Nevermore: Younger Wife, Among the Thugs, Are You Somebody, Five Quarters of the Orange

 

Nevermore June 14, 2022

 

Reported by Garry

 

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth is a new thriller from the author of The Good Sister. Stephen Aston is a wealthy, successful heart surgeon who wishes to marry Heather, who is not only twenty-nine years his junior but also younger than either of his two daughters. There is also the small problem of his current wife, who is rapidly descending into the fog of Alzheimer’s disease. Throw in a history of shoplifting, some emotional overeating, and a murder at a wedding, and you have the setting for a gripping, fun mystery book that our reader said was very enjoyable and surprising.  ML

 

Among the Thugs by Bill Buford. First published in 1993, this is a deeply unsettling look at the soccer thugs who caused mayhem in the United Kingdom in the early to mid-1990s. Buford immersed himself in the culture of soccer hooliganism to research this book and (thankfully) was self-aware enough to realize the mental changes wreaked by his participation. An unblinking look at the effects of groupthink and herd mentality, this book afforded our reader an insight into a faction of society with which she would otherwise have no experience.  CD

 

Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O'Faolain is a collection of columns written for the Irish Times which became a number one best seller in Ireland. Open, haunting, fascinating, and heartbreaking in equal measures, this memoir of growing up during the turbulent years of the 1950s and 1960s when women were treated as little more than objects (while birth control and abortion were both illegal). O’Faolain navigated the treacherous landscape male-dominated literary world in order to escape from the turmoil of her family and become one of the best-known contemporary Irish writers.  AH

 

 

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris is set in a small village in France, as is Harris’ best-known novel, Chocolat. Framboise Simon returns to the small village that was her childhood home during World War II and from which she and her family were banished after a tragedy had befallen the town - one that was blamed on her mother. Framboise, living under an assumed name and running a successful crêperie, tries to hide her identity and connection to her mother, the still hated Mirabelle Simon. Fate has other plans though when her crêperie becomes a huge tourist attraction and Framboise herself begins to attract attention.  WJ

 

Prayer: A Novel by Philip Kerr

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride by Peter Zheutlin

Unraveled Sleeve by Monica Ferris

Murder She Wrote series by Donald Bain

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

You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People by Elizabeth Rusch

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

The Stand by Stephen King

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan