Nevermore 6-9-26
Reported by Rita
The Calamity Club by Kathryn
Stockett
In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and
the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have
fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the
margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is
unbearably high.
Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the
Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.
Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford on a mission to ask her
social-climbing sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. And
Charlie is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury,
and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to
take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely
sisterhood—but in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, women’s freedom is
fragile, and making an enemy can have dire consequences, will the price they
pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?
I
listened to the audiobook and loved it! 10 out of 5 stars! -WJ
5+ stars
St. Dale by Sharyn McCrumb
This is a modern-day retelling of the Canterbury Tales,
following a group of unlikely friends on the Dale Earnhardt Memorial
Pilgrimage. The “Number Three Pilgrims” travel to several of the sites of
prominent victories of the late NASCAR legend and North Carolina native. In the
course of their journey, they visit Piedmont, North Carolina, “the land of
textile mills and furniture factories, of tobacco fields and hog farms — and
race tracks.” At stops at the Richard Petty museum in Randolph County, the
North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, and the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in
Concord, the pilgrims find solace and inspiration in the life and legacy of
Earnhardt.
It was
good. I learned a lot about racing.
-AH 5 stars
Familiaris by David Wroblewski
It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten
him into trouble ... again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their
two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north
woods, where they hope to make a fresh start—and, with a little luck, discover
what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose, and adventure. But the place
they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it
will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends—human, animal, and
otherworldly—to realize their dreams.
The
characters are unusual, but the story is enjoyable. -WJ
5 stars
Other
Books Mentioned
The Dark Hours (DCI Harry Grimm, #13) by
David J. Gatward
In the Fields of Fatherless Children by
Pamela Steele
The Safe Room by Lisa Unger
The Garden of Lost Souls by Kelly
Bowen
The Correspondent by
Virginia Evans
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The House of Mirth by Edith
Wharton
Misadventures With a Professor by
Sierra Simone
New
Books
Art From the Garden by Kerry
Michaels
The Family Man by James Lasdun
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