Reported by Kristin
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
provided a much-needed light, summery read for one of our Nevermore readers
this week. Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood have known each other for years,
having grown up in the same small town although not necessarily running in the
same social circles. When Paxton buys and restores the old Jackson family home
in order to open an inn, history rises to the present in the form of a skeleton
found beneath a peach tree. Allen weaves stories together from generation to
generation, creating a captivating atmosphere of friendship.
Following with more fiction, another reader thoroughly enjoyed
Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley. Clearly satire, this novel
approaches Arab-American relations with a level of irreverence sure to enchant
and/or offend its readers. In the country of “Wasabia,” a junior diplomat
decides to try to fix the injustices of the Middle East by granting full
citizenship and rights to women. Our reader found some references to other
countries very obvious and some rather subtle, and altogether funny.
In somewhat more serious fiction, our next reader described The
Overstory by Richard Powers, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction,
as an awesome book. Beautifully written, this novel examines the natural world
through a series of connected stories. As nine different characters are moving
through their separate lives, they each discover a connection to trees. Our
reader was enthralled by the relationships between the people and trees, and
how the manner in which trees live, grow, and even communicate with each other
mirrors the interdependency necessary for human survival.
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy
Chevalier is a frontier story, with James and Sadie Goodenough settling in Ohio
in 1838. Their son Robert escapes his difficult family by moving westward with
the California Gold Rush. Trees popped up here again (as you might guess from
the title,) as the characters were involved in shipping saplings and seedlings
from the West Coast to England. Our reader said that it was a very enjoyable
book about starting anew.
The discussion then turned to non-fiction with Hand to
Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado. This is a real working
poor memoir by a woman who details her struggles of maintaining multiple jobs
while struggling to keep her family above water. Our reader felt that this was
a perspective not usually seen, and that the author had done a good job of
raising her children to learn for themselves and to be curious in life. Much
discussion ensued, with various readers weighing in with their opinions on how
the author had included a running commentary on how important cigarettes were
to help her get through another long walk to work or to steal even a moment of
relaxation.
Lastly, another reader admitted that she was still in the
middle of but still enjoying The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
This epic tale is spun from the perspective of a Baptist missionary’s wife.
Nathan Price is dispatched to the Belgian Congo in 1959 along with his wife and
their four daughters. Our reader’s main comment thus far was the fact that the
wife sees how terribly her husband treats his family, but she still believes in
his mission.
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