Nevermore: I See You've Called in Dead, Daughters of the Sun and Moon, The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow

 

Nevermore 8-4-26

Reported by Rita

 

I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living. As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.

This was funny, tragic, and thought-provoking. I loved it.      -NH     5 stars

 

 

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See

In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain – America – where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many. Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined. Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance and ability to ‘eat bitterness,’ discover their voices, find freedom and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.

The situations were bad, but I really enjoyed this book and the author's writing.      -WJ       5 stars

 

 

The Creek, The Crone, and the Crow by Leah Weiss

Welcome to Baines Creek, a town hidden deep in Appalachia, where one of the last one-room schoolhouses in America is on the brink of closing. It's summer 1980, and Kate Shaw has lived in Baines Creek for ten years. A skeptic by heart, she rejects superstition and the belief in Appalachian folklore, much to the chagrin of local legend Birdie Rocas, a lively and reclusive witch with a trove of secrets. Yet when Birdie dies and leaves Kate her collection of handmade books and a trunk of illuminated manuscripts and journals, Kate is thrown into world of things she doesn't understand. Enter Lydia Brown, a psychic with a curious birthmark whose visions stopped the day her parents died. Grief-stricken, without her gift, and in need of spiritual guidance, she travels to Appalachia in search of Birdie and the answers she might provide.

I really liked this book and enjoyed the familiar setting.     -MH     5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned 

Disaster Prepping for Dummies by David E. Stevens

The Workhouse by Simon Fowler

While You Were Asleep by Ryan A. McPherson

A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart

Salka Valka by Halldór Laxness

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Mending of Broken Bones by Paul Lockhart

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Marion by Leah Rowan

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow by Juliet Grey

Marie Antoinette: the Journey by Antonia Fraser

A Fabulous Thru-Hike by Derick Lugo

 

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