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Washington Post
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Bug Hollow' perfectly captures the unpredictability of life
Don't be fooled by Michelle Huneven's warm welcome. She can be just as capricious and brutal as real life. Her new novel, 'Bug Hollow,' begins with a perfectly calibrated bit of domestic comedy set during a golden summer in the mid-1970s. Ellis Samuelson — the sweetest, smartest son any parents could ask for — has just graduated from high school and driven off on a week-long road trip with some buddies. The first intimations of trouble start dripping in when his friends come home and report, 'Ellis decided to stay away for a few more days.' Apparently, he met 'some girl' on a beach near Santa Cruz. More time slips by. Ellis doesn't return for his job as a camp counselor, but a few postcards suggest he's having a blast working at an ice cream parlor. 'I'm extremely happy here,' he writes, 'so please don't worry.' Yeah, right. 'I knew we shouldn't have let him go off like that,' his mother, Sib, says. 'One fast girl on a beach and he's a goner!' A straight-A kid with a full scholarship to Ole Miss: What if he doesn't come back in time for college? 'Something's fishy.' 'I'm sure he's fine,' his father says. 'It's high time he gave us something to worry about.' Not to be dissuaded, once Sib learns Ellis is camped out at a place called Bug Hollow in Boulder Creek, she throws everybody — the dog, too! — into their VW van, and they barrel off to retrieve the wayward son. 'He won't have a choice,' Sib says. 'We'll play it by ear,' Dad predicts. Teenagers! Huneven knows just how to seduce us with this family's adventures. We recognize their high jinks — the goofy, good-looking kid, the sharp-eyed mom, that easygoing dad. This is practically an episode of 'The Brady Bunch' written by Anne Tyler. The whole chapter is honey glazed in good humor, the passions of youth and the histrionics of loving parents. But then, with no more movement than the turn of a phrase or the slip of a knife, the Samuelson family suffers a gutting loss from which they will never move on. Except, of course, they do move on because that's time's cruel and blessed effect on grief. With extraordinary candor and tenderness, Huneven shuffles through those raw months when hope feels like a cheat as the Samuelsons are unmade and remade by tragedy. 'How weird life was, how absolute, how irremediable,' she writes. The important thing is to resist 'that sticky, toxic terror that life — this life, which gave you the beautiful sparkling world — squashed you like a gnat.' Sib, a prickly fourth-grade teacher who 'undercut any good, tender moment,' grows even sharper and more difficult in the fog of mourning. (Is that the smell of alcohol on her breath?) Cruelly, sorrow makes time with her children feel unbearable. Even driving home from the grocery store with 8-year-old Sally is a strain. 'Sib is about at the limit of what she can take of the girl,' Huneven writes. 'Those big eyes exaggerated by her glasses are so woozy and beseeching, they make Sib shrink back. Sib knows — they both know — that this is the time for her to check in, to ask how her daughter's doing. But Sib can't; she won't, she doesn't have it in her, whatever it is. She's all but holding her breath until they can go their separate ways.' And yet that sense of dread about being with her own children is transformed into zealous advocacy for the students in her classroom. How much safer it feels to care about somebody else's children. In the pages that follow, Huneven dares us to get comfortable only to yank us years or thousands of miles away. The family that initially felt so shiny and self-contained gives way to individual stories that butt up against one another at skewed angles. It's not confusing; it's eye-opening. The very structure of 'Bug Hollow' reminds us that the smoothly progressive chapters of most novels are a fanciful creation of some chiropractic narrator who's artificially aligned the disorder of actual lives. Here, the Samuelsons' fates play out in ways that feel preposterous and completely believable. In Saudi Arabia, we discover an entanglement that will complicate the family much later. A trip back to Bug Hollow doesn't offer the nostalgic closure some of them thought it would. One of the novel's finest stories slips away from the Samuelsons entirely to explore the surprising ways love can evolve. And in a particularly deft chapter of tragicomedy, we watch one of the central family members die. But, as always, Huneven reminds us, 'The world still ached with beauty.' Or at least it still does in this unassuming book written with such graceful compression. Right down to its final moments, Huneven casually offers up little revelations that crunch as sweet and tart as pomegranate seeds. 'Funny,' she writes, 'how the days you weep, you can also have the fullest, deepest laughs.' There are many such days here. Ron Charles reviews books and writes the Book Club newsletter for The Washington Post. He is the book critic for 'CBS Sunday Morning.' By Michelle Huneven Penguin Press. 288 pp. $29
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BREAKING GROUND, BUILDING COMMUNITY
Boulder Creek Neighborhoods Announced as Newest Builder at Sonders Fort Collins FORT COLLINS, Colo., June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Actual Communities Inc – a Colorado-based international real estate developer – celebrates the exciting journey of growth and innovation as it announces the arrival of Boulder Creek Neighborhoods, a premier Colorado home builder, to its Sonders Fort Collins new home community development. On May 22, 2025, Boulder Creek joins Bridgewater Homes and Thrive Home Builders to offer all single-level living new homes and townhomes in the nation's first pre-certified Lifelong Community. At Sonders, Boulder Creek Neighborhoods will be featuring lower-maintenance patio and courtyard homes in their award-winning easyHouse series. A Colorado home builder since 2006, Boulder Creek specializes in building homes for active-agers across the Colorado Front Range. All Sonders Fort Collins home builders feature the freedom to express yourself, indulge yourself, prioritize yourself, and live beautifully. Bridgewater Homes' luxury ranch-style single-family homes are built to last a lifetime. Thrive Home Builders offers three collections, including two collections of single-family homes and one collection of single-level townhomes, with designer-curated finish options featuring the latest technology. In addition, soon we will announce the groundbreaking of the Sonders Learning Center. This unique community center will become the favorite gathering place for residents seeking a variety of activities. The new, multi-faceted community center will offer the opportunity for workshops and classes as well as a technology and business center – all in a relaxed setting for casual conversations as well as group events. Future enhancements for the Sonders Learning Center include expanding its campus to include a multi-purpose park, pickleball courts, BODY Studio and ARTS Studio. This vibrant, active-adult community is a bold step forward in innovative place making, combining thoughtfully designed homes with a life-long learning center dedicated to enrichment, exploration, and connection. The best of life happens here. About Actual CommunitiesSince 1986, Actual Communities, Inc. ( has developed a diverse array of real estate projects locally and internationally. From retail and commercial centers to master-planned communities we define community building differently. The Actual definition of community development begins with the premise that all efforts including site acquisition, planning, design and construction be centered around one singular mission – create environments for people to realize their individual and shared potential. Click here for images and media for Sonders Fort Collins. Contact:Lance Jackson(303) 918-6599ljackson@ View original content: SOURCE Actual Communities Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BREAKING GROUND, BUILDING COMMUNITY
Boulder Creek Neighborhoods Announced as Newest Builder at Sonders Fort Collins FORT COLLINS, Colo., June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Actual Communities Inc – a Colorado-based international real estate developer – celebrates the exciting journey of growth and innovation as it announces the arrival of Boulder Creek Neighborhoods, a premier Colorado home builder, to its Sonders Fort Collins new home community development. On May 22, 2025, Boulder Creek joins Bridgewater Homes and Thrive Home Builders to offer all single-level living new homes and townhomes in the nation's first pre-certified Lifelong Community. At Sonders, Boulder Creek Neighborhoods will be featuring lower-maintenance patio and courtyard homes in their award-winning easyHouse series. A Colorado home builder since 2006, Boulder Creek specializes in building homes for active-agers across the Colorado Front Range. All Sonders Fort Collins home builders feature the freedom to express yourself, indulge yourself, prioritize yourself, and live beautifully. Bridgewater Homes' luxury ranch-style single-family homes are built to last a lifetime. Thrive Home Builders offers three collections, including two collections of single-family homes and one collection of single-level townhomes, with designer-curated finish options featuring the latest technology. In addition, soon we will announce the groundbreaking of the Sonders Learning Center. This unique community center will become the favorite gathering place for residents seeking a variety of activities. The new, multi-faceted community center will offer the opportunity for workshops and classes as well as a technology and business center – all in a relaxed setting for casual conversations as well as group events. Future enhancements for the Sonders Learning Center include expanding its campus to include a multi-purpose park, pickleball courts, BODY Studio and ARTS Studio. This vibrant, active-adult community is a bold step forward in innovative place making, combining thoughtfully designed homes with a life-long learning center dedicated to enrichment, exploration, and connection. The best of life happens here. About Actual CommunitiesSince 1986, Actual Communities, Inc. ( has developed a diverse array of real estate projects locally and internationally. From retail and commercial centers to master-planned communities we define community building differently. The Actual definition of community development begins with the premise that all efforts including site acquisition, planning, design and construction be centered around one singular mission – create environments for people to realize their individual and shared potential. Click here for images and media for Sonders Fort Collins. Contact:Lance Jackson(303) 918-6599ljackson@ View original content: SOURCE Actual Communities Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Annual spill of dam in Boulder expected soon
DENVER (KDVR) — After a good amount of rain along the Front Range in May, the Barker Dam in Boulder is expected to spill over in just a few days. Each year, the Barker Dam fills up as spring brings rainfall and melting snow and eventually spills over. 'Before peak stream flows occur at lower elevations, such as in the city of Boulder, mountain reservoirs must first fill and start spilling over,' the City of Boulder said in a press release. Denver weather: Sunny skies over weekend before showers next week With recent rainfall and increased snowmelt and runoff, the city said on Saturday that the Barker Reservoir is expected to spill over within the next week. The city urges residents and visitors to be cautious near the creek during the high flow period, which could last for several weeks. 'To provide a sense of scale, the volume of water that flows through Middle Boulder Creek each spring could fill the reservoir multiple times,' the city said. The spill is a normal occurrence that increases water flow in Boulder Creek. The city said it typically occurs around mid-May to late June, depending on the weather. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
