Nevermore: Mystery, History, Detroit, and Women in Science

Reported by Ambrea

Our Nevermore readers started the meeting with an international mystery:  Six and a Half Deadly Sins by Colin Cotterill.  Cotterill, who now lives in Chumphon, Thailand, begins his story in Laos in 1979.  Dr. Siri Paiboun is a retired coroner who receives an unexpected gift in the mail—a handwoven pha sin, a colorful skirt traditionally worn in northern Laos, with a severed finger stitched into the lining.  Paiboun is suddenly roped into a deadly scavenger hunt, a mystery leading to a tragic series of murders and a dangerous border skirmish in the north.  Our reader said he enjoyed Six and a Half Deadly Sins immensely.  Gifted with a grim sense of humor, Cotterill’s novel offers an intimate look at Laos in a time of turmoil and a man able to seek justice through the secrets he knows and the people he knows how to manipulate.

Our readers continued in the vein of mystery with The Lost Detective:  Becoming Dashiell Hammett by Nathan Ward.  Hammett, an ex-soldier and former agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, became a mystery writer in the late 1920s.  He wrote a number of short stories and novels, including The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man.  But after 1934, he suddenly stopped writing, becoming an elusive figure in modern mystery writing.  Full with insightful information into one of America’s earliest detective writers and packed to the gills with original research accumulated from across the country, The Lost Detective was an interesting glimpse into Dashiell Hammett’s life and career.  Our Nevermore reader was fascinated and, moreover, glad to see author Nathan Ward pull Hammett out of obscurity.

Next, our readers followed with The Only Woman in the Room:  Why Science is Still a Boy’s Club by Eileen Pollack.  Pollack, who was one of the first women to graduate from Yale with a bachelor of science in physics, became a successful fiction writer rather than pursuing a career related to her degree.  Like many women in STEM fields, Pollack was isolated in her studies and rarely encouraged to show an interest in science.  Her book, The Only Woman in the Room, explores the suggestion that men and women have a differing aptitude concerning mathematics and science—and, more importantly, explores the frequent social and institutional difficulties that women confront when studying the hard sciences.  Our Nevermore reader said Pollack, given her experiences as a fiction author, writes beautifully and shares her findings (as well as her experiences) in a way that informs and enchants.  Our reader also said The Only Woman in the Room would be an excellent resource for mothers of daughters who are scientifically inclined, because it would give incredible insight.

Our readers also looked at Orson Welles’s Last Movie:  The Making of the Other Side of the Wind by Josh Karp.  Orson Welles, who is famously remembered for his 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and Hollywood films, such as Citizen Kane, began a special endeavor in 1970 with a new movie (which Welles swore was not autobiographical):  The Other Side of the Wind, which featured a legendary but self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood after a self-imposed exile in Europe.  Although the movie was funded by the brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran and slated for only eight weeks of filming, it took twelve years to complete—and remains unreleased to the public.  In Orson Welles’s Last Movie, Karp offers readers an opportunity to see behind-the-scenes of one of Welles’s most bizarre and remarkable films.  While our reader hasn’t had the opportunity to finish Karp’s work, she said Orson Welles’s Last Movie was interesting nonetheless and she hopes to find out whether or not Welles was really the genius so many have believed him to be.

Last, our Nevermore readers looked at Detroit:  An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff.  LeDuff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, returns to Detroit to uncover why his beloved hometown has become one of the poorest cities in the nation.  Interviewing everyone he can find—union bosses, homeless squatters, ordinary people on the street, businessmen, and homeowners struggling to keep their homes—to find out what happened to his city, and what can be done to save it.  Our reader said Detroit was an exceptional book to read, giving it four-and-a-half stars out of five.  “It was so distressing to look at Detroit [now]…because it was a beautiful place at one time,” she said.  But, she continued, it was an enlightening look at Detroit and how its citizens are working to hold their beloved city together.

Nevermore: Paris Architect, Karin Fossum, American Crucifixion, Detroit, and more!

 Reported by Meygan

This week’s Nevermore opened with Charles Belfoure’s The Paris Architect. This book takes place in Paris and puts us in the shoes of architect Lucien Bernard. Lucien is offered a lucrative amount of money to outwit the Gestapo by creating hiding places for Jews—hiding places so unique that they would be almost impossible to spot. Lucien is well aware that if he is caught then he will be tortured and killed by the Nazis. How does Lucien hide the Jews? Does he get caught? When the Nevermore reader was asked if whether or not she liked the book, she said it was depressing and she had to look over certain street names and descriptions because they were written in French. 

The next book, I Can See in the Dark by Karin Fossum was described as being a real thriller. When cops show up at Riktor’s door, he isn’t all that surprised to be arrested. What he is surprised about, however, is what he is being arrested for. Riktor didn’t commit the crime he is being blamed for, but how can he prove that without admitting another crime he has committed? The Nevermore reader highly recommends this book!

American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church by Alex Beam tells the story of how Joseph Smith founded Mormonism and how he came across the Book of Mormon. According to the Nevermore reader, the book would be highly recommended for those wanting to know more about Joseph Smith but not to those wanting to read about Mormonism as a whole. 

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff has been a Nevermore sensation! Three of our Nevermore members highly recommend this book. The book is about Detroit and how it was once the richest city in the nation but is now deemed as the poorest. To quote what a Nevermore member’s son said about the novel, “Depressing as hell but fascinating!” Detroit: An American Autopsy discusses Detroit’s unemployment, illiteracy, foreclosure, and dropout rates. Did you know that a city the size of San Francisco and Manhattan could fit into the vacant lots of Detroit? Our Nevermore reader said the only downfall to the book is that while there are pictures of Detroit in the book, there are no pictures of the old and new buildings. But this is a book that our Nevermore reader cannot get out of her head. Detroit: An American Autopsy definitely sounds like a must read!

In Gaute Heivoll’s Before I Burn, readers are introduced to a small town in Norway that goes up in flames thanks to an arsonist. But among the chaos, the town has gathered for the christening of a young boy name Gaute Heivoll. Heivoll grew up hearing stories about the arsonist, inspiring him to retell the story as an adult. Because of this, the identity of the arsonist is revealed. Our Nevermore reader says the true value of this book is the psychological fix of the small town and how characters are interesting and varied. 

The next book discussed was Inheritance: How Our Genes Changes Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes by Dr. Sharon Moalem. This book is full of information about the importance and inheritance of our genes and how something we do in everyday life such as eating right or exercising can turn off (not eliminate) a gene. The author then states that this gene can be turned on and off again. One Nevermore reader stated that the book would probably make a reader think of the environment in which to bring up a child. There is a study in the book where lab rats were taken away from their mother for several hours a day throughout x amount of weeks. Scientists discovered that the mice became incapable of sensing fear, such as not knowing not to be in the path of a cat. Scientists discovered that stress caused this gene to switch off. They also noticed that these mice passed on the gene several litters later, even though that particular group was never taken away from their mother. Anyone who loves science should definitely check out this book!

About two weeks ago, one of our Nevermore readers was reading Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan. This week, he decided to read Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of short stories about different topics. The Nevermore reader stated that this book wasn’t as “science-fictioney” as The Sirens of Titan, and he preferred The Sirens of Titan over Welcome to the Monkey House. 

 The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch by Lewis Dartnell was very heavily discussed in Nevermore. This book tells how if a plague or catastrophic event was to happen then how the world could rebuild equipment and buildings. Several of our Nevermore readers didn’t care for the book, but a particular Nevermore reader stated that the book seemed to provide false suggestions and how if a meteor were to smash into Earth or is Yellowstone blew then this book wouldn’t help because it doesn’t meet basic needs such as how to obtain food, water, and shelter. I think we all can agree that is a catastrophe were to strike Earth then we would worry more about our basic needs being met more than how to look up building plans. A Nevermore reader stated that this book sounded like what to do after a catastrophe four generations later. 

The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car by Steven Parissien discusses the history of the automobile, mainly focusing on cars since World War II. The Nevermore reader couldn’t get enough of this book! He said The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car was a delightful read and is like taking a trip with the author as the driver. One of the Nevermore reader’s favorite parts was when the author wrote about how the government wanted to make the American cars tougher and provide more gas per mileage. Since the American companies couldn’t fix these problems overnight, the Japanese started making cars. To quote the Nevermore reader, “You will like this book if you like automobiles and who doesn’t like automobiles?”

The last novel discussed was The Collector of Dying Breaths: A Novel of Suspense by M.J. Rose. Set in the year 1533 in Florence, Italy, the author introduces us to Rene le Flotentin who is pulled from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. Rene is trained to combine fragrance and medicine, creating a formula that could possibly reincarnate the dead. The Nevermore reader said the book was “pretty good”, even though there were a lot of French words.

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

Reviewed by Kristin

Huge swaths of Detroit neighborhoods are being reclaimed by nature.  Trees, prairie grasses and wild animals are becoming prominent in areas that were once covered with houses, sidewalks and factories.  I recently viewed a news story on the amount of change Detroit has seen in the last few years.  Using images from the Google Street View Trekker, a set of cameras mounted on top of a vehicle, Detroit’s decline is being documented and brought to the American eye.  (To read any of several news stories portraying this change, do an internet search using the keywords “Google street view Detroit”.)  After seeing these images, I just happened to see Detroit: An American Autopsy and I knew that I had to read it.

Violent crime is rampant in Detroit.  Charlie LeDuff begins his first chapter talking about being held up at a gas station on the east side, and even says that he should have known better than to stop there.  LeDuff had left Los Angeles with his wife and baby daughter to return to the place where he had a family network:  Detroit.  He was not unaware of the dangers therein; his mother had faced violence working in her flower shop, his brother had succumbed to peer pressure and drugs, and his sister had run away from home as a young teenager.

LeDuff paints a vivid picture of the destruction by fire of a significant number of Detroit buildings.  In fact, he spent quite a bit of time with a local fire squad.  Describing the firefighters as the closest thing to cowboys in today’s urban culture, LeDuff details the half-broken equipment and damaged protective clothing that the squad has been provided in order to go out into the city and save lives.  Beyond just the outer trappings, LeDuff seems to get to know the firefighters through their struggles and feels the pain along with them when one is lost.

LeDuff is a journalist who is no stranger to criticism.  He writes on rough subjects and many of the politicians, police officers, and people on the street mentioned either have no interest in having their actions reported, or feel that they have been poorly represented.  LeDuff’s topics are rough around the edges, yet provide an intriguing peek into the gritty urban subculture.

Despite the grime and flames, despite the grim topic, despite the moments of despair, this is an oddly compelling book.  I found myself reading it avidly.  Perhaps my background played a role:  I was born in a northern town built on a manufacturing background.  Not Detroit, but close enough geographically and anthropologically that I recognize the decline and decay of towns which once thrived with automotive factory work.  I understand driving by a factory where my grandparents once worked, but now the only activity is tall grass growing through the cracks in the parking lot.  I have seen many houses, once graceful, now divided into apartments or fallen into disrepair and decay.

I have seen boom, and I have seen bust.  So has Detroit.

Nevermore's Picks: The Guilty One and Detroit: An American Autopsy

One of the beauties of the Nevermore Book Club is that the members read and report on their own books so folks don't always read the same book. Still, there are some books that make the rounds of more than one reader.  Here are a couple of books which made a big impression on our members:

The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne is highly recommended by Nevermore.  British solicitor Daniel Hunt is handed the case of an eleven year old boy, Sebastian, who is accused of murdering a younger child in this psychological thriller. As he investigates, Daniel is forced to relive parts of his own childhood with his drug-addicted mother and his time in foster care. The author asks a lot of hard questions about child welfare and the criminal justice system, but also explores the nature of love, family and forgiveness. The fact that this is a first novel makes it all the more impressive. 

 Our readers found it hard to put down, and drew comparisons to Defending Jacob by William Landay and The Child Who by Simon Lelic, both of which deal with the same shattering premise. All three offer ample room for discussion of the juvenile justice system (or lack thereof) while being entertaining at the same time. Landay's book offers a lot of twists and turns in addition to great court room scenes, while Lelic is less on the identity of the murderer and more about the consequences of taking an unpopular stand-- and yes, there are still twists and turns.

The other top recommendation is for Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie Leduff.  How did Detroit go from one of the most vibrant, wealthy cities in America to being one of the nation’s poorest, a symbol of decay?  Investigative reporter Leduff, a native of Detroit, traces the trail of corruption and mismanagement, all the while revealing the human faces behind some of the stories such as firemen forced to sell their brass poles to raise money for equipment or policemen taking the bus to crime scenes.  One story involved a corpse left so long that it froze into ice several feet thick.  As someone commented, it’s like watching a car wreck—it’s horrible and horrifying but you can’t look away.