Nevermore: Doctors, Counts, Dogs, and More!

 Summary by Meygan

This week’s Nevermore opened with Doctored by Sandeep Jauha, an Indian doctor who works in a hospital located in Long Island. In Doctored, he writes about his experiences working in the American health care field and discusses his family. Our Nevermore reader said this book is borderline unethical but makes readers question what are the ethics to begin with. The reader said this book is full of educational and informational material and the author provides unflinching descriptions of people. By the end of the book discussion, three Nevermore members were greatly interested in checking out Doctored. 

The next book discussed was Capital by Thomas Piketty. The Nevermore reader stated this book is an admirable piece of work that is about our political economy. The book was originally written in French, and the author’s writing style was described as being clear and readable, in spite of it being an English translated book. The reader stated that Capital states the facts about income and how there is a lot of wealth out “there” that we know nothing about. The author questions how there can be a science of economics if people don’t have the information. This book was highly praised by our Nevermore reader who stated Capital is a phenomenal book and a real joy to read. He felt like it was a real education and he liked the book immensely more than other economics books he has read. It appears that the author did a fine job of making the subject user friendly and relatable. 

One of our Nevermore members stated that she was done with books related to World War II. That is until she found a book about a dog who was a British was hero. The Dog Who Could Fly: the Incredible True Story of a WWII Airman and the Four-legged Hero Who Flew at His Side by Damien Lewis tells the tale of Robert Bozdech and his beloved dog, Ant. Robert joined the Royal Air Force to fight Hitler. Unfortunately, his plane was shot down, which lead him to meeting Ant, a German shepherd puppy. Together they fight in the war and they eventually became British war heroes. Our Nevermore reader stated that this is the most amazing dog she has ever read about and she admired the way he was devoted to his master. She said it was as if the man and dog could read each other’s minds. (She also mentioned how her dog would have never been that much help, which resulted in a good Tuesday morning Nevermore chuckle.)

Well, it appears that Bristol is putting itself on the map. Currently reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, Barry Mazor’s Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music is a biography about Ralph Peer’s journey to Bristol in 1927.  Ralph established the recording, marketing, and publishing of blues, jazz, country, gospel, and Latin music. This is a new book and was released on November 1^st. 

A Nevermore member read two books about Hillary Clinton: Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton and HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. Even though both books were enjoyable to the Nevermore reader, he stated that HRC provides a better picture of Hillary’s personality and focuses more on her time spent in senate and as the secretary of state. Hard Choices provides more information about her career in full and provides different views on the stages throughout her career. The reader said there are many big questions about Benghazi. 

Tom Reiss’ The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo is a biography of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a soldier and officer in the French Revolution and father of author Alexander Dumas. This book was described as excellent and a worthy of its Pulitzer award.  It was both informative and entertaining, with a very readable style. Our reviewer said it would make a great movie. 

Our Kurt Vonnegut Nevermore reader just finished reading Cat’s Cradle. Even though he enjoyed Cat’s Cradle, he didn’t like it as much as The Sirens of Titan. Cat’s Cradle is less science fiction than Vonnegut’s other novels. This novel studies the family of the creator of the Atomic bomb and the audience soon realized that the family is completely dysfunctional. The Nevermore reader said this was an interesting read.  

The dystopian young adult novel Parched by Georgia Clark was the last book discussed. After her mother dies, Tess moves to the Badlands—a place where people fight over resources and where the water is scarce. She is recruited by Kudzu, a group of people training to fight against the government. This book reminded the Nevermore reader of The Hunger Games, even though she thought it wasn’t nearly as good. Still, readers who love young adult dystopian novels should at least check out this book to see how yet another author has written about the end of times using different characters and a different setting.

Nevermore: Capital, Bonapartes, We Are Not Ourselves, and Hidden Child

Nevermore started out with a heavy-weight book first:  Capital in the 21^st Century by Thomas Piketty.   The book is just a tad intimidating:  it’s a 685 page treatise on economics translated from the original French.  As if a 600+ page book with a long range view of economics (and by “long range,” think centuries) wasn’t intimidating enough, this book is a translation from the original French.  Jud said the book was surprisingly easy reading, both informative and entertaining, so the translator must really be a gifted person.  Piketty tries to present both recent and historical data from a variety of countries in his survey, though admittedly data on person income in, say, the 1700s is a bit sketchy.  He finds that, as population expansion slows in developed countries, wealth is concentrated into small groups and that much of this wealth is inherited.  Piketty has said that his goal was to write a book for non-specialists and he seems to have succeeded, as Jud said that the book reads “surprisingly well for a book about economics.”

France also figured in the next book, or rather a family connected with France did.  The Bonapartes  by  David Stacton tells the story of some of Napoleon’s less illustrious family members who tended to be, well, screw-ups—at least according to this book. For example,   Napoleon liked to appoint relatives to kingships.   Joseph Bonaparte was made King of Spain where he was so disliked that he suggested his own abdication.  He then spent time in the United States where he added another mistress and more illegitimate children in addition to the ones acquired in Europe. Our reader is finding this book to be both enlightening and entertaining, praising it for its “wonderful, witty style.”  She loved the way the author writes, but says the names can be a bit confusing.

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas is the story of Eileen Tumulty, the only child of alcoholic parents who is determined to better herself.  She marries Ed, a neuroscientist, in hopes that this will lead to a more upscale life.  Unfortunately for her, Ed is more interested in research than in material gain, so Eileen sets out to on a career of her own in order to give their son a better place in life.  Our reader found it well done, showing Eileen’s determination and strength of character.  He also praised the cover, which is quite ingenious and reflects some of the novel’s themes.

Finally, Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg was recommended by another member as a strong entry in the “Nordic Noir” category.  Swedish detective Patrik Hedstrom is on paternity leave when he is drawn into a case of murder whose origins may stretch back to World War II.  Our reader enjoyed it.