![\"Connie](\"https:\/\/troyehlers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ConnieMayFowler.jpeg\")
<\/a>A Million Fragile Bones by Connie May Fowler<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Million Fragile Bones by Connie May Fowler guides the reader, with love and compassion, into the environmental catastrophe caused …<\/p>\n
A Million Fragile Bones by Connie May Fowler guides the reader, with love and compassion, into the environmental catastrophe caused by BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.\u00a0 The facts, chronology, and images are here in horrific detail, all made personal through Connie\u2019s engagement with nature.\u00a0 This balance between memoir and non-fiction enable a close attachment to the historical events, allowing us to witness firsthand the true horror and scope of this tragedy.<\/p>\n
The early part of this book is memoir.\u00a0 Connie shares glimpses of her childhood in a pointillist manner, such that we come to understand her deep and meaningful connection to her natural surroundings.\u00a0 She lost her father at a young age, but remembers him as close to nature, and loving the sea and fishing.\u00a0 When she is torn from her home as a child, she gains solace from written words.\u00a0When alcoholism makes it hard for her mother to show affection, she finds unconditional love from her dog.\u00a0When Connie sees birds, she sees freedom and strength and grace.\u00a0 Ultimately she begins telling her stories and the memoir includes Oprah Winfrey discovering and producing for television her novel Before Women Had Wings.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Connie is seeking a home, and she finds one on Alligator Point, on the gulf coast of Florida.\u00a0 She immerses us in the passion she has for the wildlife of her surroundings.\u00a0 Every living being is sacred to her.\u00a0 Even the snakes and spiders are welcome to share her home.\u00a0 She studies the plants and birds and sea creatures sharing her world.\u00a0In her free time, she works to protect the animals from land development by spreading the word and engaging with local politicians.<\/p>\n
By the time we learn of the Deepwater Horizon\u2019s explosion, we have shared Connie\u2019s life and endeavors; we\u2019ve become stakeholders.\u00a0 We have come to love this place she calls home, after all we\u2019ve seen through her eyes.\u00a0 Suddenly what we begin seeing becomes tinted dark with dread.\u00a0 Oil is pluming into the ocean.\u00a0 BP executives and politicians are trying to cover up the disaster.\u00a0 Toxic chemicals are dumped into the ocean to hide the oil and a mixture of airborne pollutants blowing in from the sea.\u00a0 Connie\u2019s health suffers.\u00a0 After the polluted air come the dead and dying sea creatures.\u00a0 Connie takes classes to become certified to save the living, scrub them of oil.\u00a0 Her home has turned from paradise to hellscape.<\/p>\n
A Million Fragile Bones is a compelling read.\u00a0 Both the memoir and non-fiction tug at our heartstrings.\u00a0 Even after having read about the oil spill and watched it unfold daily on television, there are many facts that have escaped our attention, swept under the rug by the industry and our leaders.\u00a0 Here you learn the cold, hard truth.\u00a0 The horror of what happened, and the damage from which the gulf (and the world beyond) has still not recovered.\u00a0 And, living vicariously through Connie\u2019s love of nature, everything becomes more beautiful, poignant, and tragic.<\/p>\n
The world needs this book.<\/p>\n