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watched as a giant ocean wave swelled up over the distant town. Twice as high as any of the houses, it crashed down on the main street, enveloping buildings in white spray for a moment before sliding back out again, taking with it fences and picnic tables. Roofs dripped with the residual foam.
relates to prior book
She thought of how angry it made her that her grades suffered due to participation points, when she knew she was learning just as much without having to shout answers out loud or be part of big group projects or give a presentation.
she opened a cookbook and began reciting a cookie recipe out loud. Two cups flour, one cup sugar . . . The act of saying the ingredients and measurements took her to another place. It was like a meditation in which her mind drifted out of her body.
it was a way for her to reach into herself, to block the rest of the world out. The problem with baking as meditation, though, was that after you were done, you were left with bread, cake, cookies, and any number of pastries you couldn’t possibly eat alone. She always thought it a little dishonest that she got so much peace out of baking, as she gave her baked goods away and perpetuated this dishonest impression of herself.
“even though whales can live for seventy, eighty, ninety years, when they die, it’s only the beginning of their story. The ‘fall’ in a whale fall isn’t the actual act of falling either. The ‘fall’ is what they call the whale’s body at the bottom of the ocean, and that new ecosystem that it’s become . . . that can go on for another half century.
It’s not that books were gone for good. They were just . . . different. My parents had a few, but most people’s books existed only as sound waves. Our eyes had become too precious.
Take that, people who incorrectly say audiobooks aren't 'reading'
The setting of this book is very loosely inspired by a town in New Brunswick, where broadcasts from abandoned shortwave radio towers were once heard crackling through the appliances in people’s homes.
The character of Esmée Taylor was also rooted in the true story of Ann Harvey of Newfoundland.
