Nevermore: Shipping, Lighthouses, Light, and Macbeth

 Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with a rave review of a book which has been making the rounds:  90% of Everything:  Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George.  While the title sounds dry, the book is anything but.  George sailed with a variety of people on all sorts of different vessels, looking at consumerism (all that junk we just don’t need, as our reviewer put it), modern day piracy, and shipping policies.  This is a book everyone should read before taking a cruise, our reader said, and will give you a new appreciation of the complexities of international commerce.

Another nonfiction book also had a bit of a nautical theme:  Out of Harm’s Way:  Moving America’s Lighthouse by Mike Booher and Lin Ezell. This is the amazing story of how the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved a half mile inland, an incredible feat of engineering.  Many felt the historic lighthouse—the county’s tallest—would never be moved successfully.  In fact, the movers were awarded the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 1999.  The authors present a history of the lighthouse as well as details about the move, which was accomplished by the International Chimney Corporation.  Our reviewer was entranced by the book, which also featured wonderful photos.

Beautiful Diana Cooke, born into fading Virginia gentry at the beginning of the 20^th century, is well loved by her parents who want what is best for her—but also expect her to marry someone wealthy enough to keep up Saratoga, the family mansion.  That someone turns out to be Captain Copperton, a vulgar and sometimes brutal man whose ample finances seem to be his only virtue but who does give Diana her adored son, Ashton. Dying of the Light, the new generational saga by Robert Goolrick, is an absorbing foray into a world of glamorous people and family secrets, and our reader recommended it for fans of historical fiction set among the upper classes.

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire features two teenage outcasts:  Elliott Youngblood because he is Native American and Catherine Calhoun because her family is held responsible for a local disaster.  Both are artistic and intelligent as well as socially inept. But the course of love never runs smooth, and the two are driven apart at a crucial moment.  The reviewer said she found some of the characters were sort of strange and that there was a twist ending.  It wasn’t her favorite, but it was interesting.

Finally, Jo Nesbo, usually a favorite, had a rare miss with Macbeth, according to our next Nevermore member.  The book is a part of a series in which well-known authors reimagine Shakespeare’s works.  This version is indeed set in Scotland, where Duncan is chief of police, trying to combat drug lords. Our reader said it was slow going with small print and just didn’t have the appeal of some of Nesbo’s other works, such as The Snowman.