Friday Friyay: 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers

 We finally had rain! I could have cried when I woke up this morning and there was cool air and the smell of rain coming in through the window. It's been absolutely suffocating here in the Netherlands the past few days, which is a major impediment towards any work for me. I can't focus when I'm hot. So hopefully I can make today and the weekend productive for when the heat comes back! I only reviewed one book this week, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, but I have some really nice books lined up for review on their upcoming publication days! For today, I'm sharing excerpts from a book I need to get back into. I absolutely loved it when I first began reading it but somehow I, of course, got distracted. So now I'm back at it: The Overstory by Richard Powers.

The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond:

An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.
An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut.
A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light.
A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another.

These four, and five other strangers – each summoned in different ways by trees – are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.

There is a world alongside ours – vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blog Hop, hosted by Charlie over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. 

BB:

'First there was nothing. Then there was everything.
Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages.
A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine. Its bark presses hard against her back, as hard as life. Its needles scent the air and a force hums in the heart of the wood. Her ears tune down to the lowest frequencies. The tree is saying things, in words before words.
' p.3 (first page)

I remember loving this opening. It's almost like a poem and it brings back to mind so many moments of sitting under trees, leaning against them, the rustling of the wind through their leaves... beautiful.

F56:

'The police give them back the fun. They own it, technically, by virtue of inheritance.' p.56

I have absolutely no memory of this snippet, however. Why is there a gun? Was it their father/mother's? Can't wait to dig back into it!

BBH:

This week's question was submitted by Elizabeth from the wonderful Silver's Reviews:

How often do you post on your blog and/or social media?

Great question, one which always fills me with guilt and self-doubt! I don't think I post enough reviews, mainly because once I get busy with "real life" the reviewing takes a back seat since it does require quite a bit of work from me sometimes. I keep reading, I just never make it to the posting. Anyway, I post at least two times a week at this point, the Mailbox Monday meme on Mondays and this post on Fridays. Between that I try to post as many reviews as is feasible. Some weeks that means one a day, other weeks that means one on a Sunday, if I'm lucky. 

When it comes to the rest of social media I'm mostly consistent. I hardly Tweet myself, except about book-related things like reviews I want to share or books I want to highlight etc. I reTweet a lot. On Instagram I tend to post once every 2 weeks or so and it is usually related to my cat or a book that came in. Once I can go sightseeing and traveling again though, that will change!

What about you?

Comments

  1. What a fascinating premise, and the excerpts are great! Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

    Our temperatures will be triple digits starting tomorrow!

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    1. I'm wishing you all the cool breezes I can spare! And yes, this is a beautiful book, can't wait to get back into it. Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend :)

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  2. I'm the same way when it comes to how often I post! The weekly book memes are easy because you can pre-schedule them, but the reviews... sigh. Sometimes it's hard to get them out lol! Hope you have a great weekend :)

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    1. It's just hard to get the reviews out sometimes, especially when a book falls into the "it was fine" category! Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend :)

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  3. I have times when I have lots of review posts ready to publish and other times where the ground is thin. I do try to do 3 memes a week, so at least the blog stays active.

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    1. That's quite a solid schedule! And I always think it's better to make sure you're happy with your reviews rather than just posting them to keep up! Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend :)

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  4. I love that beginning! This sounds like a fascinating read! Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great weekend! :)

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    1. It's such a great character study and yet also a beautiful ode to trees! Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend :)

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  5. This sounds good. Even the cover intrigues me.

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    1. It's so stunning but also quite chunky, so I'll need a good week of no deadlines for it! Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend :)

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  6. I thought the first third of The Overstory was wonderful. Then the second third started to drag for me. The last third drove me out of my mind! Wow, that book got long and weird. It didn't help that I lived here in Oregon through the "timber wars" of the '80s and '90s and someone else's version is never like the one you remember yourself.

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    1. I think last time I also gave up during the second third of the book, so I'm hoping to persevere through it this time for the beautiful language. And I can imagine it was kind of weird to read about something you remembered so differently! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  7. Sounds to be beautifully written. Happy weekend!

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    1. The language really was what made me come back to this book, simply stunning! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  8. This book sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing it.

    So glad to hear you got some rain. We need some here, too.

    I understand what you're saying about blogging. Not a lot of time lately.

    Thanks for visiting my blog today.

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    1. Time really does seem to fly, but rainy or cloudy weather is the perfect weather for me to read and blog! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  9. Overstory is one I want to try. Just need to set aside time and be in the right mood as I know it is a chunkster. Enjoy your current reads.

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    1. Tis indeed a chunky boy, so perfect for a summer getaway when you can really sink into it! Thanks for dropping by :)

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