Slade House by David Mitchell

Reviewed by Christy H.

            The small black door in the wall is hard to find. It’s only visible to certain people on a certain day. In a working class neighborhood, across the street from a rundown pub, Slade Alley has seen many strange disappearances through the years – every nine years to be exact. Those who cross through the iron door are the only ones who know its secrets. But by then it’s already too late.

            Slade House by David Mitchell is told almost as a series of short stories. Each section is a different year (1979 – 2015, on a nine year cycle) with a different narrator. While the narrators (and stories) are vastly different from one another they all have the common thread of being lured to the Slade House on Slade Alley and then trapped there. I read this book as part of a Goodreads horror book club, and I’m not entirely sure I would’ve picked it up otherwise. But I’m glad I did. Mitchell’s unconventional horror sticks with you, and he excels at writing a distinctive voice for each protagonist so they don’t all end up sounding the same. At first glance the narrators (an outsider young boy, a chauvinist cop, an insecure college girl, a journalist, and a doctor) don’t have much in common. But each section slowly reveals more about the Slade House and its inhabitants and just what kind of people they need to attract. Once inside the house, its victim loses all track of time and sees all manners of nightmares.

Mitchell’s novel is strange, a bit sad, and quite a ride. I particularly enjoyed sections three and four. I also liked the fact that I loved some narrators (the shy college girl) and hated others (well, just one. The cop). To be honest, though, I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I don’t think I liked it very much. The last section feels a little deflated after the excellent middle sections. The rest of the book is too weird and fun for it to damper my enjoyment, however. This is a good, quick read for horror fans in the mood for something slightly different.

Nevermore: Fat Cats, Baseball, Psychics, Physics, and King Arthur

Reported by Ambrea

Elmer auditions for Fat Cat Art II

Nevermore began with a familiar book for us at the library:  Fat Cat Art:  Famous Masterpieces Improved by a Ginger Cat with Attitude by Svetlana Petrova—which features none other than Zarathustra, Petrova’s now famous twenty-two-pound, ginger-colored cat.  Beginning as an internet sensation, Fat Cat Art completely rewrites art history by taking some of the world’s greatest works of art (The Mona Lisa by DaVinci, Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, the Lascaux Cave wall painting, Declaration of Independence by John Trumball, The Kiss by Gustave Klimt, and much more!) and adding a delightfully plump cat.  Our Nevermore reader thought it was great book to read.  An amusing book filled with many wonderful illustrations, Fat Cat Art (along with Cats Gallery of Western Art by Susan Herbert) earned a lot of laughter from our readers—and some very good recommendations.

Next, our readers looked at Tales from the Dugout:  The Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told by Mike Shannon.  In Tales from the Dugout, Shannon compiles some of the most interesting stories about baseball’s most famous—or, sometimes, its most obscure—players.  Our reader, who is a fan of baseball, found Shannon’s book especially informative.  She said it was interesting to read so many stories about the baseball stars she knew and loved, but, more importantly, she was excited to learn about baseball players she never knew.  Ed Whitson, for instance, played for the New York Yankees—and he was locally known!  Born in Johnson City, Whitson was drafted to the major leagues after he completed high school in Unicoi County.  Our reader was fascinated by this book’s local connection to the region.

One of our readers also finished reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.  In our last meeting, our reader discussed Mitchell’s novel—in which Holly Sykes, a psychic with unexpected connections to two warring tribes of mystics, is caught in a dangerous supernatural war—and his experiences with the novel so far.  After finishing The Bone Clocks, he said he enjoyed it overall.  “It’s quite a bit to keep up with,” he said, “[but] it keeps you on your toes.”  He also thought Mitchell’s book was interesting because it introduced him to British slang, including new words he hadn’t had the opportunity to see.

Additionally, our readers delved into Finding Camlann by Sean Pidgeon.  Donald Gladstone is an archaeologists and, like many in his field, he is fairly certain King Arthur never existed; however, when new facts are unearthed at Stonehenge, he decides to reevaluate what he knows and, after joining Julia Llewllyn, a linguist who is working with the Oxford English Dictionary, he sets off to discover the truth of King Arthur—and change history as we know it.  Our reader was rather impressed by the way Pidgeon manages to incorporate mythology, history, and mystery all at once.  She said it was “good to read, but sort of tricky” with all the elements of mythology and history that the author combines.

Last, our readers explored First You Build a Cloud:  And Other Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life by K.C. Cole.  Like Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku—which our readers explored last week, and this week—First You Build a Cloud explores physics, including gravity and light, quantum leaps and quasars, atomic particles and more.  Cole manages to explain complex mathematics and astrophysics for readers to understand and, more importantly, enjoy.  Our reader said she found it fascinating and, while she still might not understand much about quantum leaps, she does find she learned quite a bit more from K.C. Cole’s book.

Nevermore: Overdosed America, Into the Buzzsaw, Bone Clocks, The Decameron, and Physics of the Impossible

Report by Ambrea

Our Nevermore meeting began with Overdosed America:  The Broken Promise of American Medicine by John Abramson.   Abramson, who has a background in statistics and epidemiology, examines and exposes the discrepancies in statistical evidence presented by pharmaceutical companies; furthermore, he attempts to show how many of these companies have intentionally misled doctors and, in some cases, compromised patient health in order to make a sale.  Although our reader belatedly realized she’d read Abramson’s book in the past, she found she enjoyed her second experience with Overdosed America.  She said it was a really interesting book, since it highlighted many of the side effects of medications of which most patients are unaware and pinpointed the errors in statistics that pharmaceutical companies don’t wish customers to see.

Next, our Nevermore readers looked at Into the Buzzsaw:  Myth of a Free Press, which was edited by Kristina Borjesson.  Into the Buzzsaw compiles the stories and experiences of journalists—including Dan Rather, Greg Palast, Karl Idsvoog, Gary Web, Ashleigh Banfield and others—after 9/11 and beyond, who reported on various crimes and scandals to the detriment of their own careers.  Full of first person accounts which reveal the risks many investigative journalists and reporters took in telling the real story, Into the Buzzsaw was a riveting piece of work, according to our Nevermore reader.  It was interesting to see the stories journalists were willing to tell and, more importantly, the risks they were willing to take to tell the truth.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell followed, receiving a very good review from our Nevermore reader.  Chronicling the nightmarish journey of Holly Sykes, who has an unexpected sensitivity to psychic phenomena, The Bone Clocks unfolds into story of danger and magic in which mystics “life hop”—jump from person to person, controlling their every thought and feeling and action—in order to further pursue a war that has lasted centuries.  Mitchell, who is also the author of Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, dabbles heavily in magic and fantasy in his latest novel; however, our Nevermore reader said it was varied, combining elements of science-fiction and urban fiction and even a little history.

The Decameron by Italian author and poet, Giovanni Boccaccio, was an enjoyable new addition to our Nevermore meeting this week.   Based in the summer of 1348, The Decameron recounts the stories of ten young Florentines who have taken refuge in the countryside to escape the plague.  The Florentines, young aristocrats from the city, decide to amuse themselves throughout the summer with stories and, in some cases, bawdy tales.  Our Nevermore reader said she’d only made it to the third day, but she said, “It’s really interesting—more so than you’d actually think.”  The stories are amusing, poking fun at social conventions and religious hypocrisy of the day.

Last, but not least, our Nevermore readers examined Physics of the Impossible:  A scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku.  Kaku, a theoretical physicist and professor at the City College of New York, takes the theoretical and seemingly impossible things from science-fiction, and he provides a thoughtful narrative on the laws of physics and the possibilities of human ingenuity.  According to our Nevermore reader, Kaku gets into everything:  teleportation, invisibility cloaks, time machines, force fields, interstellar space shifts, death rays, and much more.  She found Physics of the Impossible fascinating, saying that “if you’re interested in time travel, you owe it to yourself to read [Kaku’s] book.”