Nevermore: Guns of August, Joan Rivers Confidential, Best Minds, Boneheap in the Lion's Den

 

Reported by Garry

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman recounts in impeccably researched details the outbreak of World War I, its first thirty days, and the lasting effects of the conflict on the modern world. Until the Great War, wars had been generally regional and of limited scope – that all changed in the summer of 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium and ended four years later with the deaths of 20 million and the maps of Europe and the Middle-East permanently redrawn. This Pulitzer Prize winning look at one of the most consequential conflicts of the last century is a fascinating and engaging read, and one that will leave you with a greater understanding of why our world looks the way it does today.  AH

 

Joan Rivers Confidential: The Unseen Scrapbooks, Joke Cards, Personal Files, and Photos of a Very Funny Woman Who Kept Everything by Melissa Rivers. Our reader loved Joan Rivers before reading this book, and loves her even more now. Famous as a trailblazing comedienne, Rivers was also a brilliant executive who kept immaculate records of everything from the reactions to jokes to exchanges with fans. Author Melissa Rivers is Joan’s daughter, and covers Joan’s career from the late 1950s until her sudden death in 2014.  KM

 

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen is a heart-wrenching and unflinching memoir about mental illness and the wake of tragedy it can leave. Rosen was childhood friends with Michael Laudor, a brilliant, charismatic young man who finished his college degree in three years and then graduated from Yale Law School. Laudor was schizophrenic and during a severe paranoid psychotic break, stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death with a kitchen knife. As tragic as it is, our reader says that this is an absolutely fantastic book that she could not put down. DC

 

The Boneheap in the Lion’s Den by Maya J. Sorini is a book of poetry, portraying the author’s harrowing time working in the trauma ward of one of St. Louis’ largest hospitals. Sorini never flinches away from the horrors of the ward, and her poems take the reader along for a blood-soaked ride. Sorini’s poetry shares her own trauma and is some of the most wonderful poetry our reader has ever read – in fact, she read this slender book three times over!  PP

 

Also mentioned:

 

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

Clay’s Quilt by Silas House

The Dutch Orphan by Ellen Keith

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Uncanny Times by Laura Anne Gilman

Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson

Thunder Dog:  The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust by Michael Hingson and Susy Flory

 

New Books:

 

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan

Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic by Simon Winchester

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph