Nevermore: William Trevor, Bram Stoker, Alexandra David-Neel

 

Nevermore 10-15-24 Reported by Rita

Selected Stories by William Trevor

Collects forty-eight short stories by the author that span more than half a century, illuminating the human condition.

 I couldn’t put it down. Absolutely beautiful.   – MD      5 stars

 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of terrifying discoveries about his client.

I was surprised by the writing style. I found it very prudish and not extremely scary, but I loved it and highly recommend it.    – VC       5 stars

 

My Journey to  Lhasa by Alexandra David-Neel

First published in 1927, a memoir by the first Western woman to reach the Tibetan city of Lhasa describes her journey to the remote and forbidden region, her travels throughout the continent of Asia, her meeting with the Dalai Lama, and her remarkable encounters with and understanding of Asian culture.

A beautiful exhibition of strength and resilience.    – CD      5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

Suffrage Song: the Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the United States of America by Caitlin Cass

Excuse Me While I Disappear by Laurie Notaro

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke

Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman

Holy City by Henry Wise

Dumpty by John Lithgow

Let's Read Our Feet by Jane Sheehan

Serena : a novel by Ron Rash

Telltale Hearts: A Public Health Doctor, His Patients, and the Power of Story by Dean-david Schillinger

Long Haul by Figliuzzi,  Frank

Olive Kitteridge by Strout, Elizabeth

New Books

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder

Keeping the Faith by Brenda Wineapple

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Reviewed by Ambrea

Dracula is a collection of stories—journals, newspaper clippings, transcriptions and personal testimonies—from Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dr. John Seward, Lucy Westenra, Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris, and Dr. Abraham van Helsing, in which they confront the world’s most terrifying creature:  a vampire.

As one might expect, Dracula is a riveting story and Bram Stoker is an excellent storyteller.  Besides creating one of literature’s most fascinating—and chilling—villains, Stoker takes the time and care to recreate the details of life within his characters’ journals and letters.  And, considering the sheer volume of correspondences between characters and the specific connections necessary to complete the story, Dracula is an amazingly intricate piece of work.

In particular, I enjoyed the marked differences between characters.  Each individual has their own personality, their own history, and their own reactions to a situation or experience.  Each has a singular voice, a unique way of telling their story that makes them memorable and utterly captivating.  They are honest, endearing folks and they have a frightening, fascinating story to tell.

Truthfully, Dracula has it all for the horror enthusiast:  guts, gore, mayhem, madness, death, destruction and, of course, vampires.  It’s a dark and delightful treat, and it’s definitely a story I would recommend reading at least once.

By the same token, all the details involved in Stoker’s novel makes his work a bit tricky.  Once I finally made the connections, it was easy to find those tenuous links between characters and locations and mysterious events; however, those connections can sometimes prove slightly elusive.

Moreover, chapters can occasionally take a while to build up to a climactic point.  The story picks up considerably when certain realizations come together, when the characters are in danger of not only losing their lives but their immortal souls. Before that point, the narrative may seem a little lackluster and disjointed, but the reader who perseveres will be well rewarded.

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

Reviewed by Jeanne

When Miss Mina Holmes, niece of the renowned detective Sherlock, receives a mysterious summons to the British Museum at midnight, she does what any self-respecting Victorian ingénue would do:  she dresses in trousers, takes a Steam-Stream gun for protection, and sets out to see what’s behind the missive.  She finds she is not the only one to receive an invitation:  Evaline Stoker, teenage sister to the would be novelist Bram, is also at the meeting which has been called by none other than Irene Adler.  She tells the girls there is danger afoot: society girls are going missing.  One has turned up dead with a strange mechanical scarab as a clue.  She calls upon the girls to do their patriotic duty to Queen and Country and to solve the mystery before more girls go missing.

As one might guess from the above description, this is a Young Adult novel with an alternate universe setting.  Electricity has been outlawed as dangerous; steam runs everything, including a good number of amazing gadgets from moving Night Illuminators to eyelash curlers.  The book is narrated in turn by Mina and Evaline, who are both self-assured young women who don’t exactly hit it off as friends.  Mina is very much a scientist in the mold of her uncle, but like him and her father Mycroft, she isn’t exactly a social butterfly—and even less since her mother left abruptly.  Orphaned Evaline, on the other hand, cuts quite a fashionable figure and is much more aware of social nuance even if her nocturnal activities aren’t exactly ladylike:  she’s the latest in a line of vampire hunters.   Buffy—er, Evaline—also has superhuman strength but tends to be a bit impulsive in contrast to the more analytical Mina.

A good part of the fun is in the narration and the description of a steam-punk London, which is only enhanced when a strange young man wearing very odd clothing and shoes turns up in the Museum.  He has a lighting device which he claims, quite improbably, is a communication device.  He is also American and seems astounded by all the steam driven devices.  The book is cognizant of various Victorian enthusiasms, such as Egyptology, and observes some of the era’s sensibilities. There are various flirtations with a handsome but infuriating policeman and a handsome but infuriating street-smart young man and the handsome but peculiar and yes, infuriating,  American. References to Sherlock, Bram Stoker, the Royal Family, and much more enliven the narrative. 

 If you’re curious about steampunk, this book is a good introduction to the genre.  This is only my second book with those trappings, and I found it was much smoother read.  The author made the gadgets an easy part of the narrative.  The one book was a bit self-conscious about pointing out the various mechanicals. My biggest complaint was that -- as alluded to earlier-- Evaline owes a great deal to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While this is definitely aimed at the YA crowd, many adults would enjoy it as a good bit of fun. This adult certainly did.

Note: this is the first in the Holmes & Stoker series.

Nevermore: Dracula, Romanov Sisters, Camelot's Court, Book Thief, and Purity of Vengeance

Our Nevermore readers choose books of all sorts: fiction and nonfiction, the newest books to the classics. It makes for an interesting mix. This time the first book up was Dracula by Bram Stoker, arguably the most influential vampire book of all time. While Stoker had his own literary influences (Camilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer spring to mind), it was Dracula which stoked the public’s imagination.  Our reviewer had just started the book, but said that at 25 pages in, it was “very readable.”

A new non-fiction book about the ill-fated Russian grand duchesses was up next.  The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport uses diaries and letters to tell the stories of the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra who were executed along with the rest of their family in 1917.  Rappaport specializes in Victorian history and Russian history of the era, and has written several other books on the subject.  While for the most part the sisters have been treated as a group (except for books on Anastasia, due to rumors that she survived), this book seeks to present them as individuals.  Our reader found the book “really interesting” and recommended it.

Another new non-fiction history book discussed was Camelot’s Court by Robert Dallek.  This is a detailed account of the Kennedy White House with an emphasis on policy and advisors.  Dallek has written a number of books about modern presidents, including  titles on Roosevelt, Nixon, Reagan, and Johnson.  Our reviewer said it was well written and filled with quotations, and he thought the epilogue was especially interesting.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is narrated by Death himself. The title refers to Liesl,  a young girl in Nazi Germany who is sent to live with a foster family.  At her younger brother’s funeral she steals a book even though she cannot read.  After her foster father teaches her to read, she steals more books and finds that stories can be transformative, no matter the circumstances.  This is a compelling book, and our reviewer highly recommends it.

Jussi Adler Olsen is one of the “Nordic Noir” writers whose work has been translated into English following the popularity of Stieg Larsson’s books.  Set in Copenhagen, the books feature Detective Carl Morck of Department Q who specializes in solving cold cases.  Our reviewer had just read The Purity of Vengeance, the fourth book in the series, which finds Morck investigating the 1980s disappearance of  a brothel owner.  Our reviewer said this was another good entry in the series.