Reported by Kristin
Nevermore is made up of a diverse crowd, some loving
science, some digging into archeology, some solving mysteries along with books’
protagonists. Sometimes someone will
come in with a really fun book like Did You Just Eat That?: Two Scientists
Explore Double-Dipping, the Five-Second Rule, and Other Food Myths in the Lab
by Paul Dawson and Brian Sheldon.
Tackling those really tough questions brought up since the advent of
microbiology, the authors examine just what kind of bacteria are out there and
how they are spread. Our reader said it
was very fun, although now she shudders at the thoughts of how many germs are
on restaurant menus. Another reader said
that at her age, if it hasn’t killed her yet….
A couple of different readers were trying to get through How
Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. While touted as a comprehensive, enlightening
and timely book (by the New York Times Book Review) our readers thought that the
authors included perhaps too much information about the current political
situation and left out some history about how the United States has previously
helped to overthrow democracies in developing countries due to our own national
interests. While there is a lot of
important information included, the consensus was that the authors did not do a
good job of drawing it all together.
Another book club member read fiction this week, enjoying Daughters
of the Lake by Wendy Webb. Kate
Granger is trying to regroup after her divorce, staying at a family home on
Lake Superior. When she discovers a
woman’s body, she is shocked at the familiar face, known only to Kate
herself. The story moves forward and
back in time, uncovering a tragic mystery from a hundred years ago. Our reader was immersed in the ghostly sense
of mystery and betrayal.
Fiction reading continued with Amy and Isabelle by
Elizabeth Strout. In this debut novel, a
mother’s love and angst are on full display as her sixteen year old daughter
Amy comes into her own sexuality.
Isabelle has secrets of her own that she would like to keep quiet in
their small New England town. Our reader
claimed that this was well-written and she would recommend it to others.
Continuing the theme of daughters, this time a
father-daughter relationship is explored with The Alchemist’s Daughter
by Katharine McMahon. In 1725, young
woman Emilie Selden has followed in her father’s footsteps as a philosopher and
alchemist. But passion intervenes when
Emilie falls in love with someone who may be the wrong man for her. In London, Emilie’s life changes
dramatically, and she learns more about the world than she ever knew in the
English countryside with her father.
Finally (and still continuing the familial relationship
plotlines,) another reader enjoyed When the Lights Go Out by Mary
Kubica. Twenty year old Jessie Sloane is
devastated when her mother succumbs to cancer.
As she tries to find her way in a world without her mother, she finds
that not all is as it seems, and she begins to question who she really is. The story weaves back and forth from Jessie
in her grief and sleeplessness to her mother Eden when she was a newlywed. Our reader hinted at big plot twists and a
shocking conclusion, but definitely recommended the book to her fellow readers.
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