Nevermore: Lost in Paris, David and Goliath, Therapist, Spy, Other Queen, Greenlanders, Harlem Shuffle, Fuzz

 

The Nevermore members were out in force for this meeting!  The book discussion portion opened with Lost in Paris by Elizabeth Thompson. Hannah Bond enjoys her life as a guide for Jane Austen themed tours, in part because living in England puts her an ocean away from her alcoholic mother in Florida.  She’s startled when her mother shows up at her door, telling her that they have inherited Hannah’s great-grandmother Ivy’s apartment in Paris.  Once there, they find themselves excavating the past, including Ivy’s accounts of life in the City of Lights when it was home to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and other luminaries. As they discover Ivy’s secret past, mother and daughter try to forge a new relationship.  Our reader recommended the book as she really enjoyed it.  Another member said wistfully that she wished she could inherit something like that! 

 

Next up was Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants which our reviewer very highly recommended.  She listened to it on audio and also read the book. The author contends that sometimes the “little guy” may have to resort to extreme tactics in order to benefit the greater good.  One example was a staged photo which caught national attention in a way that speeches alone did not. This started a lively discussion about morality. Obviously, this is a thought-provoking book!

 

The Therapist by B.A. Paris is a thriller about a young couple who move into a new home in a gated community.  Soon they discover that the neighbors are keeping secrets, including that something terrible happened in the house they have just bought. Our reader said this was a really good thriller. She said she could usually figure out what was going to happen in such novels, but this one surprised her.  

 

The Spy by Paulo Coelho is a novel about Mata Hari, the woman who was alleged to have been an agent during World War I.  The book is in the form of a letter written by Margareretha Geertruida MacLeod (Mata Hari’s birth name) before she is to face execution.  Our reviewer likes Paulo Coelho’s work as a rule, but found this one not to up to his usual standard.  She was disappointed in the book, and said she could not recommend this title.

 

Another novel featuring a historical figure was up next.  The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory is the story of Mary, Queen of Scots at the time she was in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. What seems like a sure way to curry favor with Queen Elizabeth for keeping her cousin soon proves to be a dangerous move as Mary seems to weave her plots.  Again, this book was deemed a disappointment from a usually reliable author.  The reader slogged through the pages, which she summed up as, “Everyone is miserable.”  The book was not recommended, unsurprisingly.

Jane Smiley has definitely picked up some fans after Perstroika in Paris made the rounds.  This time, The Greenlanders was the title and, despite it being a very different sort of book, it was met with approval.  The book is set in the fourteenth century, and revolves around a family in a Norse colony set up by Erik the Red as they struggle to survive in Greenland.  Our reader said she was loving it!

 

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is set in the 1960s in (you guessed it!) Harlem.  Ray Carney has built up a small business selling used furniture and trying to keep mostly on the straight and narrow—well, more or less.  His cousin, Freddie, on the other hand keeps bringing Ray some hot items to sell, which he does. Then Freddie tries to make a big score and ends up involving Ray with some very shady and possibly very dangerous characters.  The reviewer said she liked the author, but was struggling with this book a bit, possibly because the characters all had names and then nicknames so it was hard to keep track of who was who.  She also said it was “as funny as heck.”

 

Finally, Fuzz:  When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach was lauded as one of the best non-fiction writers out there.  Roach likes to take somewhat off-beat topics and explain the science behind them in easy to understand fashion, and being hilarious along with it.  In this new book, she takes up the problem of human-wildlife conflict, from elk who cause car wrecks to gulls who take out a floral display to welcome the Pope.  Our Nevermore member said she laughed out loud while she learned and highly recommends anything Mary Roach writes.

 

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Summons by John Grisham

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss

Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire

Nevermore: Tattooist, Mars, Bone Clocks, Mosquito, Big Sky, Past Tense, Everything I Never Told You

Reported by Laura

           The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is a beautiful love story set in the most horrific circumstances you can possibly imagine. Lale Sokolov arrives in Auschwitz and is given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival. It’s love at first sight when Gita comes through his line and he resolves to save them both. The reviewer thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommends it.

            Packing for Mars by Mary Roach is a fascinating look at what astronauts go through to get ready to go back to space. Written in her usual humorous style, from the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s space capsule with cadaver filling in for astronaut, this book doesn’t disappoint. The reviewer found it interesting and funny.

            Set in small town Ohio during the 70’s, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng explores the struggles within families as well as between cultures. The father is a respected professor and the mother endeavors to live her unfulfilled dreams through her children. Each child is facing struggles of their own, but when the “favorite” daughter commits suicide, the entire family is torn apart. Our reviewer enjoyed this book.

            The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell focuses on Holly Sykes, a 15 year-old in a relationship with an older man. She leaves home after arguing with her mother and finding her boyfriend with her best friend, then begins work as a picker on a strawberry farm to survive. Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena having heard voices she knew as “the radio people” while still a child. The farther she travels into the English countryside, the more intensive her visions become. The reviewer says that the book tends to jump from one character to another, but then ties them all together at the end. She recommends the book and this awesome author, who also wrote Cloud Atlas.

            The nonfiction book, The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard, explains how the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humankind’s fate. From the Civil War to today, the resiliency and dangers of the mosquito have changed the course of history. There is no really effective treatment against mosquitos, even DTT was ineffective while still being used. The reviewer found this book to be really fascinating and wished she could read it again and again!

            Big Sky by Kate Atkinson is the latest in the Jackson Brodie mystery series. This offering covers the difficult topic of human trafficking. A group of men in London advertise for well-paying jobs. When young women answer the ads, they are chained and used. The reviewer enjoyed the book and felt it had enough compassionate characters to outweigh the bad so that the subject matter wasn’t too overwhelming.

            The last book discussed was Past Tense by Lee Child which is part of the Jack Reacher series. Reacher decides to explore the small town in New Hampshire where his father grew up, but when he arrives, no one has ever heard of any family by that name ever living there. As he investigates, he befriends a Canadian couple who have broken down in the same area and become mired in lethal dangers. As usual, Reacher comes to the rescue in his own indomitable style . The reviewer found this book intriguing and didn’t want to stop reading it.

Nevermore: Casablanca, Tristan Betrayal, Palestine, Ada Blackjack, My Planet, Where Lady Slippers Grow

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore traveled back to the Golden Age of film with We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg.  Published 75 years after the 1942 release of the movie, this volume tells the background of the making of the movie.  An exhaustive researcher, Isenberg goes back to Murray Bennett, the New York City high school teacher who originally conceived the play “Rick’s Bar Casablanca” on which the 1942 film was based.  Our reader proclaimed that the movie was quite delightful and that if you liked the movie you would surely enjoy the book.

Next up was The Tristan Betrayal by Robert Ludlum, a thriller with Stephen Metcalfe, American ambassador, in Russia in 1991.  Stephen has a long history in international affairs, most notably as an intrepid spy who infiltrated the Nazi party during World War II.  In a whirlwind adventure though Paris, Berlin, and Moscow, Stephen must find an old lover to assist in his quest to maintain the balance of power in the Russian government.  Notably, this novel was published three years after Ludlum’s death in 2001, and may or may not have been entirely written by him.  Our reader said that this was a fun read, but by the time it was over she was exhausted by all the adventures.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by former President Jimmy Carter was published a decade ago, but still interested our next reader.  Carter brings an expansive understanding of the balance of power in the Middle East, and hopes to promote knowledge that brings peace and understanding to that part of the world.  Our reader said that she was particularly impressed by the maps provided.

Returning stateside, another reader enjoyed Where Lady Slippers Grow by Bev Freeman.  Madison McKenzie’s story began in Silence of the Bones, and continued in this, the second volume of a planned trilogy.  A young woman in East Tennessee, Madison has taken a break from college and is trying to figure out her direction in life.  Back home in small town Cold Creek, she is pulled into an unexpected role—filling in for the sheriff until an election.  Amidst hikers, murder, and mayhem, Madison continues her saga.  Our reader enjoyed the book.

Another reader enjoyed My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places by Mary Roach.  Each essay in this collection was originally published in Reader’s Digest.  Roach, a New York Times best-selling author, always seems to find the humor in every situation she encounters, and has a knack for making even difficult topics seem light and humorous.  Her husband Ed is the subject of many of Roach’s musings, from their adventures in programming the television remote to arranging furniture.

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven is set in 1921, as a young Inuit woman chose to travel to remote Wrangel Island, far to the northwest of Alaska.  Based on previously unpublished journals and documents, this story is an incredible tale of survival and inner strength.  The sea journey included a cat (always a draw for some,) considered good luck on the ship.  This book comes highly recommended.

Lastly, another reader was intrigued by A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey.  This recent memoir by the former FBI director explains many things about the inner workings of the United States government, including how the FBI is organized and the scope of investigations that they undertake.  Our reader found it really interesting and no matter how controversial, thinks that Comey is a very honorable man.