Reported by Garry
This week’s Nevermore book club selections included stories about road trips, cattle drives, talking animals and more. Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton fascinated our first reader with stories of the Old West prairies, and the indelible stamp they left on American life. Diverging from the Hollywood version of cowboys, the author examines the cattle industry from a business standpoint as both a financial journalist and the head of an investment firm, viewing the turn-of-the-century cattle industry in a larger context, while still bringing to life the cowpunchers who drove their herds across the plains on trails that eventually became our national interstate system.
The multi-award winning Boop and Eve’s Road Trip by Virginia native Mary Helen Sheriff was up next. Eve is a young woman struggling with both depression and her first year of college, whose best friend has just vanished. It doesn’t help the situation that Eve’s mother Justine is domineering and that their relationship is strained. Justine herself is estranged from her own mother, Betty (aka Boop.) Boop, seeing herself her granddaughter’s struggles, decides to hijack Eve’s trip to find her friend. Our reader found this book about the healing power of intergenerational family love to be laugh-out-loud funny, poignant and reflective, and highly recommends it to anyone who had or has a complex relationship with their mother or daughter.
Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley is the funniest book you will ever read, according to our reviewer. This imaginative novel follows the adventures of Paras (short for Perestroika), a curious, spirited young filly who finds unexpected freedom in the city of Paris. Befriending Frida, a German shorthaired pointer dog, two ducks, and an opinionated raven, Paras is living the high-life in the City of Light, until she is befriended by Etienne, a young boy who lives with his secluded one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother. Our reader says that this book is a real screwball comedy and kept her laughing all the way through.
Denali: A Man, A Dog and the Friendship of a Lifetime by Ben Moon demonstrates how someone can come into your life unexpectedly and change your life in ways you never thought possible. This is the memoir of Ben Moon, a socially inept young outdoor photographer who adopts a shelter pup named Denali. They change and enrich each other’s lives in ways that Ben never anticipated, and Denali sticks with Ben as he goes through treatment for colorectal cancer. When Denali comes down with the same cancer, Ben was able to return the care and affection that Denali had shown him during his battle. Our reader absolutely loved this book, stating how strongly it resonated with her and the relationship she has with her own dogs. She very highly recommends this book to any dog lover.
Also mentioned:
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Yours Cheerfully by AJ Pearce
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind A Disaster by Jonathan Katz
Survivor: My Life as a Haitian Refugee by Leferne Preptit
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight
Betty Crocker Cookbook
Campbell’s Soup Family Cookbook
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
Best of Friends by Dee Riser and Teresa Dorme
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen
The Truth About Covid-19: Exposing The Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports and the New Normal by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
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