Heat and Light audiobook

$1.99 Kindle special today! If you are interested in this topic --This book very well written!!! An excellent price. (it must break the authors heart to be selling so low). Fracking is very much a part of this novel. So, before I read this book -.....(hard copy)...I spent some time talking about the pros and cons with my friend Comet ... ( a pool visitor & book buddy). It was a useful conversation. Given the timely subject - book clubs might want to consider choosing "Heat and Light".Jennifer Haigh provides plenty of juice to talk about: interesting and diverse characters - problems with relationships - political concerns, challenges and opportunities about fracking..... environmental devastation, economic depression, emotional concerns, and how families in small communities often feel left behind. Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a small decaying town, is situated above a large natural gas deposit. This is very much a social novel - definitely thought provoking...it's worth reading. Yet, I also believe discussions about this book will enhance the experience. The storytelling is very engaging in parts - but it's also sleepy in other parts. There are a couple things that had me shaking my head --I thought Jennifer stereotyped a couple of the residents. The organic farmers and lesbian couple were definitely pegged as the anti-fracking people. Yet anybody from Houston Texas... were the villains. I live in California - I'm not blind -- what she did makes the obvious choice... but I'm not sure it was the kind choice. I looked at my own stand on environmental issues from different sides -opposing interests that are under National debate. This is an important topic....and through the characters different challenges they are each face and their points of view - we look at all sides of fracking.

This is a novel about Marcellus shale and the fracking industry in western Pennsylvania. The author has packed lots of information into her book about the energy companies who are drilling, about the land men who get landowners to sign a lease, about the environmental impacts to groundwater, about the economic impact in a community. (Does it really create jobs for people who live in the communities where wells are drilled?) There’s even some insight from activists’ points of view who oppose fracking. This topic interests me because I live in western Pennsylvania and we have 100 acres. These are the same issues we face in and around our community. This author wove her tale around the people who lived in this fictional community, the workers who drilled the wells, the rich guy who ran the energy company, and the farmers who leased their land. It was immensely readable, a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ engrossing tale.

Picture four people sitting at a square table, one on each side, working on a puzzle. Each of them will have a unique perspective on the incomplete image in the center of the table; a different side, a different angle, but all the pieces and perspectives are interconnected. Now, double that—make it an octagon, or square the square for sixteen individual, but interrelated, views. Each new angle also means more overlap, more interaction between the participants. In that image you find a metaphor for the multiple point-of-view narration in Jennifer Haigh’s excellent new book, Heat and Light: A Novel. Well-written, well-plotted, and well-characterized, Heat and Light takes us deep down to the core of a place, its people and the (literal and figurative) wells that are drilled in their community. Haigh has “fracked” her characters and the locale to draw out their essence just as thoroughly as any energy company in her fictional Bakerton, PA has probed and plumbed the earth looking for natural gas and shale oil. What Haigh “pumps out,” what she delivers to “consumers” (readers) should fuel not only self-exploration but our civil discourse about energy use and policy. At once an easy-to-read and thought-provoking story, Haigh’s book deftly examines who extracts and produces our energy as well as the costs and benefits energy production brings to the people involved, their personal and physical ecosystems, and the environment in general. Through well-woven plot and well-rounded, intensely human characters, she treats us to an overview of U.S. energy history from the early 20th century to present day. She then forces us to ask, given our expectation of light and heat at the flip of a switch or touch of a button, what role we as consumers play in this process? And what role does the energy industry play in our political and social, not to mention, economic lives? If you live an area where fracking and oil and gas extraction are part of your daily life (as does this reviewer), you will want to read this book. If you live in an area that is debating the value of fracking, this book would provide an excellent and timely “community read.” More to the point, whether you like to read books by lamplight or on devices that have to be charged to function, Heat and Light should be next on your reading list. -Cindy

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway.This review has been difficult to formulate, not because of concerns with the caliber of the book but because I’d like to do it justice. With the setting and underlying themes, Ms. Haigh has managed to not only explore her characters with empathy for even minor players but to have their lives reflect so many issues facing us today. This is what good fiction is all about, isn’t it? You become involved in someone else’s story and think more deeply about why people do the inexplicable.I live in Houston, a place many of the characters call home. I disagree completely with the description of Houston as "a charmless, treeless, damp sinkhole with urban pretensions”. There are plenty of trees, parks and all the urban amenities one could wish for even if the climate in summer is a little hard to handle. The stereotypes of the “bubba” businessmen were also a little hard to stomach. This section of the book almost made me quit reading but I am glad I didn’t. But this isn’t a story about Houston; this is set in former coal country in Pennsylvania. The latest round of extractive industry begins with a “landman” approaching local residents, most of whom are struggling to get by. For an upfront payment, these residents sell their mineral rights for a payment per acre with promises of income down the road once drilling begins.So begins what is really a second or third wave of exploitation of resources in the area of Bakerton, PA. As the author puts it: “Rural Pennsylvania doesn’t fascinate the world, not generally, but cyclically, periodically, its innards are of interest”. Ms, Haigh explores the remnants of coal mining, family history and its impact on decisions made today, The forces for and against fracking who are either off to the next cause or on to the next unexplored terrain are contrasted beautifully with the people who live in Bakerton and must live with their decisions for long after the business people and activists are gone.The lives of the locals are explored in a very real way and without preaching about it; the ills of a town left behind by the 21st economy are explored through a number of characters you can’t help caring about. This is true even if you become frustrated with their choices. In other words they are human and as most of our friends and family are in real life.There are no tidy endings here, again as in our real lives and where the people we have grown to care about is unknown. The story will stay with you though and inform the brief news stories and commentary we see about industry and environmental concerns. After all, there are people living in these areas and the news stories have very real world consequences for their present and their future lives.

Well done, complicated, sympathetic and painful exploration of a dying town, rough economy, and relationships by coincidence. Having enjoyed two of Haigh's earlier books, I was looking forward to this one. She's created both a panoramic and microscopic look at what happens when there are no jobs and people 'do what they've got to do to survive,' which, at the bottom, seems to be wind up on meth.I'd hate to see this book summed up as All You Need To Know About Fracking, when the humanity of it encompasses so many rich characters. Sure, the literally rich owner of a major energy company has leveraged his soul along with his vision. But how do we light up an energy economy built on past practices? One of the main characters, Rich(!) Devlin, is barely scraping by as a prison guard. In an early chapter, when thinking about the inmates, he's already come to terms with what he can and cannot control. His mantra is "Don't make me see it." It's a metaphor that rules the entire book and everyone's actions. Don't make me look inside myself, don't let me see the whole picture, don't let me read the fine print.[page 39] "The town is named for its coal mines. The prison guard is named for his father. Both feel the weight of their naming, the ancestral burden: congenital defects, second hand hopes. Condemned, like all namesakes, to carry another's history, the bloopers and missteps, the lost promise. The concessions of age, its bitter surrenders; the rare and fleeting moments of grace."The portrait of the town, Bakerton, PA, has been mined before in Haigh's work. Generations of people scraping by in coal mines and small businesses are just trying to get a piece of the American Dream or die trying. Marriages fail, bad decisions trap and deflate dreams. But I think Heat and Light is one of the great American novels we're always talking about. It's now well into the new millennium when salesmen come to town to buy the mineral rights of natural gas after the coal mines are spent. People sell and sign and stay in place. Now. What will happen next? Everything, and it's not good.

I loved this complex, multilayered drama about the residents of a rural Pennsylvania town caught up in the fracking boom. Haigh resists easy answers or condemnations, instead showing us nuanced, human perspectives on a controversial issue. Very well done!

This is an interesting book about energy and there are lots of side stories here including the 3-mile island catastrophe. I felt like I really got an education at the same time I was entertained by the interesting plot, characters, and setting. The main story is about a small town in Pennsylvania that was first exploited for coal and when that died out the town dried up; but now it's being exploited for natural gas. I really didn't understand what fracking was till I read this book. The search for energy seems to be one which always exploits the poorest level of worker, destroys the environment, spreads toxic waste in unimaginable ways, and leaves some people at the top obscenely wealthy. It's really horrific what we have done to our poor earth in search of fuel. This is the 4th book I have read by this author and I enjoyed all of them but this one is the best so far. It's a really good read.

This novel reminded me a bit of American Rust in its depiction of the decline and desperation of small-town Central/Western Pennsylvania. Haigh goes further, though, in also depicting - and making personal - the generally impersonal forces that decimate communities and lives. The town of Bakerton has been in decline for more than a generation when the story begins, in the early years of the fracking boom. The people left behind scratch out a living by working at a bar or at the nearly state prison. When a representative from an energy company comes to town offering payment for fracking rights, many in Bakerton think their troubles are over. But, in many cases, they are only beginning. I live in Western Pennsylvania and I know how controversial fracking is. I liked how this book confronted the political controversies by telling the stories of individual people who are impacted by fracking in different ways, many of them quite unexpected and unwelcome. The book never gets preachy; the characters and their stories are always at the center. Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/

Haigh is one of my favorite authors. She is an extremely gifted storyteller. I have enjoyed all her books, from 2003's "Mrs. Kimble" to "Faith", 2011. "Heat & Light" is a sequel to "Baker Towers," a 2005 novel that was considered a modern classic about a coal mining town in Pennsylvania during the 1940s. The community was composed of company houses and church festivals and firemen's parades (think the movie "Picnic"). But of course, due to the nature of the men’s work it was also filled with union trouble and poverty, as well as frequent tragedy. Eventually, the time came when the mines were closed leaving behind an abandoned population. The hardworking families whose toils fueled America were forgotten. "Baker Towers" is historical fiction at its very best. It leaves the reader realizing how destructive the forces of change can be.In "Heat & Light" we are back in the same Pennsylvania area, though now in present day. The town was given the chance to be prosperous once again. It was discovered that the residents were living on top of earth filled with natural gas. Most of the residents were farmers and there were many arguments between them regarding whether to drill or not to drill? Similar to "Baker Towers" the reader is left wondering if the townsfolk were more cursed than blessed to live on land filled with natural resources. Once again, it was heartbreaking to read how industries that provide the resources that we need to survive are also the same industries that destroy the small towns providing them. Many inhabitants were conned into signing over their land and did not receive any of the promised money; that was lost to them through legal loopholes. (The rich get richer and the poor get screwed). I’m sure some readers will disagree with the author’s opinion on the controversial topic of fracking, but she makes a very strong case for its deadliness.Even though I enjoyed the novel, this is the first of all Haigh’s work for which I cannot give a 100% positive rating. She created many richly written, interesting characters, yet oddly that was a flaw in the story. Usually when the reader gets an intimate portrayal into the life of each character it heightens the story. In this book, in some instances, it detracts from the energy of the story. There were just too many rapidly introduced individuals, some followed throughout the book and some mentioned only once. I wish Haigh would have written the novel as connecting short stories rather than a novel with disconnected people. I believe that format would have worked better in this story. Still, the reader gets to see up close the pain of what life is like in two versions of a hurting blue collar town. Even with my one criticism, this is a complicated and sympathetic American tale written by an excellent writer.Find all my reviews at https://books6259.wordpress.com/

This novel deals with the process known as fracking and all the aspects of what it means to the US and to the people living near where it is being done. It has been quite controversial, being touted as a temporary (at least) solution to our burning of coal, though recent studies are showing a much larger than anticipated release of methane, mostly due to shoddy work on the part of the corporations that are in charge (what else is new), which is awful for accelerating the devastating effects of climate change. I, personally, am opposed to fracking, especially the way it is being done presently, with minimal oversight.Now that that is out of the way, let me say that Jennifer Haigh handles the issue very fairly, showing all the positive and negative aspects of both sides of the issue. She introduces a cast of characters in a very small town in Western Pennsylvania who have been struggling ever since their coal mines were closed. Enter Darco Energy from Texas, who convince a bunch of people to allow drilling on their land for a share of the profit (much smaller than it should be). The novel follows several people who are affected by this turn of events, from people needing quick money to a lesbian couple who run an organic dairy. The author weaves a tale that is rich in character, not terribly exciting but definitely compelling, and ends with a sort of denouement to the whole thing.There is no central character in all this. If it were a movie, no one could qualify for best actor or best actress awards. This didn't bother me that much, for I found all of the characters interesting. However, it did lessen the emotional impact a bit. This is more of a set of character studies and interesting timely information about energy production and small town life. I wasn't moved particularly by this novel, but I was very fascinated by it. And I enjoyed the even-handed approach--both the energy company and the environmentalists have their faults and deceptions, and I felt that it was realistically presented. And on top of all that, the novel was extremely well-written.

In her newest novel, Jennifer Haigh returns to the small Pennsylvanian town of Baker Towers, a world she first explored in her 2005 book by the same name. In Baker Towers, she explores coal mining, but in Heat & Light, she opens her book with a short history of oil. Then, she delivers a single line that stayed with me as I read the rest of the book: "More than most places, Pennsylvania is what lies beneath."As someone who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, I am well aware of how defined my world was by what was beneath me. I am also well aware of the state's problematic relationships with the environment and the blue collar/working class world. Haigh's newest novel takes us into the heat of this relationship with the story of how fracking invades and thus, changes the lives of those who live in Baker Towers, Pennsylvania.It's through this story that learn about Rich Devlin, who leases his mineral rights to finance his dreams of farming. We learn about his young daughter, whose mysterious illness may or may not be because of environmental issues that have been caused fracking. We learn about a lonely preacher, who falls in love with one of the workers who is fracking the land. We learn about organic dairy farmers, Mack and Rena, whose business is hurt by the environmental issues going on around them. All of their lives are intertwined by the arrival of fracking in their world. Yes, Haigh's novel is political. There's no denying that. Still, she doesn't offer any clear cut answers to the questions she poses through her characters about a world where fracking may be both a blessing and a curse.Perhaps that is what I loved most about this book.

Heat & Light is stunning and panoramic in scope. Jennifer Haigh shows us another side of Bakerton -- of the industries that provide resources we need to survive; yet are destroying our small towns and arguably poisoning us. Heat and Light examines all of these angles from the oil brokers to the landowners who are trying to build a future for their families to the contractors who live away from their families. Is fracking and environmental devastation of resources our legacy? Is a desperate power grab for the American Dream -- where we are forced to "sell our souls to the devil" -- our new reality? And is all of this really making us sick? The answers are not easy and Jennifer Haigh does not pretend that they are -- they are complicated and she doesn't hold back anything to answer them. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.