Transplanting a Seattleite

I had a lovely planned phone call with K. I had an unexpected and more emotional but productive phone call with C. after that (MIL). You really don't stop experiencing parental worry and anguish, just because your kids are grown and have their own kids. I feel for everyone out there figuring out how to best support their grown kids.

I walked with M.

I read _Firestorm_ by Nevada Barr this month's book group selection. Yeah, I was a little surprised I managed to fit that in, too. I really should read these things earlier in the month.

I used to read Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series, before I moved East and got married a second time and had kids of my own. I loved the descriptions of the national parks that Anna lives and works in. But over time, I stopped reading the books, and I figured this would be a great chance to try to better understand _why_ I lost interest.

Short form: another petite, thin, strong woman in a world of mostly men, everyone mostly unlikeable, and a fair amount of negativity from the protagonist to pretty much all other women. It isn't monolithic conflict / dislike -- in this outing, she starts out completely not understanding Paula Boggins and feeling contempt for her, and moves to a better understanding of Boggins and feeling some affection for her. She also starts out trusting and relying on Jennifer Short, and winds up feeling disappointed in her, altho she continues to feel loyalty towards her.

Frederick Stanton appears in this outing, and comes out from Chicago to Incident Base to research what led to the wildfire that traps Anna and others, in weather that prevents a helicopter rescue, and downed trees from fire and wind blocking the road to get to them. Because they are physically separated for almost the entire book, and because their phone/radio contacts are very constrained, most of the relationship development between them occurs between each of them and their imagined version of the other. Given that Ms. Pigeon has an Unfortunate History with Alcohol (she's long sober by this point), hardly a healthy start to much of anything.

All that said, the descriptions remain the strong point of these novels. Many (most?) of Barr's novels have some amount of locked room to them, in this case, the possible perpetrators are trapped on a mountain for a few days with no food and limited shelter / warmth, waiting to be rescued after having suffered extensive burns (life threatening in one case, less so in others) in the fire that trapped them and during which one of their number committed murder. If you like locked rooms, well, maybe you could tell me if this was a good one. I find them somewhat meh.

Lassen sounds cool tho. Maybe I'll get to visit some day.

ETA: #12, for those who are keeping track. And it's March! There's a real chance I'll keep it under 50 this year!!!