Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Nevermore: Brazil, Ireland, America, England and more!


Brazil by Michael Palin was touted as a fascinating book, very engaging, that really brings the flavor of Brazil through on the pages.  Palin takes his readers on an incredible journey from the stomping grounds of the wealthy elite to the tiny villages where tribe members live as their ancestors did.  With the spectacular beauty of towering waterfalls and remote wilderness, Brazil provides an experience unlike any other.  With a travel documentary produced by BBC, Brazil has caught the attention of readers and viewers alike.



Jud departed from his well-known affection for non-fiction by taking on The Guts by Roddy Doyle.  The Irish writer has brought back Jimmy Rabbitte from his debut novel The Commitments.  A 1980’s soul band, The Commitments was Jimmy’s band of his youth.  Now that he is a middle aged family man diagnosed with cancer, Jimmy reconnects with his old bandmates and finds new meaning in his more mature life.



Upton Sinclair by Lauren Coodley is continuing to be passed around the Nevermore table.  A crusader for social inequities in the United States a century ago, Sinclair has been brought back to life in this new biography, his first written by a woman.  Our current reader is not finished with it yet, but is enjoying the fascinating writing.



Frog Music by Emma Donoghue is another book that has been shared among our readers, enjoyed by some and not by others.  A story of the seamy underworld of gamblers and prostitutes in San Francisco, the current reader says she has been “suffering through this thing” and she just can’t get into it.



Elizabeth Fremantle’s Queen’s Gambit is being enjoyed by another reader, although she admits to just skimming through as it is mainly driven by a romantic storyline.  In fact, she called it “almost a bodice ripper”.  The cover doesn’t have Fabio on it, but the book is loaded with the romantic story of Katherine Parr and the powerful King Henry VIII.  Despite falling in love with Thomas Seymour, Katherine must marry the King and do his bidding.




The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America by Ernest Freeberg rounded out Nevermore’s selections this week.  Edison’s incandescent light bulb changed the world in the 1880’s as cities were brightened as if by magic.  The concept of putting a small filament of exactly the right material in a glass globe with no air was groundbreaking.  People gathered to see the banishment of night.  Not just lighting up the world, the transmission of electricity advanced the development of appliances such as heaters, coolers, streetcars and elevators, just to name a few.

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