Nevermore: Disc Golf, Speckled Beauty, Just One Damned Thing After Another, March Forward Girl

 

Nevermore, February 20, 2024

Reported by Kristin

One of our Nevermore members Zoomed in to meet with us, because she was out of town but still wanted to share with us the joy of Disc Golf, specifically The Definitive Guide to Disc Golf by Justin Menickelli and Ryan Pickens. Our reader explained that this book discusses a little of the sport’s history, starting in the late 1960s. Technique is also described, and all the advantages of the exercise, but her final comment was, “There are all these different nuances, but all I want to do it get it into the basket!” KM

Another reader picked up The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg. The author tells the story of Speck, a dog who was definitely not a good boy, yet helped heal Bragg in a time when he needed it most. Our reader enjoyed this book, noting that “this dog in is trouble non-stop!” WJ

Just One Damned Thing After Another interested another reader, as she immersed herself into the first of The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor. Dr. Madeleine Maxwell seems to find herself in situations of not just studying history, but going back in time to revisit it. Our reader found that the time travel locales were extremely detailed, and she thinks that she will likely continue with the series. MH

Finally, a Nevermore member reviewed what she called “a very powerful book”—March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Beals. Written for young adults but suitable for all ages, this memoir from one of the Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957 is an incredibly moving view of the Civil Rights movement. MS

 

Also mentioned:

Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past by Sharyn McCrumb

The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis

This Impossible Brightness by Jessica Bryant

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Always Look Up by Michael J. Fox

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Harvest by Catherine Landis

A Guide to Gardening with Southwest Virginia Plants

Around the World in 60 Seconds: the Nas Daily Journey: 1,000 Days, 64 Countries, 1 Beautiful Planet by Nuseir Yassin

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning by Alan Maimon

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Reviewed by Kristin

Florence Day escaped her small hometown of Mairmont, South Carolina, after years of being known as the funeral home director’s daughter who solved a murder at age thirteen with help from the victim’s ghost. Most of the adults in town and her fellow students thought that she was downright weird, or a liar. Florence ran to New York City and became a ghostwriter for famous romance author Ann Nichols. Her writing was respected and admired, even with another name on the cover. Florence was good at writing these love stories, until she was dumped and could no longer believe in love.

With a looming deadline, Florence goes to meet her new editor Ben Andor. Or shall we say, her extremely hot and sexy new editor. She goes into the meeting under the guise of being Ann Nichols’ assistant, and lacks the courage to ask if Ben knows that she is the actual author of Ann’s last several bestsellers. She leaves with a “message for Ann” that she has one more day to submit her latest manuscript, because promotion and printing schedules wait for no one.

Florence is in despair about her ability to finish the last scenes of the romance. Nothing rings true, but then tragedy interrupts and she is called home to Mairmont to bury her father. Suddenly, her deadline falls into the background.

Florence has a strict policy of ignoring ghosts, but once back at her family’s funeral home she sees a familiar shape. No, it’s not her father. That actually would be a bit of a relief while she is under the weight of grief missing him. It’s Ben Andor. Her editor is ghostly, and no longer in New York City, but in Florence’s southern hometown.

No spoilers here. All of this is pretty much covered in the jacket copy or the first chapters. Florence has several friends and family members who might be seen as a bit stereotypical, but mostly likeable. Reconnecting with her family and trying to carry out her father’s final wishes keep Florence busy, from breakfasts at Waffle House to the cemetery where she is definitely not supposed to be walking at night. And then there is Ben, who fades in and out of her vision with stunning regularity, who is turning out to be much kinder and relatable than he appeared in his New York office. Could it be that Florence is starting to believe in love again, with a ghost?

Before starting this review of The Dead Romantics, I made the mistake of checking Goodreads. It seems that readers either love this book, or hate it with a fiery passion. The first negative review was funny though, if you like the sort of review that rips every chapter apart with the kind of detail that tells you the reviewer paid a whole lot of attention to a book that they then claimed not to like.

I have enjoyed several of Ashley Poston’s books. She has written the Once Upon a Con young adult series, including Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl, and Bookish and the Beast. Also The Seven Year Slip, which I reviewed a few months ago. The Dead Romantics was Poston’s first foray into adult fiction. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief to fully enjoy Poston’s writing, but I have found it fun and worth my reading time.

P.S. I do have one issue with this book that cannot be overlooked. At one point in the days before the father’s funeral, the family goes out to the cemetery and takes great joy in scrubbing and power washing the headstones. If that was any kind of historic cemetery—which was implied—power washing would likely disintegrate the older stones. The proper tools and cleaning supplies, maybe. But not a power washer. Also, while you’re grieving and preparing a family member’s funeral? That was just a bit beyond my ability to believe.

Murderabilia: A History of Crime in 100 Objects by Harold Schechter

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

True crime exerts a strong fascination. Long before movies, television shows, podcasts, and internet sites catered to public interest, there were books, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and yes, even songs to immortalize murders, kidnappings, and other crimes.  In this book, author Schechter has an illustration of an item connected with the crime and puts it in context with a brief explanation.

The book is arranged chronologically, starting with the murder of Naomi Wise in 1808. The photo is of her tombstone, but the “object” is actually a murder ballad.  Her story became “Little Omie,” a song that has been recorded numerous times, including versions by Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, and Elvis Costello.  It follows a pattern that goes back centuries and has crossed continents, that of a young woman murdered by the man she loves.

The final entry in the book is from 2014, and shows a soil sample from the “Slender Man” site, where two school girls stabbed a friend.  The two had concocted the plan in order to prove themselves worthy to a fictitious internet creature. 

In between are items as varied as Al Capone’s rap sheet, the death mask of Burke (as in the infamous Burke and Hare), a message from the Black Dahlia killer, John Wayne Gacy’s business card, and the remains of a pressure cooker from the Boston Marathon bombing.  Most of the stories are from the U.S., though there are a few international ones as well.  The summaries run about two pages.   

Schechter has written several other true crime books, including Hell’s Princess (about the infamous Belle Gunness) and Ripped from the Headlines: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies’ Most Memorable Crimes so this is territory he knows well. 

 I will confess—no pun intended—that I didn’t read the entire book.  There’s a limit to the amount of real life murder I want to read in a sitting.  I did look up some cases, such as the Lindbergh kidnapping, just to see how Schechter described it. In a nutshell, he covered the evidence but acknowledged that in the years since there have been questions as to Hauptmann’s guilt.  He didn’t go into detail.

 If you are a true crime aficionado, this may be a good browsing book for you. 

Nevermore: Nettle & Bone, Absolution, The Rhine, Lessons in Chemistry

 Reported by Rita

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
To save her sister and topple a throne, Marra is offered the tools she needs if she completes three seemingly impossible tasks with the help of a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother and an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar.

This sci-fi fantasy is a really fun read! – CW        4.5 Stars        

Absolution by Alice McDermott
Sixty years after they lived as wives of American servicemen in early 1960s Vietnam, two women reconnect and relieve their shared experiences in Saigon in the new novel by the author of The Ninth Hour.

A wonderful book about friendship. - DC    5 Stars

 

The Rhine : Following Europe's Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps by Ben Coates
The Rhine is one of the world's greatest rivers. Once forming the outer frontier of the Roman Empire, it flows 800 miles from the social democratic playground of the Netherlands, through the industrial and political powerhouses of Germany and France, to the wealthy mountain fortresses of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For five years, Ben Coates lived alongside a major channel of the river in Rotterdam, crossing it daily, swimming and sailing in its tributaries. In The Rhine, he sets out by bicycle from the Netherlands where it enters the North Sea, following it through Germany, France and Liechtenstein, to its source in the icy Alps. He explores the impact that the Rhine has had on European culture and history and finds out how influences have flowed along and across the river, shaping the people who live alongside it. Blending travelogue and offbeat history, The Rhine tells the fascinating story of how a great river helped shape a continent.

 Full of history and interesting information, this book is highly recommended. A good travel guide. – WJ  5 Stars

 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
In the early 1960s, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show due to her revolutionary skills in the kitchen, uses this opportunity to dare women to change the status quo.

This book made our reader laugh-out-loud. Elizabeth’s dog, Six-Thirty, named after the time of day she found him, is the best character! – VC  4 Stars

 

Also Mentioned:

The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove by Karen Hawkins

Trust by Hernan Diaz

The Echo of Old Books  by Barbara Davis

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

Beartown by Fredrik Backman 

Us Against You
by Fredrik Backman

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: The Member of the Wedding  by Carson McCullers

A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Matter of Life and Death: Inside the Hidden World of the Pathologist by Sue Armstrong

The Pioneers: the Heroic Story of the Settlers who brought the American Ideal West by David G. McCullough

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde

New Books:

The Lost Tomb: and Other Real-life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder by Douglas J. Preston

 Around the World in 60 Seconds: the Nas Daily Journey: 1,000 Days, 64 Countries, 1 Beautiful Planet by Nuseir Yassin

 

New to Us:

The Star Garden: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner

Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning by Alan Maimon

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Twilight in Hazard caught my eye because in 1949 my dad was born in Hazard. Actually, he was born in one of the tiny communities along the Right Fork of Big Creek, about five miles southwest of Hazard. Times were tough then as the coal veins were being tapped out, and times remain tough in 2020s Hazard, as described by Alan Maimon.

Maimon had been a New York Times reporter based at the Berlin, Germany bureau. As he contemplated returning to the United States in 2000, he wasn’t committed to living in any particular geographic area and he decided that he wanted to go somewhere unlike any place he had previously lived. When a position at the Louisville Courier-Journal became available—specifically the Eastern Kentucky bureau based in Hazard—Maimon decided to give it a try.

At that point, the coal companies were looking for an easier way to get coal out of the ground. Sending workers or machines in to hack at veins of coal just wasn’t efficient, and many had turned to strip mining, or mountaintop removal. Of course, this resulted in fewer jobs and the dramatic change of scenery, not to mention water pollution and the occasional rockfall with devastating consequences.

Maimon did not just write another book about a poverty stricken area. He looks at the root causes of the problems of Eastern Kentucky, including the opioid pill mill doctors who were instrumental in medicating and addicting a higher percentage of the local population than the rest of the country. He also looks at local and national political candidates and office holders, noting which ones kept promises and which ones vanished in the wind. He looks at education (and the lack thereof), and how many Eastern Kentucky communities lose a large number of their young people to the outside world.

By the end of Maimon’s time in Hazard and Eastern Kentucky, he was also lamenting the failure of news outlets as papers shrunk in staff, column inches, and thickness. It is an alarming nationwide trend as online sources become increasingly polarized and readers/viewers choose their sources, seeing only what they want to see. Maimon describes the closing of regional news bureaus, physical papers only being printed three times a week, (sound familiar?) and the eventual demise of family owned and even corporate owned newspapers.

I really enjoyed this work of non-fiction. I have read other histories of Hazard and Perry County, but most of those focused on the earlier decades when I still had family living in the area. This is a more up to date work that examines the failures, successes, and hopes for the future for this area.

Pickled to Death: A Down South Café Mystery by Gayle Leeson

Reviewed by Jeanne

Amy’s Aunt Bess is a woman on a mission.  Mabel Hobbs has been bragging about her prize winning pickles, even proclaiming that no one else could hold a candle to her in that department.  Those can be fightin’ words.   Aunt Bess is determined to prove that Mabel isn’t the only Pickle Queen around so she comes to the Winter Garden fair armed with a pickle entry of her own. 

While Mabel’s title of Pickle Queen may be dubious, it’s undeniable that she was crowned—fatally so, in fact.  Unfortunately, Aunt Bess was right beside her when it happened so she becomes the obvious suspect. She’s got a secret weapon, though:  her crime solving niece Amy is on the job and she is determined to uncover the real murderer. Unless, of course, the murderer is the streaker who conveniently ran through the crowd—he could do with a bit more covering.

Local readers will find a lot that sounds very familiar in Winter Garden, which I have to confess, is part of its charm to me.  The descriptions of the county fair bring back a lot of fond memories, and of course the Ray Stevens jokes have that darn song stuck in my head.  (“Don’t look, Ethel!”)

I always enjoy a visit with Amy and her friends and family. I will have to say that it was shorter than I expected and that the ending seemed rather abrupt. 

Nevermore: Private Life of Spies, City of Beasts, Under the Cover of Mercy

 Reported by Rita

The Private Life of Spies: and, The Exquisite Art of Getting Even by Alexander McCall Smith
Half spy stories, half tales of revenge, this new collection from the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels illustrates that transparency is paramount and forgiveness is restorative, reminding us that, in the end, the high road is often the better one for all involved.

A really nice mix of fiction and non-fiction short stories. – DC

    

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende
Joining his fearless nature journalist grandmother on a dangerous expedition in the Amazon to track a Yeti-like creature known as the Beast, 15-year-old Alexander draws on the strength of a totemic spirit guide on a remarkable journey of self-discovery. 

This is a good book filled with fantasy, adventure, and an unexpected ending. - MH    

Under the cover of mercy : a novel by Rebecca Connolly
Ordered by a ranking German officer to stand guard over wounded Allied POWs, Edith Cavell, Head Nurse at Berkendael Medical Institute, secretly establishes her hospital as a safe house for the resistance, risking charges of treason—and her life—to bring hope to her small corner of a war-torn world. 

Our reader was not a big fan of this title and does not recommend. – WJ

 

 

Also Mentioned:

The Comfort of Crows: a Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

Under the Cover of Mercy by Rebecca Connolly

Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address by Stephen Birmingham

Kaufman field guide to insects of North America by Eric R. Eaton

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Unnatural Death by Patricia Cornwell

A Feast of Eggshells by Florence Stevenson

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

 

New Books:

 

UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life by Garrett M. Graff

Teddy and Booker T. by Brian Kilmeade

Blood Memory by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns

The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa

This is My Story - This is My Song by Tennessee Ernie Ford

 

Reviewed by Mrs. Winnie Coalson in 1963, and Kristin in 2024

I came across a book review of the above title written by a public librarian in the Bristol Herald Courier over sixty years ago. Mrs. Winnie Coalson wrote many reviews, and is one of a long line of librarians who have worked at the Bristol Public Libra

Mrs. Coalson discussed the informal nature of the book, and said “it is generously seasoned with ‘salty’ stories of the picturesque characters he knew in his early years.” I suspect that Mrs. Coalson’s idea of “salty” is rather innocent compared to our current standards. In the first chapter, Ford starts with a story of the preacher coming over for dinner and blessing the food for a little too long, much to the consternation of Ford’s mother.

Ford starts with his early life and continues through to his life in show business. He discusses the values he learned from his parents, and how he was taught to treat every person with respect.

I appreciate the flavor of Mrs. Coalson’s review, and gave a chuckle at the fast that she also said, “His book has no literary value, nor is it meant to have. It is, and is mean to be, a thirty chapter ‘cracker barrel’ kind of…informal familiar conversation.” I imagine that his rambles in writing must compare well to his conversational style in real life.

Complete with black and white drawings and several pages of black and white photographs, this short volume is a lovely snapshot of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s life. I am glad to have come across it, as well as this found book review from the Bristol Herald Courier on December 28, 1963.

Note:  We run this in honor of Tennessee Ernie Ford, who would have celebrated his 105th birthday on February 13!

The Fine Art of Flirting by Joyce Jillson

Reviewed by Kristin

The BPL gift shop offers up a wide variety of books for all ages. As I was walking by the 25 cent cart, I couldn’t resist picking up a book with a hot pink spine, The Fine Art of Flirting. Turns out it was published in 1984, which is close enough to the last time I was flirting. Whether I was ever successful or not is debatable. If only I had this book….I met my even more awkward husband in 1990 and that began our happily ever after.

If you need any flirting tips or just a funny book, you might want to read this book. Keep in mind that some of these tips go directly against what passes for common sense in 2023*, and most Human Resources policies. (Definitely skip Chapter 22: Flirting at Work.)

A few ideas on how to be a good flirt:

          Say hello with energy

          Repeat the person’s name

          Ask for your new friend’s life story

          Leave them wanting more

          To get subtle attention—whisper

Then there are flirting haunts, or places you should frequent to flirt:

          Dry cleaners

          Seminars

          Take-out food places

          The Sierra Club

          Video cassette rental stores (remember, 1984)

Author Jillson does include an extremely short chapter entitled When Not to Flirt. Spoiler alert, the main times not to flirt are:

When you’re sick

With your children

On the witness stand (yes, really)

With your letter carrier

At family reunions

While I can’t actually recommend this book for any person wanting to begin a major flirting campaign in the hopes of finding a romantic partner, I can recommend it for a good laugh. In fact, if you want it, I’ll pay the 25 cents for the first person who asks me for it at the reference desk.

 

* Please, please, please, have common sense, courtesy, and respect for boundaries!

Nevermore: Paris Agent, Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Lincoln Highway, Great Lakes

Prepared by Rita

This is an experiment with a new program.  Please comment and let us know what you think!

 

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Eighteen-year-old Zoey is ready to spread her wings.  After her mother’s death and her father’s remarriage, Zoey has felt the odd person out in the family.  Now the summer before she starts college, she decides to move to Mallow Island, SC where her mother owned a condo.  She’s hoping to find some trace of the woman she barely remembers.  Instead, she finds a community of diverse characters, all of whom have something to hide. . . and not all of them are alive.

I have loved all of Sarah Addison Allen’s books.  They have a warmth and a sweetness that lingers long after the last page has been turned.  They also feature characters that I come to know and love and want to spend more time with.  Allen never leaves you hanging but she also tends to leave her characters on the cusp of their greatest happiness, so that the reader has a sense of hope at the end.  However, I had heard that this book was a bit different from her others, darker, and with more characters.  I put off reading it, a bit afraid that I might not like this new direction.

I need not have worried.  While there are a lot of characters, I had no trouble following them along through all the twists and turns.  And there were twists in this one, but not the “gotcha!” thiller twists, but little surprises that, in retrospect, made perfect sense. There’s Mac the chef, who awakens to a sprinkling of cornmeal every morning; Charlotte the henna artist, who is running from her past; Roscoe, the apartment manager, who cares about all the residents; and the elusive Lucy, whom no one has seen in years, but who occasionally peers out the windows of her condo.

This was, for me, vintage Allen.  There were characters I loved and cared about; touches of magic with the (fictional, sadly) dellawisps, the little blue birds who give the apartment complex its name; ghosts who linger and want to tell their own parts of the story; and secrets, mostly of the human heart.  This is also a story of family, not just biological kinship, but a chosen family.

In short, I loved it and am sure it will be on my list of best books of 2024.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

 

Reviewed by Kristin

One morning, Charlie turns on the news and discovers that his long lost and extremely rich uncle is dead. Not that he actually expects to receive anything from the man he hasn’t seen since he was five years old, when Charlie’s mother died.

Charlie is just an ordinary guy with a string of bad luck. His wife left him, he’s no longer a halfway respectable journalist (he’s now a substitute teacher), he’s living in his dead father’s house co-owned by his much older half siblings (who want to liquidate), and he lost his good pair of shoes. So that explains the black Skechers he is wearing with his black suit as he goes to the bank to ask for a loan to buy McDougal’s Pub, hoping to turn that endeavor into financial stability.

I’m sure you can guess how that turned out.

As Charlie returns home from the bank, he discovers a woman on his front porch swing, a woman who is about to change his life. She tells him that his uncle did leave him something, and now he should come with her to learn about his extensive business holdings around the world. They include an island volcano lair, of course, as Charlie’s uncle evidently was something of a villain.

Talking spy cats, unionized dolphins, whales with questionable motives, assassins, and other competing villains…(oops, I mean, “other totally upstanding business people”), that’s just the beginning of the story.

John Scalzi has a brutally sharp wit and the ability to make the totally absurd seem absolutely believable. As soon as I was drawn into the first few pages, I knew that I was in for an exciting read. I was a particular fan of the super intelligent talking cats. With a broad cast of characters, human and otherwise, Scalzi takes us on yet another wild ride with Starter Villain.