Nevermore: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, A Death in the Family, Near Witch

 

Nevermore 3-3-26

Reported by Rita

 

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai

After years of failure at school, failure at work, and spending his days dreaming and singing to himself, it does not seem as if Sampath Chawla is going to amount to much. Then Sampath climbs a guava tree, and becomes unexpectedly famous as a hermit.

This book was funny and mysterious with a strange ending.    - AH    5 stars

 

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Too unbelievable. I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't read anymore books by this author.     - MH     3 stars

 

A Death in the Family by James Agee

Published in 1957, two years after its author's death at the age of forty-five, A Death in the Family remains a near-perfect work of art, an autobiographical novel that contains one of the most evocative depictions of loss and grief ever written. As Jay Follet hurries back to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is killed in a car accident--a tragedy that destroys not only a life but also the domestic happiness and contentment of a young family. A novel of great courage, lyric force, and powerful emotion, A Death in the Family is a masterpiece of American literature.

This book was not an easy read, but I thought it was magnificent and very touching. I loved it!      - DC     5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned:

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings – Paul Theroux's Literary Memoir from Five Continents on Becoming a Stranger by Paul Theroux

Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Rough Sketches: Short Stories of a Traveling Artist by Don Andrews

Tangle All Around: Our Art, Our Journey by Alice Hendon

The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding by Joseph J. Ellis

The Award by Matthew Pearl

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

 

 

New Books: 

How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library: 11 Mini Structures You Can Build by Little Free Library by Philip Schmidt

The Central Appalachians: Mountains of the Chesapeake by Mark Hendricks

99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them by Ashely Alker

The Little Book of Secret Societies: 50 of the World's Most Notorious Organizations and How to Join Them by Joel Levy