Nevermore opened with The Second Life of Nick
Mason by Steve Hamilton, the story of an ex-con whose early release was orchestrated
by incarcerated crime boss Darius Cole.
Mason’s release comes with a price: whenever his special phone rings, he
has to follow whatever orders are given.
This taunt thriller, the first in a new series by the award-winning
author, lived up to its good NPR review and comes recommended from our reader.
Her next book was the non-fiction title The Story
of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish
and Rice by Trevor Gorson. While our
reviewer is no fan of sushi, she found the book fascinating. Sushi chefs apprentice for years, learning
very precise techniques of preparation and presentation. Each ingredient has significance, and each
grain of rice must be perfect. The preparation is deeply ritualistic. While she
isn’t planning on trying the product anytime soon, she has a great deal more
respect for the product and the chefs.
Fire in the Water by James Alexander Thom is a novel based on an
historical event. In 1865, a group of
war-weary veterans, many survivors of Andersonville, were finally ready to head
home. Over 2,000 were loaded onto the
Sultana. . . and then disaster struck.
Our reader is a fan of Thom’s earlier historical novels and found this
one to be very good as well. She fact
checked parts of the book, and he had done his research.
While the information in What Your Financial
Advisor Isn’t Telling You may be sound, our reader didn’t find much of
personal interest in this book by Liz Davidson.
She felt it was written for younger people, not folks near retirement or
already retired.
New England Bound by
Wendy Warren was described as “hard to read.”
Not only is it written in a scholarly manner, but learning about the
slave trade in New England was difficult emotionally for our reader. She was appalled at how much of the economy
of the North also depended on slaves and the slave trade, and how deeply involved
some of the states were. She felt it was
an important book, covering a part of history that is usually only considered
in the South.
Her second book also involved the history of slavery,
but this one is historical ficton. Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi begins in 18th century Ghana where two half-sisters
embark on very different lives. One will
marry an Englishman and live quite well, while the other ends up in America as
a slave. The book spans two centuries, with
some of the descendants ending up in New York during the 1960s. Our reader said she felt almost overwhelmed
by the book, and recommended it to the group.
Finally, a reader asked if we had ever considered The
Hidden Life of Trees. According to
the book by Peter Wohlleben, trees may be much more complex and aware than we
know. Our reviewer felt that the author,
a German forester, made a good case for tree communication in this
well-written, thought provoking book. You
may never look at trees the same way again!
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