Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Nevermore: Girl in the Tower, DNA, Adventure Cats, Where All Light Tends to Go, Higher Loyalty, Melissa Etheridge


Reported by Kristin


Nevermore began with a lovely story of fairy tale fiction:  The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, second in the Winternight Trilogy.  Introduced in The Bear and the Nightingale, Vasilisa is a young woman with a supernatural gift, and she feels the pressure to be married or to join a convent.  Instead, she dresses as a boy and leaves her village on horseback for a grand adventure.  Our reader found this a rather interesting tale.


Turning to non-fiction, another reader delved into DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America by Bryan Sykes.  Explaining the basic differences between mitochondrial DNA transmitted through the female egg and the genome within the nucleus of a human cell transmitted through the male sperm, our reader said that this was a very good book but so full of new ideas (to him) that it took a while to get a grasp of the material.


Another reader continued in non-fiction, albeit in much lighter subject matter.  Adventure Cats: Living Nine Lives to the Fullest by Laura J. Moss was an interesting diversion, as the author discussed how to safely take your cats out into the wild, hiking, camping, sailing, and more.  Our reader confessed that she did not have time to finish the book, because she was too busy playing with her cats.


The same reader began Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy, an up and coming Appalachian author.  Aiden and Thad are stuck in the mountains of North Carolina with very few prospects and even less hope.  After the accidental death of a local drug dealer, the young men spiral into a series of self-destructive events.  Our reader said that there were too many drugs and she just could not make herself care about the characters.


Next up was A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey.  The former FBI director recently published this book amid political scandals and federal governmental infighting.  The book begins with a history of Comey’s life as he grew up thinking he would be a doctor, but later decided to go into law in order to work for the betterment of humanity.  Our reader appreciated the level of detail encompassed in the volume.


Finally, our last reader enjoyed a musician’s autobiography:  The Truth Is…My Life in Love and Music by Melissa Etheridge and Laura Morton.  Full of details of her family, various lovers, and her songwriting process, Etheridge gave the world a view of the most intimate parts of her life within these pages.  Our reader was impressed by Etheridge’s strength as a well-known member of the gay and lesbian community.

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