I've never read any of James Rollins work. I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to contemporary authors!
"Catching up" is a really good way to put it. I think the pandemic and social upheaval around that timeframe created a fault line, fracturing relationships. We're having a really difficult time reviving the connections and have come to the conclusion that it's time to make peace with it and try to forge new/different connections.
I get that, the problem is, my wife and I have a really hard time making new connections. We just don't have a huge pool to draw from in the first place and beyond that, we are quite picky :)
We're finding finding new friends does get more difficult with age. We made friends with a great couple in their 70's a few years ago but they moved away.
That's sad. My good friend and his wife have a lot of friends from their church that are older. I don't think I could handle the inevitable loss if that makes sense.