Ripple Effect
How fun to find The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century, another book by Alex Prud’Homme at my local library during April Earth Month. Years ago he co-authored with his relative Julia Child the New York Times bestseller My Life in France. I immediately recalled Julia’s time spent on the coast of Maine with her future husband and his twin brother as shared in the France book I read years ago.
The Child twin brothers felled trees and built a family vacation home. Yes, Julia helped do the hard work even before marrying Paul Child. Maine is where they were engaged and Maine is where they vacationed most summers. Even after Paul died, Julia Child spent summers on the coast.
Good writing is memorable and Alex certainly does his best again in this very environmental, scientific book, The Ripple Effect. Very little about power from Maine rivers, but more about water quality within its pages of research: “Beneath the dark green fir trees, wide ocher fields, and rolling purple-blue mountains of western Maine lie deep aquifers filled with billions of gallons of pristine water.”
Fifty percent of this natural water wonder “runs off into lakes and rivers.” Belgrade Lakes benefits bountifully from these abundant aquifers. As I swim in Great Pond and Salmon Lake, I can feel the surge of cooler spring waters bubbling through the bottom sands, often covered by leaves. Our Maine Geological Survey reveals in its careful mapping “over thirteen hundred square miles of aquifers,” as Maine continues to rank tops or next to top in natural drinkable water "highest quality in the nation.”
Poland Spring Water Company history since 1845 is explained and also the bottling plant town of Hollis thirty miles away.
The 1980 Swiss Perrier purchase of Poland Springs is covered in its numerous controversies. Further 2004 and the H2O groundswell movement is related.
Kim Jeffrey of Nestle flew to Portland from Connecticut, unleashing “a PR offensive.” The back and forth litigation and the change in Maine’s population is smnmarized. Read page 299 for better understanding than I can review here.
What I discovered at the library was yet another book, The Secret War of Julia Child, a novel by Diana R. Chambers. Just wandering the shelves in Menlo Park, CA brought me closer to Julia Child and her story: Her California early Life, her WWII spy work in Asia and meeting her future husband and SUMMERS in Maine. I do hope some day we have a book just about Julia and Paul Child’s love of Maine. You can still catch a little of that in My Life in France, illustrations of Maine coastal area included.
Yes, the novel by Chambers deals with Julia first ignoring her spy partner Paul Child, in her strong personality way, but the love story develops as they travel Asia extensively.
Maybe you, dear reader, order books from Amazon or do interlibrary loans like I do, but take time to wander the library shelves. I found Maine memories bounced back in my discoveries of these gems and recalling one from a long ago read.
Apparently the York Harbor Inn on the coast celebrated Julia Child’s 100th in 2012, and I completely missed it. Perhaps you ventured to the coast to celebrate her life and French recipes at the popular inn?
The Ripple Effect nonfiction by a favorite author was a “book” ripple effect for me personally to a biographical Life in France and The Secret War of Julia Child novel.
Take a reality journey through a library or a bookstore or a used book store and allow the titles to speak to your memories and curiosities. It is better than scrolling on the screen, believe me: just try it this summer.
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