Nevermore June 21, 2022
The Best of Me by David Sedaris is a hilarious, biting, and deeply insightful look at the development of Sedaris’ writing, spanning 25 years. This collection of essays, chosen by Sedaris as his “greatest hits” volume was loved by our reader who pointed out not only how funny Sedaris is in his exceptionally clear-eyed examinations of the absurdities of every-day life, but his bravery is laying himself bare - his ups and downs, victories and defeats, all for public consumption. CD
How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks about Being Sick in America by Dr. Otis Webb Brawley. This searing exposé by the head of the American Cancer Society takes an unflinching look at the current state of healthcare in America and the conflicts and hypocrisies that prevent the vast majority of Americans from receiving proper medical care. Crawley calls for rational healthcare, healthcare drawn from results-based, scientifically justifiable treatments, and not just the peddling of hot new drugs. Our reader was at turns frustrated and amazed by this book – frustrated by the way that the medical system is driven by money, to the detriment of the patients, and amazed by the insight and forceful, thoughtful arguments for change that Dr. Brawley sets forth. CD
Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie by Julia Haart is a memoir by the head of one of the world’s largest talent agencies tracing her escape from an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect of New York to become a world famous shoe designer, to the head of the Elite World Group. Our reader was shocked and repulsed by the level of control forced upon Haart and her children, but was also inspired by Haart’s relentless pursuit of personal freedom and self-actualization even when faced with being shunned from the family and community that had been her entire world. NH
The Girl with No Shadow is the second book in the Chocolat series by Joanne Harris. Magic, deception, chocolate, and winter in Paris all come together in the tale as Vianne Rocher wanders from Lansquenet-sous-Tannes (the location of Chocolat) to the wind-blown streets of Paris. Vianne has set up a new chocolaterie but is unhappy and feeling stagnant. The shop is not doing well, her daughter Anouk, is being bullied in school, and depressed Vianne no longer wishes to make high-quality chocolates. Into their lives comes vibrant, vivacious Zozie de L’Alba who starts to turn their lives around. But at what cost? Our reader, who loves magical realism novels, says that Joanne Harris is her new favorite author and highly recommends this book and the others in the Chocolat series. MH
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black is a fascinating look at what the latest science tells us happened to the dinosaurs and how their disappearance affected all other existing and emerging species in the days, years, and millennia after the dinosaurs’ extinction. 66 million years ago, a 6-mile wide asteroid travelling at 44,700 miles per hour slammed into the Earth in what is now Chixulub, Mexico, leaving a crater over 110 miles wide and 12 miles deep. The shockwave and super-heated air blasted the atmosphere with hundreds of billions of tons of sulphur, dust, rock and debris, instantly setting fire to the land for thousands of miles in every direction and creating oceanic waves more than a mile tall. The blast produced a world-wide blackout and freezing temperatures that lasted at least a decade, and overnight wiped out nearly half of all life on Earth. The resulting changes allowed for the evolution of mammals and avians (birds) as well as thousands of other species that had been stifled by the dominance of the dinosaurs for over 100 million years.
Also mentioned:
Open Season by C.J. Box
LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia by Jeff Mann and Julia Watts
The Lawless Land by Boyd and Beth Morrison
The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson
About Grace by Anthony Doerr
The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth
Child Zero by Chris Holm
A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen—America’s Most Damaging Russian Spy by Lis Wiehl
Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
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