Bayou Bytes Blog

In 1974, the Allbright family picks up and moves to Alaska.  Ernt Allbright, a former POW, has been deeply troubled since returning from Vietnam. He's prone to drinking, bouts of anger, and he can't hold down a job. After being fired yet again, he learns he's inherited a piece of land in the Alaskan wilderness. And he just knows  that living in the wild will make him feel better. He packs up his wife, Cora, and his thirteen year old daughter, Leni, and they set off for the Great Alone.  They're welcomed to their remote corner of Alaska by a small but tight-knit community. And for the first time in forever, Leni feels at home. She and her mother take well to the harsh climate, learning to built greenhouses and animal pens, how to hunt, and how to prepare supplies for the Long Night. At first, the long days and hard work seem to be comforting Ernt. But as the nights grow longer and the weather turns, Ernt's mood starts to sour... Though it's obviou...

I am a sucker for self help books. There is something so satisfying about sitting down and reading a book that tells me my life can be whatever I want it to be. All I have to do is follow my dreams, regardless of my financial situation or how likely actually following some of the steps might leave me homeless. Inspiring. The one thing about self help books is that they have good tips if you go through all the pages and take only a grain of salt from the mounds and mounds of sodium laden advice. Most of the authors of such books have one of two things going for them: they are already financially secure/have people helping them OR they have a small patch of really good luck that gives them the boost they need to start their flight towards success. If I read one more story about someone who quit their job and booked a flight to Hawaii all in the same day, I might actually rip my hair out. It’s just not practical for the everyday person. Still, I check these books out because after I c...

DuPont was one of the world's largest chemical companies, with an empire built on innovations like Teflon, and a reputation for rigorous health and safety procedures. The first reports of the deadly chemicals used in Teflon production appeared in the news in the early 2000's. It was the first the public had heard of the dangers of PFOAs, and the lawsuits being brought against DuPont for its use of the substance. DuPont, for all it's respect in the chemical community, had engaged in a fifty year cover-up. Early studies of PFOA revealed to DuPont that it could impact liver and kidney function, and cause cancer and birth defects. Instead of disclosing this information, they kept quiet, while workers on the floor practically bathed in the stuff. They dumped the PFOA-laden waste in unlined landfills in Parkersburg, West Virginia, where it quietly seeped into the groundwater... When the toxic water trickled offsite and reached Earl Tennant's cattle farm in the 1990...

Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It is definitely categorized as a self help book. It's a genre that a little odd to try to review, but here goes. This book is aimed at people who are trying to teach themselves a new language, a notoriously difficult task if you don't have learning partners or traditional immersion. So Gabriel Wyner sets out to break down how  your brain processes new languages and how you can hack that process to make words and grammar stick with less effort.  I love languages, and I figured a book that was so confident it could hack my brain was worth a shot. I've always had a difficult time reading self help books. To me, their tone always feels a little off,  both off-putting and encouraging. And  Fluent Forever  did have this tone, but the author is comfortably fluent in at least six languages and I so desperately wanted to know his secrets, so I stuck with it. In truth, the methods he describes ...