Reported by Jeanne
Nevermore opened with a very brief review of March
by Gwendolyn Brooks. The book explores
the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the patriarch of the March family from Little
Women, based in part on Bronson Alcott’s diaries just as Louisa May used
her own family in her novel. The book was
very well written and interesting; the problem was that when the reviewer was
several chapters into the book she realized she had already read it. It was recommended.
The PBS documentary “Prince Charles at 70” inspired
another member to pick up Kings & Queens of Great Britain to explore
the lives all of all 60-plus rulers of England and Great Britain. She was thoroughly enjoying it, but said she knew
it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
A newcomer to Nevermore had just started reading Guess
Who: A Novel by Chris McGeorge.
Morgan Sheppard, star of a reality TV show called “Resident Detective,”
wakes up in a hotel room, handcuffed to a bed.
With him are five strangers and a corpse. Morgan is told that he has three hours to
solve the murder mystery or a bomb will go off.
The reader described it as a sort of classic locked room mystery, and
that the book was off to a promising start.
Sometimes Nevermore readers have an innovative
approach to their books. Our Souls at
Night by Kent Haruf is the story of two lonely older people who develop a
close and tender relationship. Widow
Addie approaches her neighbor, Louis, and suggests they spend their nights together—not
for sex, but for companionship in the dark. Their comfortable and comforting
time together is challenged when Addie’s grandson is sent for a visit. Our
reader loved it up until the end, which she found unsatisfactory so “I just
closed my eyes and wrote a new ending that made me happy.”
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is a collection of science
fiction stories, many of which originally appeared as standalone stories. Bradbury created a side-show character whose
body is covered in tattoos, each of which comes to life and tells a story. Several of the tales are quite well known and
have been filmed—“The Veldt” and “The Long Rain,” for example—but our reader
was unimpressed. She gave up after a
story or two.
Becoming
by Michelle Obama is still making the rounds in the club. The current reader said she hadn’t yet
reached the White House years, but was finding much to admire in the way that
Mrs. Obama was deeply involved in her daughters’ lives while also juggling a
demanding career and a husband with political aspirations.
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