This
week, Nevermore decided to get historical, kicking things off with Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There
by Jacqueline Wadsworth. Described as
fascinating and insightful, Letters from
the Trenches is not a traditional history; rather, it compiles hundreds of
letters penned by different men who served in the war—men who only have their
letters to survive them. Our Nevermore
reader was thrilled with her book, saying it was an excellent investigation
into the history of World War I and, more importantly, to shine a light on the
human element of such a brutal conflict.
She said she was particularly interested in Wadsworth’s research into
the soldier’s letters, uncovering whatever happened to the men who survived on
the front line and relating their stories before and after the war that forever
changed the world.
Next,
Nevermore explored a little further into the past, taking a look at the
pioneering days of the American South from deep in the Mississippi swamps to
settlements on the Arkansas frontier with Trials
of the Earth. Penned by Mary Mann
Hamilton, Trials of the Earth is,
according to the book jacket, the “only known first-person account of one
woman’s struggles and triumphs taming the Mississippi Delta.” In her memoir, Mary Hamilton describes her
harrowing life as she, along with her husband, pushed at the boundaries of the
frontier. Our reader said Hamilton’s
memoir was “so very good,” beautifully written and incredibly precise. She highly recommended it to her fellow
readers, noting that it was so easy to be “swept along by it” as Mary recounted
her time at the fringes of American civilization.
Nevermore
also dived right into a historical mystery by James Runcie, his second
installment in the Grantchester Mysteries:
Sidney Chambers and the Perils of
the Night. Sidney Chambers, a
full-time priest and part-time detective, is called to investigate a number of
new mysteries, including the poisoning of Zafar Ali and the unexpected fall of
a Cambridge don from the roof of King’s College Chapel. Richly detailed and woven with hints of
humor, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of
the Night combines the best of mystery and romance as Sidney makes his way
through the 1950s Cambridge campus and continues to deal with his own spiritual
struggles. Our reader said she enjoyed
reading Runcie’s novel, and she enjoyed discussing differences between the
Grantchester mysteries series and the Grantchester television series appearing
on PBS. Although she noted several
critical differences between the book series and the television show, she
highly recommended both to her fellow Nevermore members as having merits that
made them equally likable.
Proceeding
in the historical vein, Nevermore took a good long look at World War II in The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerillas by Max
Hastings. Hastings, one of Britain’s
senior historians of World War II, has written more than a dozen books on the
subject—including his latest on some of the more secretive aspects of war. In his book, Hastings puts a magnifying glass
to many of World War II’s harshest battles—and some of its lesser known
ones—and uncovers many of the leading spies, cryptologists, and guerilla
fighters who helped to turn the tides of war.
Our reader said he greatly enjoyed The
Secret War, saying, “[Hastings] knows his stuff, and his book is a thorough
account of a matter that has received less attention than it deserves. But modern nations do not like to reveal
their secrets, and it takes an experienced scholar of Hastings caliber to
ferret out the whole story,” which he does admirably. Our reader highly recommended it to his
fellow readers, noting, “If you like cloak and dagger stories, The Secret War will appeal to you.”
Last
(but certainly not least), Nevermore had a long discussion about Incognito:
The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman. Like Mary Roach, Eagleman attempts to answer
questions readers never even knew they had, like:
“Why
can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you become consciously
aware of danger ahead? Why do you hear
your name being mentioned in a conversation that you didn’t think you were
listening to? What do Ulysses and the
credit crunch have in common? Why did
Thomas Edison electrocute an elephant in 1916?
Why are people whose names begin with J more likely to marry other
people whose name begins with J? Why is
it so difficult to keep a secret? And
how is it possible to get angry at yourself—who, exactly, is mad at whom?”
Eagleman
attempts to answer these questions and more in his book, which our readers were
excited to discuss. Although our reader
said she would sometimes get bogged down by the sheer weight of information
provided in Incognito, she found
Eagleman’s book fascinating. In between
all the research, she found little nuggets of stories that were useful and
insightful or just plain fascinating. After
sharing a lengthy discussion of the conscious mind versus the brain and the
soul, Incognito was quickly snapped
up by another reader who was eager to learn more about the neural pathways of
the mind
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