Nevermore: On Muscle, Sipsworth, Remarkably Bright Creatures

 

Nevermore 6-10-25

Reported by Rita

 

On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters by Bonnie Tsui

From the bestselling author of  Why We Swim comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.

I found this quick read to be both informative and entertaining.     -KM     5 stars

 

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live. Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.

This book is simple yet incredibly beautiful. Very touching.    - NH      5 stars

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

This was a hopeful and heart-warming story. I couldn't put it down.    -GP     5 stars

 

 

Other Books Mentioned

River Town by Peter Hessler

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Something for the Pain by Paul Austin

A Necessary Woman by Helen Van Slyke

The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

An Arabian Journey by Levison Wood

Not My Father's Son by Allan Cumming

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

 

New Books

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson

The Golden Road by William Dalrymple

My Name is Emilia Delvalle by Isabel Allende

A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun by Sister Monica Clare

New Books for July!

 

Abrams, Stacey Coded Justice (Avery Keene)

Bennett, Michael Carved in Blood

Berry, Steve The List

Cameron, Marc  Dead Line  (Arliss Cutter)

Castillo, Linda  Rage (Kate Burkholder)

Delany, Vicki  Tea with Jam & Dread

Donlea, Charlie  Guess Again

Freeman, Brian  Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Escape

Gilbert, Victoria  Death and the Librarian (Blue Ridge Library)

Griffiths, Elly  The Frozen People

James, Miranda  Something Whiskered

Jones, Stephen Graham  Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives

Joyce, Rachel  The Homemade God

Lapena, Shari  She Didn’t See It Coming

McCall Smith, Alexander The Winds from Further West

McFadden, Freida  Do Not Disturb

Mina, Denise  The Good Liar

Miranda, Megan  You Belong Here

Patterson, James  The Hamptons Lawyer (Jane Smith)

Patterson, James  The President’s Shadow (The Shadow)

Peterson, Tracie  Designed with Love (The Hope of Cheyenne)

Robotham, Michael The White Crow (Philomena McCarthy

Scottoline, Lisa  The Unraveling of Julia

Silva, Daniel  An Inside Job

Smith, Martin Cruz  Hotel Ukraine (Renko)

Trigiani, Adriana  The View from Lake Como

Walker, Martin  An Enemy in the Village (Bruno, Chief of Police)

Ware, Ruth  The Woman in Suite 11

White, Karen  That Last Carolina Summer

Wiggs, Susan  Wayward Girls

Williams, Beatriz  Under the Stars

Non-Fiction

Elmhirst, Sophie  A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

Hogan, Chuck  The Carpool Detectives:  A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case

Olson, Lynne  The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s All-Female Concentration Camp

Patterson, James  The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy

Taraborrelli, Randy  JFK: Public, Private, Secret

Willner, Nina  The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Olivia “Liv” Huang Christenson is a mixed race Chinese American who is poised to take over Lunar Love, a matchmaking business started by her immigrant grandmother back in 1970.  Lunar Love helps people find their soul mates by using the Chinese zodiac signs.  Like the Western zodiac, some signs are considered to be more compatible than others and each has its own characteristics.  After a disastrous romance, Liv is devoted to the idea that only compatible matches can lead to true love and she feels the personal touch from Lunar Love is the only way to make those matches.

Enter Bennett O’Brien, also half Chinese, who has developed ZodiaCupid, a dating app also based on making matches using the Chinese zodiac. Liv is incensed that he thinks an algorithm can take the place of a real matchmaker.  Things come to a head on a panel discussion which ends up with Lunar Love and ZodiaCupid in a competition. Whichever company makes the first true love match will not only get some high-profile publicity but new clients as well.

Liv is desperately determined to win the contest and bring in a much needed infusion of cash to her company, no matter how attractive she finds Bennett.  And she does find him VERY attractive. The problem is that not only is he a rival, but their signs are not compatible so there’s no way this can be a true love match. . . right?

Romance is not one of my usual genres but it’s Book Bingo time.  I did enjoy this book in large part because of the information about Chinese culture.  Because both Liv and Bennett are only half Chinese, they have gaps in their understanding.  Liv’s grandmother has given her a solid grounding in the Chinese zodiac and in some customs but she doesn’t really speak Chinese so the books written in Mandarin don’t help. Bennett’s Chinese mother died when he was very young so much of what he knows he’s learned by research.  It makes explanations for various customs seem natural, not forced.  They also discuss the problems of being mixed race, of feeling that you don’t really belong, and even bring up cultural appropriation. There are no easy answers but I like that the questions were even asked.

I also liked the characters a lot, especially PoPo, Liv’s grandmother.  She’s a force of nature and stole every scene she was in. 

For romance readers, there was plenty of romantic angst, longing, misunderstandings, heart to heart talks, stubbornness, and electricity. Bennett is an appropriately hunky hero who likes to lead with his head while Liv is focused on emotions—just not her own when it comes to personal romance.

Thank you, Lauren Kung Jessen, for writing a romance I enjoyed reading!

Nevermore: Where'd You Go Bernadette, Face of Battle, How They Croaked

 

Nevermore 6-3-25

Reported by Rita

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades.

Fun and very clever.    - MH    5 stars

 

The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme by John Keegan

The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at 'the point of maximum danger'. It examines the physical conditions of fighting, the particular emotions and behavior generated by battle, as well as the motives that impel soldiers to stand and fight rather than run away.

The writer was very knowledgeable, and the book was highly illuminating. Very good.     -RR     5 stars

 

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg

Over the course of history, men and women have lived and died. In fact, getting sick and dying can be a big, ugly mess-especially before the modern medical care that we all enjoy today. How They Croaked relays all the gory details of how nineteen world figures gave up the ghost.

Full of fascinating facts and interesting illustrations. I loved it!     - CD     5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned 

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol

Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Seamstress by Allison Pittman

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

The Geographer's Map to Romance by India Holton

 

New Books

On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us by Bonnie Tsui

Bright Circle: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism by Randall Fuller

Book Bingo!

 

I was really excited to find out we were doing Book Bingo this year.  The first year I wasn’t quite sure about it, but signed up to be a good sport.  I ended up reading a lot of books I would not have read otherwise, and enjoyed them thoroughly.  Some were books I had meant to read but hadn’t until that “Read a Classic” square inspired me to pick up Emma by Jane Austen; other squares encouraged me to read outside my usual genres; and still others had me looking for debut novels or books set in exotic locales.  Even the ones I didn’t think I’d enjoy ended up being memorable in a good way. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s pretty straight forward.  Participants get a bingo like sheet except that instead of numbers, there are reading prompts, such as “read a translated book” or “read a book set in space.”  A few squares are somewhat specific to us (“read a book from the BPL gift shop”) but nothing that can’t be worked around.

While we do offer prizes to those who can come by the library to pick them up (our budget not extending to mailing things off), it’s not the prizes that attract me.  In fact, I’m not putting my name in for any of the big prizes at all. I won’t turn down getting a cute sticker for signing up, though! The satisfaction and enjoyment out of being encouraged to step outside of my comfortable reading niche is reward enough.

This year we have two different Bingo sheets.  I picked one and am already planning what titles to read to fit the squares.  The categories are broad enough to give me many choices, but also force me to take a look at what I’m reading.  It also gives me a good excuse to jump ahead and read something I really wanted to read but felt obligated to wait for one reason or another. I also am strangely excited about re-reading Jenny and the Cat Club for the “Read a book you loved as a child” square.  I own a copy of this book.  I can re-read this book at any time, but I often feel I should not re-read. There are too many books I’ve yet to read so I should only read something new.   

Book Bingo gives me permission to read this book, and that absolutely delights me.

As I said, we can only give out prizes to our patrons but if Book Bingo sounds fun and you want a sheet of your own, we can email one out to you.

If you are local, stop by the Reference Desk to sign up.  You get a sticker for registering and can choose either a note book (really cute notebook!) or coffee mug (charming mug!) for each bingo up to four.  Filling in the whole bingo card lets you draw for a special prize, and for each bingo and the blackout your name is entered into a drawing for grand prizes. 

Happy reading this summer!

Jeanne

Ornithography: An Illustrated Guide to Bird Lore and Symbolism by Jessica Roux

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Previously, I reviewed Jessica Roux’s Floriography, which is a beautifully illustrated book about Victorian flower language—a romantic and/or secret way to send messages based on the plants used.  In this book, Roux looks at the folklore associated with birds.  While the text is brief, the glorious illustrations are indeed worth a thousand words. 

Starting with Albatross and continuing through to Woodpecker, Roux gives a meaning associated with a bird as well as some information.  The content varies depending on the bird, naturally.  For example, for Crow Roux notes they symbolize cleverness and retells the Aesop story about how a crow figures out how to get a drink of water from a bottle and refers the reader to the related Raven and Magpie.  While the majority of birds are familiar to North American readers, there are some species native to other continents.  Similarly, the folklore comes from a variety of cultures. 

The artwork is stunning.  The color choices tend to give the pieces an old-fashioned feel but are frequently also dramatic.  This is a splendid browsing book, one in which the illustrations will command as much if not more attention than the text.

I found this another wonderful example of Roux’s artistry and love of folklore.

Nevermore: Night Watch, Ornithography, Conclave

Reported by Rita

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.

Excellent! Beautifully written with well-formed characters. A real page-turner.     -KN      5 stars

Ornithography: An Illustrated Guide to Bird Lore & Symbolism by Jessica Roux

In Jessica Roux’s Ornithography, each of 100 entries focuses on one bird species, featuring a full-page color illustration in her detailed, darkly romantic style, and the lore behind each bird.

This is an easy read with gorgeous illustrations. I found the mythology of birds very interesting.     - KM      4 stars

 

Conclave by Robert Harris

The Pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.

This was a quick, easy read with a surprise ending. It gave great insight into the Catholic church.     - GP      5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

 

River of No Return: Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Woman He Loved by Jeffrey Buckner Ford

Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 by Shelby Foote

Life in the Coal Camps of Wise County by Brian D. McKnight

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg

The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young

The Seamstress by Allison Pittman

 

New Books

 

Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson

Change the Recipe by Jose Andres

The Eights by Joanna Miller

Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters