adventure, the science, and the introspective look on life and love.  It was a coming-of-age novel as well as an exploration of faith.  I geeked out on the science talk.  I also got into my field because I love water.  It did a good job of talking about how the natural world and human made world blend together and about climate change.  It’s hard to really define this book by any one genre, but it was a personal story of a woman exploring science, but also finding her faith.

Overall, Chasing Lakes is a personal journey of one woman through science and faith that brought her to a better understanding of the world.

Book Source:  A Review Copy from Harper One as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Well by Catherine Chanter

Title: The Well

Author: Catherine Chanter
Read by: Nicola Barber
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 12 hours and 57 minutes
Source: Review Digital Audio from Simon & Schuster – Thanks!

What would our future hold if rain suddenly stopped falling?  As our water supplies dwindled and crops stopped growing, what would happen to our world?  This is a question I ponder in my profession, but in The Well by Catherine Chanter, it is reality for Ruth and Mark Ardingly, a couple who live in England in the not too distant future.

After Mark is wrongfully accused and exonerated from a crime in London, he and his wife of twenty years, Ruth, buy a new place, The Well, in the country to make a fresh start.  They are happy being farmers in the country at first, until an inexplicable drought happens across England, but mysteriously does not affect The Well.  While they have plenty of water, green grass, and crops, others across England are starting to panic.  This panic leads to people wandering in bands across the land and to mysterious religious orders becoming prevalent.  When one such order moves to the well, Ruth finds herself swept up by the mysticism of the Daughters of the Rose. This causes her to obsess with the religion and emotionally leave her husband, troubled daughter Angie, and grandson Lucien behind.

When tragedy strikes at the Well, Ruth and Mark’s world is shattered.  After being incarcerated for a period of time, Ruth returns to The Well and tries to piece together what happened.  Who committed the murder and why?

I was intrigued by the premise of this novel.  I like how the social order declines rapidly with the lack of water as I imagine it would in the real world.  I also liked how everyone seems to turn on the Ardinglys for still having water and how that impacts their relationship.  I also really like a good mystery and enjoyed finding out what really happened in this case.

Nicola Barber was an excellent narrator who provided and unique voice and presence for each character. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook on my daily commute. 

The novel switched time frames from the newly returned Ruth trying to figure out caused the tragedy to the past Ruth recounting their lives at the well.  I thought this worked well to solve the mystery, although I did feel that the novel did drag a bit in the middle.  Once the action and plot picked up again, I was absorbed through the end.  I also liked that Ruth was not always a reliable narrator.  After you learn how she was swept up by the cult of the Rose, I started to wonder if anything she was saying was real.

Overall, if you are looking for a unique story with a good mystery, damaged characters, and very interesting premise, I highly recommend The Well.

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman

I somehow have found myself three books behind on book reviews, and all three were excellent books. I have them all posted now with this review for The Big Thirst. One of my office mates came back from Spring Break and told me that this was a book that I had to read. He gave me a summary and told me it was all about one of my favorite subjects, water. I am an environmental engineer / water resources engineer. Water is my career and is now what I am teaching about to the next generation. Would this book enthrall a lady of water like me? The answer is yes. I was fascinated by The Big Thirst, and what is even better, it was written in such a way that you don’t have to be a water expert to enjoy it. Fishman wrote the book at a down to earth level that can easily be understood, while including enough facts and figures to keep someone like me interested.


Fishman tells the story of the importance of water to human beings and how the use of water was revolutionized one-hundred years ago when cities began to pipe clean water to each household in the United States. The problem is that now most Americans take this water for granted.

Fishman explored how the driest city in the United States, Las Vegas, uses innovative means to make sure that their fountains are flowing and guests are supplied with plentiful water in a wonderfully named chapter “Dolphins in the Desert”. I was fascinated, but “water czar” Patricia Mulroy also made me nervous when she stated that she thought Great Lakes water should be piped to places like Las Vegas. I take Fishman to task for not further exploring this idea and why it is not the same as the mining of oil. Water is a replenishable source. If you take it away from the Great Lakes to an outside watershed that far away, it is never coming back. Meanwhile the Great Lakes (which are already at historic lows), would not be able to provide the habitat for its native species, water for the people that live in the many cities that surround them, water for the boats that haul freight, iron ore, etc. on the lakes, and water for tourism which is a large part of the economy of most cities along the great lakes. I believe that if people want Great Lakes water, then they should move to the Great Lakes region. End of story. I will get off my soap box now and politely put it away.

Fishman also examine water uses in other countries – in particular Australia and India. I was amazed about the story of India’s water. I had no idea that the major urban cities do not have 24/7 water service and laugh that the idea is even possible. The water quality in India was distressing. I hope with all of the technical expertise and knowledge that India has, that they will soon tackle and solve this very pressing issue. It was also sad that lower income girls are not able to attend school in India because they spend their time either hauling water home for their families or waiting for the water truck in urban cities. Very sad.

I could go on about this book all day, but I will curb myself. The book did repeat some information towards the end, but Fishman was using it as points to wrap up his conclusions. Overall, this is an excellent book and a must read for everyone who drinks water and would like to continue to do so in the future.

This book had MANY great quotes, but I will pick only a couple to share:

“By 1936, they conclude, simple filtration and chlorination of city water supplies reduced overall mortality in U.S. cities by 13 percent. Clean water cut child mortality in half.”

“The problem is that bottled water is a wacky, funhouse-mirror version of the real world of water. Bottled water subtly corrodes our confidence in tap water, creating the illusion that bottled water is somehow safer, or better, or healthier. In fact, tap water is much more tightly regulated and monitored than bottled water.”

“Just in India, forty children an hour under five years old die from contaminated water. One Indian toddler, not even old enough for kindergarten, dies every ninety seconds from bad water, twenty-four hours a day.”

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

Wine to Water: A Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World by Doc Hendley Review and GIVEWAY!

 Wine to Water is the uplifting and heart-breaking personal journey of a young man finding his calling in life. Dickson “Doc” Hendley is the son of a preacher who spent many years trying to discover his true passion in life. He knew he loved Harley motorcycles, playing his guitar, and being a bartender in North Carolina. But it wasn’t until he met a woman who told him about her husband’s work at an aid organization called Samaritan’s Purse that Doc felt his interest truly perked. Doing research on his own, he discovered that there is a vast worldwide water crisis. Disturbed by this knowledge, Doc put together a “wine to water” event at a local bar to raise awareness of the crisis and raise money.


After trying to donate the money to Samaritan’s Purse, Doc was roped in by the organization to see for himself the crisis first hand. Asked to be sent to the worse place in the world, Doc was sent to Darfur in 2004. Once there, Doc went to the UN “no-go” hot spots to help the people that other aid organizations didn’t assist. First hand he discovered the atrocities of a government sponsored genocide. Although he found himself mostly against the Janjaweed terrorists, he also helped them out to have clean drinking water. He also realized that while he sided with the SLA rebels, they were not saints.

On the ground in Darfur, Doc learned that he was good working with people and solving problems. Instead of putting in expensive new wells, he and his crew soon became experts at fixing the wells as a much cheaper alternative. He also learned that to truly achieve clean water, he had to educate the people on how to maintain and fix their own wells.

Doc faced many death defying experiences and also came face to face with pure evil. From it, he was able to find himself, his faith, and a future where he could continue to help those most at need. As Doc stated in the book, he realized that he didn’t have to be a perfect do-gooder, to do good in this world.

I found Doc to be a truly admirable person. His story was like himself, straightforward with no embellishments. His story was very interesting and also at times action packed. It starts with him and his convoy getting shot at and fleeing for their lives. To put your own life on the line to help those most in need is commendable, but Doc is never seeking the commendation. His story really gives the details of what was going on in Darfur, which I admit; I only had the slightest knowledge. Certain aspects of the story, such as when he meets young boy soldiers that show him where their teachers and fellow students were executed, brought me to tears.

The world water crisis is something that I am very interested in as a water resources engineer. I don’t think most people in America realize how lucky we are. You turn on the faucet and get clean drinking water, and when you flush the toilet it disappears. No one thinks about the process it took to get the water to your house or to treat your waste. Clean water in America in the twentieth century is credited as being the number one health benefit for saving lives, not vaccines. Unfortunately, not everyone in the world is as lucky as we are. I vastly admire those that help people across the world find clean drinking water. I had several friends that joined the Peace Corp with such intent in mind, and others that are in Engineers without Borders to also help. I have a dream to also help with Engineers without Borders in about ten years when my kids are bigger. This book really makes me want to follow this dream.

Overall, Wine to Water puts a face to the worldwide water crisis while also telling a darn good story. It is a very fast book to read. In fact my only complaint about the book is that I wanted to know more details about the last five years of Doc’s life, it was glossed over. Book 2 – Wine to Water in Haiti?

I reviewed Wine to Water as part of the TLC Book Tour. For a complete schedule, please check out this link. For more information about the great organization Wine to Water, check out this these links:

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Wine-Water-Bartenders-Quest-Bring/dp/1583334629

Website: http://winetowater.org/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5126989835
Twitter: @DocHendley or @winetowater = http://twitter.com/DocHendley or http://twitter.com/#!/winetowater

Giveaway Details


Penguin books and Doc Hendley have graciously offered a giveaway of one copy of Wine to Water by Doc Hendley.

If you would like to win this book please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the this book or this review. 

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight, Friday January 13, 2012.   This giveaway deadline has been extended to Friday January 20th!

Good luck!