Nevermore: Haven, Figures In A Landscape, Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Reported by Garry

Haven by Emma Donoghue. Set in 7^th century Ireland, this novel tells the tale of Artt, a scholar and priest who has a dream that tells him to leave the world behind and build a hermitage/monastery. Sailing down the river Shannon and out into the open ocean, Artt and his two companions come to the Skellig Islands, eight miles off the southwest coast of Ireland. Here, Artt and his two companions, one old and wise, the other young and ingenious, start building their monastery on Skellig Michael, a brutally harsh, windswept, twin-pinnacled crag in the ocean. Artt is the leader and Prior of the brotherhood, and demands total obedience to what he says is God’s will, despite the harshness of their situation. Our reader says that the descriptions of the day-to-day lives of the three are highly detailed and pretty graphic as they have to slaughter the sea-birds that call the island home in order to get food and oil. Fun Fact: Skellig Michael was the setting of Luke’s Jedi Temple in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  ML

Figures In A Landscape: People and Places is a collection of essays by Paul Theroux, with the overall theme being on the craft of writing. Along the way, Theroux takes us surfing with Oliver Sacks, on a helicopter ride to Neverland with Elizabeth Taylor, and exploring New York with Robin Williams. Our reader is a fan of Theroux’s writing and has read most of his published works. She fully recommends this collection, first published in 2018.  CD

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers has been described as one of the greatest novels of the 20^th century. Written when McCullers was only 23-years-old, this classic novel is about a deaf-mute man, John Singer, and the people he encounters in the small Georgia town where he lives, their struggles to connect with one another on a meaningful level, and their coming to terms with the world. Giving voice to those who are forgotten, swept away, and sidelined, McCullers shows a depth of understanding of the human condition far beyond that of a typical 23-year-old. There was lively discussion about this book in the group, with many of our members having read it. Highly recommended by all, this novel, first published in 1940, still resonates deeply today.  WJ

Also discussed: 

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Last Mile by David Baldacci

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A Southern Family by Gail Godwin

Legend in Green Velvet by Elizabeth Peters

Selected Stories by William Trevor

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Ever by My Side: A Memoir in Eight Acts Pets by Dr. Nick Trout

So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen by Kristen Meinzer

The Collected Stories by William Trevor

Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Last Mile by David Baldacci

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

Wild & Furry Animals of the Southern Appalachian Mountains by Lee James Pantas

Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine

Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals by Laurie Zaleski

Ducky by Eve Bunting

Ducks Overboard!:  A True Story of Plastic in Our Oceans by Markus Motum

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn