Nevermore
decided to start with Hidden
Figures: The American Dream and the
Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by
Margot Lee Shetterly. Recently produced
as a movie, Hidden Figures tells the
story of a group of African American women—math teachers with brilliant minds
who were relegated to teaching in the South’s segregated schools—who became
“human computers” during the labor shortages of World War II. They quickly became indispensable with their
incredible mathematical skills, assisting NASA and the Langley Memorial
Aeronautical Laboratory in some of the greatest successes in the space
race. Our reader was excited to pick up
Shetterly’s book. She noted it was easy
to read and fairly interesting; however, she thought Hidden Figures could have used a good editor and a trim. Moreover, she thought the book could have
used a little more detail about the personal lives of these incredible
women. She wanted to learn more about
them personally and their accomplishments, rather than where each woman fit
into the grand scheme of things, and she would have loved to have seen
pictures.
Next,
Nevermore looked at The Lucifer Principle. Written by Howard K. Bloom, The Lucifer Principle is a compelling
psychological study that explores the “intricate relationships among genetics,
human behavior, and culture,” according to the book jacket, “to put forth the
thesis that ‘evil’ is…woven into our most basic biological fabric.” Drawing on years of scholarly research and
delving deep into the darkest parts of human psychology, Bloom creates a book
with depth and a weighty feeling of importance, like Jane Mayer’s Dark Money. Our reader said Bloom’s book was absolutely
fascinating; in fact, she couldn’t put it down.
She even bought her own copy, so, as she told her fellow readers, “I
could ponder it.” She highly recommended
it to her fellow members and passed it on to the next interested reader.
Switching
gears, Nevermore shared The Casebook of
the Black Widowers by famed science-fiction writer, Isaac Asimov. A collection of short stories about the Black
Widowers, a group of friends who create and solve mysteries, riddles, and
puzzles, The Casebook of the Black
Widowers proved to be a hit for our reader.
He noted that Asimov’s book was “very short, very easy, but very good,”
calling it interesting and charming.
Asimov, in conjunction to being a writer, was a professor of
biochemistry and often inserted intriguing tidbits of knowledge into each of
his books, including The Case of the
Black Widowers. Our reader was
especially impressed by the breadth and depth of knowledge possessed by Asimov,
saying he enjoyed how easy it was to learn something new. “You’re learning as you’re reading,” he told
his fellow readers, “but in a very easy [and accessible] way.”
Nevermore
also took a long, hard look at Ayn Rand’s monolithic novel, The Fountainhead. Considered a major classic, The Fountainhead follows Howard Roark as
he makes his way in the world, an architect with unyielding integrity, and
recounts his passionate love affair with the achingly beautiful Dominique
Francon. Initially, our reader picked up
The Fountainhead in the hopes of
learning about Ayn Rand and uncovering why her books have remained classics for
decades; however, she found she was disappointed by the extreme selfishness of
Rand’s protagonists. Objectivism, which
Rand touted, she explained to our fellow readers, appears to involve the
pursuit of one’s own happiness regardless of consequences—and many of the
characters involved in Rand’s novel appear to make decisions based on this
ideal. She also noted it is full of
introspection and individual monologues, giving it the feel of a modernized
Russian novel. “If Tolstoy had lived in
America in the 1920s, I believe he would have written this novel,” she said.
Last,
Nevermore inspected a brand new book by debut author, Teresa Messineo: The
Fire by Night. Jo, an Italian-Irish
girl from Brooklyn, and Kay, a small-town girl from Pennsylvania, first met in
nursing school. They became fast
friends, despite their very different backgrounds, and they quickly grew
inseparable—and then the war came. Now,
Jo is caught in war-torn France with six wounded soldiers in her care and
German soldiers nipping at her heels; Kay is trapped in a Japanese POW camp in
Manila, struggling to protect herself and the patients thrust into her
lap. Our reader was absolutely
fascinated by The Fire by Night. She said Messineo delves deep into history,
carefully reconstructing the details of World War II and bringing the conflict
to life on the page. It’s bittersweet
and tragic, but it’s very, very good,
and our reader can’t wait to hear more from Teresa Messineo.
No comments:
Post a Comment