Are you represented in the book?
Definitely not.
A great read. So much going on and Wilson is an excellent writer.
Jacks auto is a great read. Didn’t even mind all the shite talk about fishing
Found this book in my stocking on Christmas morning. It’s a page-turner.
From one of Outside magazine’s “Literary All-Stars” comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever, down the entire length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, during the legendary flood of 1983.
In the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Seabiscuit, the engrossing tale of the fastest boat ride ever down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
In the winter of 1983,the largest El Niño event on record—a chain of “superstorms” that swept in from the Pacific Ocean—battered the entire West. That spring, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam, a 710-foot-high wall of concrete that sat at the head of the most iconic landscape feature in America, the Grand Canyon. As the water clawed toward the parapet of the dam, worried federal officials desperately scrambled to avoid a worst-case scenario: one of the most dramatic dam failures in history.
In the midst of this crisis, beneath the light of a full moon, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado just below the dam’s base and rocketed toward the dark chasm downstream, where the torrents of water released by the dam engineers had created a rock-walled maelstrom so powerful it shifted giant boulders and created bizarre hydraulic features never previously seen. The river was already choked with the wreckage of commercial rafting trips: injured passengers clung to the remnants of three-ton motorboats that had been turned upside down and torn to pieces. The chaos had claimed its first fatality, further launches were forbidden, and rangers were conducting the largest helicopter evacuation in the history of Grand Canyon National Park.
An insurgent river run under such conditions seemed to border on the suicidal, but Kenton Grua, the captain of that dory, was on an unusual mission: a gesture of defiance unlike anything the river world had ever seen. His aim was to use the flood as a hydraulic slingshot that would hurl him and two companions through 277 miles of some of the most ferocious white water in North America and, if everything went as planned, catapult the Emerald Mile into legend as the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God—through the heart of the Grand Canyon.
Grua himself was already something of a mythic figure, a fearless boatman obsessed with the mysteries of the canyon. His quest embraced not only the trials of the speed run itself but also the larger story of his predecessors: the men who had first discovered the canyon and pioneered its exploration, as well as those who waged a landmark battle to prevent it from being hog-tied by a series of massive hydroelectric dams—a conflict that continues to this day.
A writer who has worked as a river guide himself and is intimately familiar with the canyon’s many secrets, Kevin Fedarko is the ideal narrator for this American epic. The saga of The Emerald Mile is a thrilling adventure, as well as a magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth. This book announces Fedarko as a major writing talent and at last sets forth the full story of an American legend—the legend of The Emerald Mile.
1 Like
Nearly finished this. Interesting in parts, but this is not a chap who wears his learning lightly. Every second paragraph proceeds in the following manner
In his book “X”, “Y” states that ….
As an aside I’m sure this cunt was sitting near me at the 2010 Munster Final.
2 Likes
Always got the feeling that you lads don’t use the library service much. It’s one of the things this country does right. I’m waiting on Rodfather, Tadhg Coakley’s book and a book about the Casey Brothers down in Sneem. I’m able to read books online straightaway as well.
4 Likes
Agreed on Irish libraries, personally I don’t use them half enough but we’ve had the kids using the library since they were knee high,
I’ve read every picture book that ever was thanks to the libraries
1 Like
Im afraid to run my card through - i owe a fortune i say
Yeah, wouldn’t be going off buying something like season of Sundays or that anyway.
They’re usually fairly understanding about it. Never heard of anyone who’s had to pay massive fines. Should talk to them.
I’ll have to get my reading glasses out
1 Like
I have at least 2
that are over a year overdue
1 Like
They won’t fine you, trust me
1 Like
I got that for Christmas
Can you get audiobooks from Irish libraries?
Yes.
I’m a library afficionado but never thought of them. How does it work do you get a link to download or something? Is there any limit on how many you can get or which ones? It’s the one annoying thing about ordering the books you’d be waiting ages sometimes for popular ones.