Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Nevermore: Listen for the Lie, Abraham’s Curse, The Crooked Cross

 

 


Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera won rave reviews from one of our club members, who listened to the audio version while on a trip.  Lucy Chase’s complicated life just got a bit more complicated: she’s been fired from her job.  Her boss says that the company is downsizing but Lucy knows that is just a cover for the real reason: that a lot of people think Lucy murdered her best friend.  Now a true crime podcaster is dredging it all up again, and it may be time for Lucy to find the truth: is she a murderer or not?

Our next reviewer was interested in the arguments raised by religious scholar Bruce Chilton in Abraham’s Curse, which examines the themes of violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Chilton, who is also an Episcopal priest, begins with how the story of Abraham and Isaac is perceived and presented, and how that influences each religion.

The Crooked Cross by Sally Carson tells the story of a family in Germany during in the early 1930s.  High inflation and high unemployment are taking a toll; Lexa’s brother finds purpose in joining the Nazis, while her fiancé Moritz is facing discrimination because he is Jewish.  Published in 1934, the book has been recognized for how well it described and even predicted the rise of Nazism.  Our reader had high praise for the book and lamented the fact that Carson died in 1941, so didn’t see the end of the war. The Crooked Cross  was republished in 2024, and the second volume in the trilogy, The Prisoner, will be re-printed in 2026. 

Other books recommended included Whale Days by Billy Collins (our reader said she didn’t know you could learn so much from poems!); Underwater Dogs, which are photos of dogs, well, under water; The Women by Kristin Hannah; and our newest and youngest reviewer praised Confessions of a Class Clown by Arianne Costner.

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