Nevermore: Death Becomes Them, People of the Abyss, And the Mountains Echoed, The Outsider

 

Reported by Garry

 

Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss is an in-depth look at the deaths of several well-known figures. Subjects in this book include Kurt Cobain, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Dorothy Dandridge, and many more. Our reader thought the book was a fun look at a terrible subject, and recommends it for anyone looking for more information about how and why these people took their own lives—and their deaths—into their own hands.

 

The People of the Abyss by Jack London is the American author’s personal account of his experiences in the East End of London. London (the author,that is) went undercover for several weeks in 1902—sleeping on the street, in workhouses, and boarding with a poor family to research the deplorable conditions of the London slums. For generations, the East End had been notorious for deep poverty, overcrowding, and associated social problems. Pointing out that half of the children born in the East End at the turn of the century died before their 5^th birthday, our reviewer said that this book was at once the best book of social commentary that she had read, and also the worst, in that it was the most depressing. This book is now considered a classic piece of investigative journalism, and is highly recommended by our reader.

 

And The Mountains Echoed, first published in 2013, is the third novel by the bestselling author of the Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini. Nine interwoven stories revolve around the relationship between Afghani brother and sister Abdullah and Pari, and the lives of those around them. Spanning three continents and stretching from the early 1950s into the 2010s, this deeply personal story explores the interconnectedness of family and what we do for and to those we love. Our reader very highly recommends this multi-award winning, bestselling book.

 

Our next Nevermore member says that The Outsider by Stephen King is guaranteed to make your skin crawl. In Flint City, Ohio, an eleven-year-old boy has been sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. Eyewitness testimony, fingerprints, and DNA all shockingly point to Terry Maitland, one of the town’s most outstanding citizens. However, Maitland also has an iron-clad alibi placing him at a distant location at the time of the murder. How could both those things be true? Who actually committed the murder? Our reader liked the way that this book personifies evil as a real, tangible person, not simply “a thing that goes bump in the night,” finding this book to be an excellent and extremely creepy read.

 

Also Mentioned:

 

Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler as told to Joseph B. Egan

Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 2^nd Edition edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Falling by T.J. Newman

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Secret Sisters by Joy Callaway

That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay

Fatal Intent by Tammy Euliano

Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth by Tony Hiss

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

1984 (Graphic Novel Version) by George Orwell

The Best Of Me by David Sedaris

Martita, I Remember You by Sandra Cisneros

I Couldn’t Love You More by Esther Freud