Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

Reviewed by Rita

This is the story of Lily and Ted and the incredible love they share. They spend their nights playing board games, ordering take out, and talking about boys just like best friends do-- only Lily is a dog. Ted Flask is a single writer living in L.A. and Lily is his twelve year old dachshund. The fact that Lily is a dog doesn’t stop Ted from having conversations with her that range from hilarious to poignant. 

While conversing with Lily one day, Ted notices an octopus attached to her head and becomes obsessed with its demise. Ted recognizes the danger the octopus poses to Lily while refusing to accept the reality of what it actually is. He exchanges numerous threats with the cephalopod and eventually embarks on an adventure reminiscent of Melville’s Moby Dick. 

It is difficult to further summarize this book without giving away too much. I found the beauty of the story was in sharing Ted’s revelations. I went into it expecting an emotional rollercoaster and it definitely was. Anyone who has experienced the love and loss of an animal companion will relate to Ted and the lengths to which he goes to fight for Lily. I found it both uplifting and heartbreaking. It’s filled with humor, pain, imagination, and a whole lot of love. Read it with a BIG box of tissues handy.

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman

Reviewed by Kristin

The Netflix Original show Orange is the New Black has become a pop culture phenomenon with over 6.7 million viewers watching the latest season during its opening weekend in June 2016.  Seen as an edgy commentary on the culture of incarcerated women, of whom there are 1.2 million in the United States, the show has drawn in binge viewers who care passionately about the characters and their storylines.  With this in mind, I decided to listen to the book Orange is the New Black on a recent solitary road trip.  Now, I would much rather read a book than listen to one, but distracted driving is frowned upon, so I downloaded several books from the Tennessee Regional eBook and Audiobook Download System (R.E.A.D.S.) and hit the road.

In 1993, Piper Kerman travelled from Chicago to Paris to Belgium with a checked suitcase full of drug money at the request of her lover.  Kerman was nervous and very uncomfortable with this task, although she had been keeping company with Nora Jansen, travelling around the world while Jansen worked with an international drug cartel.  Naïve?  Perhaps.  Nonetheless, Kerman says that she soon decided to make a break and returned to the United States, cutting all ties with anyone involved in the drug operation.

Five years later Kerman was notified by U.S. Customs officers that she had been indicted in federal court on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering.  In that time her life had changed dramatically.  She was working as a freelance producer in New York and engaged to be married.  Although indicted in 1998, the federal case dragged on for several years and it was 2003 before Kerman was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

Now comes the part that everyone pictures when hearing the title of the book—a young, Ivy League educated, white woman goes to prison and finds herself in an orange jumpsuit.  Even though she read all the books about going to prison, Kerman found herself in a bureaucratic system for which she was totally unprepared.  From not knowing the proper procedure to put money in her commissary account, to not knowing how to make her bunk to pass inspection, to mistakenly complaining about the food to the head inmate chef, Kerman was fearful and completely lost.

In time, Kerman adjusted and discovered that it was okay to make friends.  Small kindnesses helped her through her first weeks and eventually she came to the point of being able to help others.  The uncertainty and powerlessness she felt were difficult as the months dragged on, but she was able to find her place.

Fortunately for Kerman, her stay in a federal women’s correctional facility was much less eventful than her fictional counterpart’s experiences in the Netflix show.  Both the book and the show depict problems that exist in the United States correctional system.  Overcrowding, lack of resources, racial rivalries, lack of adequate staff training and organization are all problems faced by many if not all facilities.  But perhaps Kerman has made a larger audience aware of these issues and the greater visibility will inspire positive reforms.  This enlightening look at the inside of a women’s prison was an interesting way for me to pass the miles.

(Be sure to check out what titles are available in both e-book and audiobook format at R.E.A.D.S. at https://reads.overdrive.com/ )

Note:  The first year of this blog, we ran a review from Nancy about surviving jail.  As with most of her reviews, it was both memorable and hilarious.    You can read it here.

Nevermore: Almost Famous Women, Whole Town's Talking, Tresspassing Across America, and More!

Reported by Ambrea

This week, Nevermore started with The Whole Town’s Talking by Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.  Elmwood Springs in Missouri is like most American small towns, except something strange is happening at Still Meadows, the local cemetery—which, of course, gets the whole town to talking.  Full of surprises and unexpected depth, The Whole Town’s Talking is both enjoyable and funny.  Our reader said she enjoyed Flagg’s latest novel immensely, saying it was well-written, accessible, and unexpectedly hilarious.  She highly recommended it to her fellow readers, especially if they’ve ever enjoyed the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.

Next, Nevermore took a look at Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman.  In this collection of stories, Bergman takes a look at the lives of women who were very nearly famous.  Although a few of these women were celebrities, more still possessed famous relatives or did something so scandalous that their exploits were posthumously swept under the rug.  Bergman explores the lives of Butterfly McQueen, Allegra (Lord Byron’s illegitimate daughter), Dolly (Oscar Wilde’s troubled niece), Beryl Marham (author of West with the Night) and many more.  Our reader was incredibly pleased with Almost Famous Women, calling it insightful and interesting.  She commended Bergman’s inclusion of photos and portraits, and she recommended it highly for its fascinating stories and interesting essays.

In Trespassing Across America:  One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike across the Heartland), Ken Ilgunas details his hike following the entire proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline, traveling all the way from Alberta to Texas.  Beginning September 2012, Ilgunas hiked more than 1,700 miles from Canada to the Gulf Coast, walking almost exclusively across private property.  Described by the cover as “both a travel memoir and a reflection of climate change,” Trespassing Across America was an instant hit for our reader.  She said it was a fascinating book that was introspective and thoughtful and incredibly endearing.  Although she felt the book left a bit of an open ending, leaving readers to examine their own answers, she highly recommended Trespassing Across America for its political and social relevance, as well as its humor, wit, and consideration of the natural world.

One of our more popular discussions arose from Erik Vance’s book, Suggestible You:  The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal.  “This riveting narrative explores the world of placebos, hypnosis, false memories, and neurology to reveal the groundbreaking science of our suggestible minds,” reads the cover.  “Journalist Erik Vance explores the surprising ways our expectations and beliefs influence our bodily responses to pain, disease, and everyday events.”  Our reader said he was fascinated Vance’s book.  He pointed out that Suggestible You is not a narrative that opposes chemical medicine, rather it looks at the effects of placebos on the human mind and how both medicine and neurology (i.e. the mind) can work together to help heal the human body.  He found this book incredibly interesting and discussed several topics, including how medical science might be able to personalize medicine based on one’s level of suggestibility—or how a lack thereof can make a difference.

Next, Nevermore shared In the Name of the Family, a historical novel by Sarah Dunant.  In the Name of the Family draws from the high drama of Renaissance Italy, offering an insightful look into the power and prestige and politics of the House of Borgia.  It opens in 1502 with Rodrigo Borgia—otherwise known as Pope Alexander VI—and his political machinations, which include his daughter Lucrezia, his son Cesare, and a Florentine diplomat, Niccolo Machiavelli.  Although our reader is a lover of history, she said she found Dunant’s novel a little disappointing, even pedestrian.  She sincerely wanted to enjoy In the Name of the Family, but, after 46 pages, she finally gave up and moved on to her next book.

Last, Nevermore rounded off their book club with a memoir:  My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor.  Sotomayor was the first Hispanic and only the third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court and, in her memoir, she recounts her life from the Bronx housing project of her childhood to the federally appointed position of Supreme Court Justice.  Our reader said she absolutely loved reading My Beloved World, calling it lovely, well-written, insightful and “just so very good.”  It provided an intimate story of Sotomayor’s experiences, including her childhood in the Bronx, her fight to receive an education, her struggle with Type 1 Diabetes, and much more.  My Beloved World immediately passed on to the next reader, who couldn’t wait to read more about Sotomayor.

Death of a Toy Soldier by Barbara Early

Reviewed by Jeanne

When a man shows up with a box of old toys, Liz McCall isn’t surprised.  Toy appraisals are a staple at Well Played, the family’s toy and game shop.  That her father isn’t around to do the appraisals isn’t a cause for surprise either, but may be a cause for concern.  Her pun-loving dad is allegedly retired from the East Aurora, NY police department, but he’s prone to slipping out and making the occasional citizen’s arrest—a habit which does not endear him to the new chief of police.  Things get even stickier a few days later when the potential customer turns up dead in the shop, his toys are missing, and her dad is claiming amnesia.

Liz doesn’t have to be a cop’s daughter to know that looks very, very suspicious.

Death of a Toy Soldier begins the Vintage Toyshop Mystery series, and it acquits itself well for a first in series.  Often such books spend many pages doing the set-up (acquainting readers with the various characters, locales, business, and so forth) which can bog down the story, but this one keeps the narrative moving along.  There’s a nice assortment of characters and character quirks, the seemingly requisite two potential beaus for the leading lady, and the “gimmick”—in this case, antique toys.  

While this was a good, solid book to spend time reading during lunch, I confess I felt a bit let down.  I had read and enjoyed the author’s earlier Bridal Bouquet Mystery series (written under the name Beverly Allen), so my expectations were perhaps higher than they should have been.  With the first series, part of the delight was learning the language of flowers along with the mystery. In the new series, toys were name-dropped (Risk, Clue, etc.) but I didn’t really learn much about them.  The only memorable toy comment was one about the history of monopoly, but not too much information was given. This is no doubt a plus for some readers who don’t care for extraneous information but it’s something I actively enjoy and rather expected, much the same way that readers expect recipes or cooking tips when reading a cooking mystery. 

And yes, there is a cat.  His name is Othello (presumably for the game and not the general) and he is a charmer.

The mystery itself was competently done and clues were fairly delivered.  The characters have potential, though Dad tends to steal the show.  I’m hoping the next book will explore the personalities a bit more and that toy information and history will be worked into the narrative. Based on her previous books, I think she will deliver.