A peak into Phoenix and Ashes; plus Visit Sunny Chernobyl

So, I am sitting here in my lab running a test that I need to pay some attention to, but it isn't engaging enough to keep me from getting bored. There isn't much in the way of fun reading material, but digging around I found something I didn't know was in here ...

For Book Beginnings on Friday, hosted by Rose City Reader ...

here is the beginning of Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey ...

Her eyes were so sore and swollen from weeping that she thought that by right she should have no tears left at all. She was so tired that she couldn't keep her mind focused on anything; it flitted from one thought to another, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate. 

 For non-fiction, well I am a little heavy on journal articles down here, but how about Visit Sunny Chernobyl and other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell ...

It began on a train. Vienna to Kiev, rocking back and forth in a cabin of the Kiev Express. There was a certain Agatha Christie-meets-Leonid Brezhnev charm to it. Long oriental rugs ran the length of its corridors, and the passenger compartments were outfitted with a faux wood-grain veneer and dark red seats that folded up to form bunks. 

This bit from the prologue is nice too ...

We come in smooth, coasting, sliding between stands of reeds, water lapping against the metal sides of the rowboat. A host of dragonflies dances around is. They land on the dented edges of the boat, on the oar handles, on my hands.

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For The Friday 56 hosted at Freda's Voice page 56 of Phoenix and Ashes ...

"That will take time, I'm afraid," said Alderscroft, sounding apologetic. 

"I can wait," she replied gaily, with a delicate little laugh. "After all, a job worth doing is worth doing properly. Thank you, my lord. This is much preferable to investigating the occasional foreigner on a walking tour through Shakespeare country." That sweet little laugh grated on Maya's nerves. 

And from Visit Sunny Chernobyl and other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places...

"Are we going to get close to one of these trucks ?" growled a main in the back.

Mindy smiled. "I'm going to try!" she said. But of what her trying consisted, we will never know. 

The bus continued down the road, past a few nice pools of sludge, the occasional electric shovel dabbling in the muck, and a couple of flares. 

Gas flares at the Suncor Oil Sands Mining Site. Image by Alex MacLean. Canada, 2014. (Source)

(Just FYI - they are touring one of the mining sites in the Athabasca tar sands area - I mentioned the Athabasca in Keystone Pipeline piece I wrote. Yeah, yeah, I really need to finish part 2 of that don't I).

Update - here you go Athabasca tar sands and the Keystone Pipeline - part 2