Nevermore: Immobile Empire, Daughters of Yalta, Humans, Forgotten Country

 

Nevermore June 7, 2022

 

Reported by Garry

 

The Immobile Empire by Alain Peyrefitte is a detailed look at the disastrous attempt by the British Empire to open up China to trade with the West in 1793. Both cultures viewed the other with derision and were convinced of their own superiority. Egos clashed and the results have echoed around the globe for generations. Peryefitte draws on the diaries of those involved on both sides to paint a fascinating picture of distrust, hubris, and etiquette. This exhaustively researched book clocks in at a hefty 630 pages, but the length of it neither put off nor bored our reader who says that this is a very interesting book for any history buff.  FC

 

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz is the meticulously researched tale of the daughters of three of the most powerful men in history: Sarah Churchill (Winston’s daughter), Anna Roosevelt (Franklin’s only daughter), and Kathleen Harriman (daughter of Averell Harriman, the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union). These three daughters accompanied their fathers to a world-altering meeting at Yalta during the waning days of the Second World War. Seamlessly combining the politics of the day with the interpersonal relationships of the three daughters and their fathers, this book fascinated our reader, who found it hard to put down.  CD

 

Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up by Tom Phillips is an irreverent look at how we humans manage to mangle nearly everything we get our hands on. How we are still here is a bit of a mystery when you look at all the ways that we have messed things up. Our reader says this breezy book has equal amounts of history and humor and was a delight to read, and she found herself laughing out loud many times.  PP

 

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung is one of the most beautiful books that our book club member has ever read. Weaving Korean folklore into a decades-spanning story of immigration and the search for identity, this story focuses on Janie, a Korean-born, American-raised immigrant, and her family. Janie’s elder sister disappeared and cut all ties with her family. The family moves back to Korea and Janie is tasked with finding her sister before their father dies – a task that Janie both feels compelled to do, but bitterly resentful about. This debut novel takes a deep and emotional look at not only the immigrant experience but the ties that bind (and sometimes chafe) amongst family members.  AH

 

Also mentioned:

Same Place, Same Things by Tim Gautreaux

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten

The American Women’s Almanac: 500 Years of Making History by Deborah G. Felder

Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938 by R. A. Scotti

The Memoirs of A Survivor by Doris Lessing

The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Death of a Gossip by M.C. Beaton

LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia edited by Jeff Mann and Julia Watts

Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS by Elton John

Fools Crow by James Welch

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes

The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies by Paul Fischer

Yinka, Where is Your Husband? By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice

Death of an Irish Mummy by Catie Murphy

Reviewed by Jeanne  

The third entry in the Dublin Driver series has limo driver Megan Malone hired to drive a fellow American around in search of her Irish roots.  Pretty impressive roots too, if Cherise Williams is to be believed: she says she is the heir to an Irish earl.  All she needs to prove it is for the priest to dig up one of the old earls and let Cherise get a DNA sample.

Naturally, this request doesn’t go over well. 

It’s not like Americans laying claim to Irish titles (and castles) is a rare thing. Megan hasn’t lived in Ireland that long, and she’s already seen her fair share.  Most are bogus or at least unsubstantiated, based on family lore and nothing else.  Megan rather assumes this is the case here as well.

However at least one person must believe there’s some truth to it.  Otherwise, why would Cherise end up murdered and her notebook stolen?

I enjoy books set in Ireland, especially when it seems that the author really knows what she’s talking about, and it feels as if Murphy does.  For one thing, her character has really made an effort to fit in and to learn the Irish way of life.  Some of those things come into play in this book, mostly legal differences about firing practices and landlord-tenant disputes, which I found very interesting.

Another thing that sets these stories apart for me is the way that (for the most part) Murphy develops her characters.  Cherise comes across at first as the typical brash and brassy Texan, bent on getting her way. When her daughters come to claim their mother’s body, they seem to conform to standard expectation of squabbling siblings who fit neatly into expected categories.  The author then slowly peels back layers, letting us see these people for who they really are: complex characters who transcend the shallow stereotypes.

I was particularly taken with this entry in the series.  The next may not come out until 2023, but I think it will be worth the wait.

I don’t think you especially need to read them in order, thought there is some character growth during the course of the books.

Titles in the series:

Dead in Dublin

Death on the Green

Death of an Irish Mummy

Death in Irish Accents (2023)

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Reviewed by Kristin

Jamie Gray* thought that a performance review would be an excellent chance to showcase their ideas and innovations, but füdmüd CEO Rob Sanders had other ideas. Jamie walks into the meeting as a marketing executive and walks out with the offer of being a company “deliverator” – a food delivery person in the midst of 2020. Jamie fumes and swears never to stoop that low, but the reality of New York City rents and roommates jumping ship in the middle of a pandemic causes them to start delivering seven-spice chicken and vegan egg rolls at all hours.

A chance encounter with an old acquaintance named Tom finally gives Jamie a way out. Tom Stevens works with KPS, a company that he calls an animal rights organization. One of Tom’s team is on a ventilator in Houston; he needs a replacement team member, and he needs one now. No special skills are needed, just the ability to lift stuff. Well, maybe lift stuff, follow directions unquestioningly, and keep your mouth shut about what you are lifting. Jamie jumps at the chance to ditch the deliverator cap, passes the background check, and has two days to get their affairs arranged before the KPS team heads out on a new assignment.

As it turns out, the top-secret part of the assignment is even more important than being able to lift stuff, because Jamie is about to travel to a parallel universe where real-life giant creatures (think Godzilla) are entire ecosystems unto themselves, and oh yeah, they just happen to produce nuclear power. The Kaiju Preservation Society really does want to protect these creatures, and definitely wants to keep them from thinning the layers between dimensions so that they don’t pop back into the “real” world. Umm, that might have happened once or twice before. Not the kaijus’ fault, of course. That was totally on humanity who kept messing around with atomic bombs.

John Scalzi is a scathingly brilliant wordsmith who tells extremely entertaining stories while also pointing out the inequalities and disparities contained in the world today. In this fictional take on alternate worlds and political manipulation of the sciences, Scalzi writes characters who believe themselves too powerful to be bothered with morals, as well as underdog characters who fight for the greater good, and for the toppling of billionaire/corporate empires.

 

*All while reading this book, I thought that Jamie was a woman, telling her story in the first person. Other reviewers have assumed that Jamie was a man. Flipping back through the book, I couldn’t find any clues. Then I found a Kirkus review that says Jamie’s gender was never specified.

Nevermore: Same Place Same Things; Book Woman's Daughter; Fools Crow; Book of Joe

 

Nevermore May 31, 2022

Reported by Garry

 

Same Place, Same Things by Tim Gautreaux is a collection of short stories set (mostly) in rural Louisiana following men and women whose ordinary lives reach a moment of crisis where everything changes. Our reader stated that each story is unique, with grounded characters that suck you in. She was thoroughly enthused by this first collection of stories by Gautreaux and looks forward to reading more of his work as he is so talented. If you like short stories, this is a fantastic, fun read!  KN

 

The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson is the highly anticipated follow-up to the runaway hit The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Unfortunately, this sequel did not catch on with our reader, who found the writing style to be too conversational, and she stated that it is not nearly as enjoyable as the first novel. Have you read it? Let us know what you thought!

 

First published in 1986, Fools Crow by James Welch is the groundbreaking story of a member of the Blackfeet tribe on the Montana prairies in 1870. Fools Crow is both a warrior and medicine man and has the foresight to see that White settlers are going to punish any resistance with overwhelming force. Welch drew from the Blackfeet and A’aninin cultures of his parents to weave a story of the pivotal time in American history when the West was undergoing a seismic shift in cultures shortly after the Civil War. Our reader said it took her a while to get into the “flow” of the book as Welch utilizes Blackfeet naming conventions which are much different than Western customs, but once she got over that she found the story to be fascinating and really likes this multi-award-winning historical novel.  MH

The Book of Joe: The Life, Wit, and (Sometimes Accidental) Wisdom of Joe Biden by Jeff Wilser. Published in 2017, this biography of Joe Biden covers key chapters in the President’s life in a highly entertaining and accessible manner. While focusing on Biden’s accomplishments, Wilser also takes a long look at the multitude of tragedies that have befallen the President and how he followed his father’s advice to “Get back up” – advice that Biden has followed and used to forge a path to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.  DC

Also mentioned:

You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People by Elizabeth Rusch
Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick
When Blood Lies by C.S. Harris
A Child’s History of England by Charles Dickens
The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty by Sy Montgomery
The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth by Kristin Henning
Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris
Sisters of Auschwitz: The True Story of Two Jewish Sisters' Resistance in the Heart of Nazi Territory by Roxane van Iperern
Death of a Policeman by M.C. Beaton
Prairie Fever by Michael Parker
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up by Tom Phillips
The Mirror of Simple Souls by Marguerite Porete
Lupin Leaps In: A Breaking Cat News Adventure by Georgia Dunn
Myths of the World:  An Illustrated Collection of the World’s Greatest Stories edited by Tony Allan

Summer Books!

 

 

Summer is heating up and so are the titles being released! Here are some to look forward to, starting in July.

Allen, Sarah Addison  Other Birds (August)

Backman, Fredrik  The Winners (September)

 Baldacci, David The 6:20 Man

Balogh, Mary  Remember Love

Brooks, Geraldine  Horse (June)

Carlisle, Kate The Paper Caper

Castillo, Linda  The Hidden One (Kate Burkholder)

Chambers, Becky  A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk and Robot)

Chiaverini, Jennifer  Switchboard Soldiers

Child, Lincoln  Chrysalis:  A Thriller

Coble, Colleen  Edge of Dusk

 Coulter, Catherine Reckoning:  An FBI Thriller (August)

Francis, Felix  Iced

Freeman, Brian  Robert Ludlum’s the Bourne Sacrifice

Garwood, Julie  Grace Under Fire

Gerritsen,Tess Listen to Me

Greaney, Mark  Armored

Hillier, Jennifer  Things We Do in the Dark

Koontz, Dean The Big Dark Sky

Macomber, Debbie  The Best Is Yet to Come

Malliet, G.M.  Augusta Hawke

McCall Smith, Alexander  Sweet Remnants of Summer (Isabel Dalhousie)

Miranda, Megan  The Last to Vanish

Patterson, James  Shattered (Michael Bennett)

Peterson, Traci  Beyond the Desert Sands

Reichs, Kathy  Cold, Cold Bones

 Robb, J.D. Desperation in Death (August)

Rosenfelt, David Holy Chow

Silva, Daniel  Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Thor, Brad  Rising Tiger

Tremblay, Paul  The Pallbearers Club

Ware, Ruth  The It Girl