The Devil Colony by James Rollins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


James Rollins hooked me from the get-go with his book Amazonia. Lo these many years later, with his latest, The Devil Colony, he is still keeping me enthralled.

The Devil Colony is the latest installation of the Sigma Force series, and I was first on the list when the local library got it. I've actually now read it through twice. I love Rollins' writing because the action is fantastic; very descriptive, pulls you right in. Yet the character development stays strong throughout the series--you keep caring about the individuals whose adventures we're addicted to following. And yet the best part for me is how he weaves in real stuff--real technology, real history--to tell the tale. Who knew that elements of our United States Seal came from the Iroquois leader, Chief Canasatego, and others from Manasseh, one of the ten lost tribes of Israel? Food for thought, that.

Great book, great read, an irrisistible distraction from those things we need to do. So don't start it if you have work to do!



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Blue & Green

Summertime ... it's what we put up with mud season and months of frigid temps for, here in Vermont. It's summer beauty is breathtaking; around every corner lies another spectacular vista, with entrancing deep greens of the hills and meadows, and brilliant blues, captured in sky and water alike. I just can't get enough of it.



As a kid, I used to lie on the grassy lawn for hours and just watch the clouds. I remember thinking at the time that green and blue must be very special colors, for God to drape our summer world in them, taking them in with our senses from May to September. They must be healing us, I thought, because they are so dominant at this time, and so intense--demanding to be absorbed, in our face with unstoppable beauty and irrepressible blessing. It's hard for me to now acknowledge that there's not much of it left, this summer of 2011. I haven't climbed Mt. Mansfield yet, nor Camel's Hump, 2 spring goals I have quietly harbored. Where have the days, the weeks gone? There has been lots of time spent in appreciation, though, and time in the mountain rivers, Lake Champlain, Lake Dunmore, an old favorite.


Vermont summers are very giving, in my opinion. We are given warmth, and the joy the sun carries on its Light; we are given gorgeous flowers, their messages borne on fragrantly wafting breezes to delighted olfactory receptors; we are given the exhilaration of the aforementioned vistas and views, those hills and valleys, mountains and waterways, wrapped in summer's mantle of emerald and tourmaline greens, sapphire blues; we are given the bounty of the gardens, the freshness impossible to describe but gratefully received; and we are given respite--respite from the harsh demands of fall, prickling us to "get ready," to batten down the hatches before winter's bite; respite from winter's austerity, winter's starkness and barren chilling cold; respite from the interminable wait... waiting for the sun to turn warm once again. Yes, I'm still basking in summer's warmth and delicious glow.


Yet I can't deny the cooler nights, the approach of school starting up again, and September, and reddening leaves. I won't even try. 50 years of Vermont's changing seasons has prepared me. Prepared me to be grateful and receive and acknowledge all the blessings of all the seasons; prepared me to detach, let go and release them as they come and go; prepared me to be flexible and adaptable and to accept what is; prepared me to have Faith, know that while each season is different, it will come around again. There are still a few more days to really sink into summer's magic and revel in her beauty and blessings. Join me, won't you?