Nevermore: Bone from a Dry Sea, Crown and Sceptre, Cockroaches, Hum If You Don't Know the Words

 Reported by Garry

A Bone from A Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson is a Young Adult fiction book that tells the story of two young women, separated in time by nearly 2 million years. The first girl we meet is the nameless young member of a possible progenitor species of humans who lives on the cliffs and shorelines of ancient South Africa. Vinny is the modern-day daughter of an archaeologist who is excavating a fossil site and discovers the remains of the cliff-dwelling society. Vinny becomes involved in the dig and forms a bond with the young girl from so many eons ago. Our reader loved the storyline in this book and the theories of a possible different evolutionary track for humans. She also noted that, even though the story jumps back and forth in time, it is clear when each section of the novel takes place.  AH

 

Crown and Sceptre:  A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II by Tracy Borman is a sweeping, impeccably researched narrative of the history of British monarchy over nearly 1000 years. It covers the reigns of over 42 kings and queens, starting with William the Conqueror in 1066, drawing a direct line to the current sovereign Queen Elizabeth II (who, at age 95, is currently the world’s longest-reigning monarch). Our reader loved this book, saying that it was both entertaining and full of knowledge and information that she did not previously know.  ML

 

Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo (Book 2 of 12). When the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, veteran Swedish inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case. Harry is a middle-aged, beleaguered investigator whose private life is nearly as messy as the crime scenes he investigates. This hard-edged thriller captured the imagination of our reader and she highly recommends it, along with the rest of the series.  NH

 

Hum If You Don’t Know The Words by Bianca Marais. Apartheid worked well for some South Africans – as long as you were white, wealthy, and a land-owner.  Such is the case for Robin Conrad, a nine-year-old white girl living with her wealthy parents in 1970s Johannesburg. When tragedy strikes and her parents are killed, Robin is sent to live with her aunt. Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman whose own daughter is missing, is hired to take care of Robin. Two worlds collide with heart-rending consequences in this debut novel that presents a beautiful, well-written story without being fluff. AC

 

Also mentioned:

 

Beloved by Toni Morrison

53-Word Short Stories from Press 53

The Lightness of Water and Other Stories by Rhonda Browning White

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon

Daughter of Ireland by Juliene Osborne-McKnight

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Between Certain Death and A Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty by Neal Thompson

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

The Great Mrs. Elias by Barbara Chase-Riboud

Shadows of Pecan Hollow by Caroline Frost

Boop and Eve’s Road Trip by Mary Helen Sheriff

Nevermore: Mathematics, War, Amazons and more!

Nevermore kicked off with a flurry of non-fiction—beginning with How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg.  The author writes about how the threads of mathematics are woven through everything we do, and how learning to think differently can help us understand the world around us.  From wartime airplane design to the 2000 United States Presidential election, mathematical thinking can help us navigate through our everyday lives.

Next up was Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire by Paul Sorrentino.  Crane died from tuberculosis at the young age of 28 having already written five novels.  He was a very controversial individual.  When he intervened in the arrest of a prostitute, the subsequent investigation exposed information about his own life and ruined his personal reputation.

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher was touted as an excellent book that helps make complex Balkan history much more understandable.  The author sets out to follow the life path of 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thus set in motion World War I.  Our readers shared their observations of how national identities and religious affiliations have long been mixed up in this area of the world.

Back on the home front, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo was promoted as an interesting point of view on a familiar subject.  Illuminating what was happening in the surrounding area of Pennsylvania at the time of the famous Civil War battle, this volume debates various aspects of well-known military history.

Another reader mentioned Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo.  She says this is the most complicated murder mystery she has read in years.  The second in the Inspector Harry Hole series, when the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is murdered, our hero has his hands full investigating the many hidden layers of the case.  This Nordic noir novel takes Harry through the red-light district of Bangkok.

The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier was promoted as an Elizabeth Peters-like tale of archeological discovery.  Diana Morgan is an Oxford lecturer who believes the Amazons really did exist, although she doesn’t dare share that with her colleagues.  When a strange man offers her a chance to find the truth about the Amazons’ role in Greek mythology, (not to mention what happened to her grandmother,) Diana knows that she must accept.

Finally in fiction, First Meetings by Orson Scott Card was very briefly enjoyed by a reader, as the collection of short stories is, well, rather brief.  Set in the Enderverse, first encounters with various characters are recounted in this collection.