Reported by Kristin
Nevermore began this week with tales of life on the road, with
The Long Haul by Finn Murphy. While in college more than thirty years
ago, Murphy decided to drop out and become a truck driver, moving thousands of
households and driving over a million miles. Our reader found this to be a fun
book, although she founds some parts a bit boring. She was especially impressed
that Murphy made a bundle of money doing something he enjoys. Another reader
with truck driving experience said that she found every single experience
Murphy had to be believable. She also agreed with the author when he said to
use your maps to know exactly where you’re going and don’t just rely on the
GPS.
Another reader enjoyed My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You
She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman. Seven-year-old Elsa loves her grandmother,
although she’s something of an odd bird. Her grandmother tells stories which
resonate through Elsa’s head at night, giving her comfort. When her grandmother
dies, she sends Elsa on a quest to deliver apology letters to people she has
wronged, and Elsa learns much along the way.
When We Believed in Mermaids by
Barbara O’Neal begins with a dramatic moment—Kit sees her long-dead sister
Josie on the television news, then begins a journey to explore the disasters
which tore their family apart fifteen years ago. From California to New
Zealand, secrets long buried have a way of making themselves known at last. Our
reader found this novel extremely good, but noted that it dealt with very heavy
subjects.
Continuing in fiction, this time with a historical bent, our
next reader reported on The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel
Gaynor. Based on a true story, this novel begins in 1838 in Northumberland,
England where Grace Darling helps her father tending the lighthouse. When they
rescue shipwreck survivors, Grace becomes known and celebrated throughout the
region. A century later, pregnant nineteen-year-old Matilda Emmerson is sent
from Ireland to Rhode Island to stay with a distant relative, Harriet the
Newport lighthouse keeper. The two stories are interwoven, making connections
from the past to the future.
A current memoir has been making the rounds at Nevermore, Tara
Westover’s Educated. A story of a young woman who was raised in a
mountain-top compound in Idaho by isolationist parents, the book has stayed in
the bestseller charts for well over a year. Westover was homeschooled
haphazardly and expected to perform dangerous tasks in her father’s junkyard,
but developed a desire for the outside world and learning. From the scrap heaps
to Brigham Young to Cambridge and beyond, Westover shows a determination and
thirst for knowledge which impressed our readers.
Finally, another book club member discussed The Book Woman
of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. Cussy Mary Carter is one of
the blue people of Kentucky, one with a genetic defect which makes her skin
appear to be shades of indigo. Set in the New Deal era of the 1930s, Cussy has
managed to become one of the pack horse librarians who brings books and other
reading materials to those living up in the hills and hollows. Though she faces
much discrimination and family pressures, Cussy is determined to do her job.
Our reader claimed that this novel was a real page turner.
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