Nevermore: Typos, Money, The Peripheral, and All the Light

 Summary by Jeanne

The first book up this week was Just My Typo which, true to its title, is a collection of misprints.  The examples are both old and recent gathered from a variety of sources. The book is divided into chapters based on the type of error, from legal filings to printed books to students’ mistakes.  There’s even a section devoted to the modern scourge, auto-correct.  Some are amusing letter transpositions, such as “This crud is from the finest milk” from a cheese menu; others are sins by omission (“French widow in every room,” claims a hotel’s ad) while others are misplaced words—or omitted words.  A personal favorite involves a newspaper report about Prince Charles’ denial of an extramarital affair made, the paper explained, after “claims that the Prince has been secretly Mrs. Parker-Bowles for more than a decade…”  Not all the errors are amusing.  One lottery ticket holder spent over five years in litigation over what the holder says is a $500,000 winning ticket and what the state of Florida says is a misprint. Drummond Moir compiled this amusing little collection.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr got rave reviews from our readers.  The setting is World War II where the lives of a blind French girl and a young German man intersect. The book goes back in time to explore the background and childhoods of the two main characters.  The plot description can’t do the book justice.  Our reviewer praised the book’s structure and well developed characters.  Doerr avoids the usual stereotypes to create a very satisfying novel.  It’s a quick read with short chapters but it all works beautifully.  The book is highly recommended.

Another book with short chapters is William Gibson’s The Peripheral but our reader was finding it difficult to get into. This is SF author Gibson’s return to futuristic fiction. The story takes place at a time after ecological and economic collapses have eliminated eighty per cent of the human population, leaving the remnants to eke out a living.  A young woman named Flynne is persuaded to take over a job for her brother beta-testing a new game—or so she thinks. It turns out to be something different and possibly deadly.

Last up was Money:  An Unauthorized Biography by Felix Martin which our reader hadn’t actually started.  The book tries to trace the history of money from its ancient beginnings to the present.  He examines ancient Greece and Mesopotamia for the origins of money, and takes a look at monetary theory from John Locke to the Federal Reserve. It will come as no surprise that the author is an economist.  The book was originally published in Great Britain—in fact, the title entry card still uses the British spelling “Unauthorised.”

The Nevermore Book Club meets every Tuesday at 11:00 am to discuss whatever books the members are reading at the moment.  Join us for coffee and for doughnuts from Blackbird Bakery!

Nevermore: Money, Mozart, Earth from Space, Lila, and the Battle of Kursk

Reported by Meygan

Nevermore began with Money: The Unauthorized Biography by Felix Martin. Our Nevermore reader states this book starts out really interesting and raises the issue of what IS money. The beginning of the book begins with the theory of money from the point of view Adam Smith, John Locke, and even Aristotle. 

Mozart in the Jungle by Blair Tindall was discussed next. This is a memoir of a young woman who tries to make it as a classical musician in New York. This book isn’t as happy and hopeful as one would think. In it, the woman writes about how sometimes a person has to sleep with someone to get to the very top and yes, sometimes there are drugs involved when trying to become a famous musician. There is a TV series about this book with the same title. The Nevermore reader said, “I can’t believe I am saying this, but the TV series is better than the book!” He says it is because the characters in the TV series have some bit of admirableness to them while not so much in the book. He also said that if you are a parent of a young person who aspires to be a classical musician then you may end up taking their musical instrument away after reading this book!

Next was You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield. This book features pictures from all over the world that were taken from space. There are several lines of information about each picture, explaining where the picture was taken and some background information to the area. The reader said it is outstandingly different than what you’d expect. He said it could easily be read in a half hour or less and it features a map with a page number listed for where each picture was taken.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson was discussed next. In this novel, Lila, who is homeless, walks into a church to get out from the rain where she meets minister John Ames. They quickly fall in love and marry. But Lila’s past wasn’t always the easiest. When she was a toddler, she was stolen by a drifter who took her in as her own. While they do form a sisterly bond, there are dark moments too.  The Nevermore reader said this is a pitiful book and sad because they are gypsies who must steal everything in order to survive. Someone pointed out that the author writes non-traditional Christian fiction and can be compared to Flannery O’Conner because they both use faith to tell dark stories. The Nevermore reader said aside from the kind preacher, she didn’t get much faith out of it because it is such a dark book. (Note: the book takes place in Gilead, the setting of two of Robinson's previous books, Gilead  and Home.)

The last book discussed was Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk: The Turning Point of World War II by Dennis Showalter. This book was very much enjoyed, but we were warned that if we wanted just an overview of WWII then this book was not for us. This book is full of detail (lots and lot of detail!). There are pictures, so that does help those who need a break! The reader said he would argue that the Battle of Kursk wasn’t the turning point of the war, despite the title. The reader also brought along information about German and Russian casualties, tanks that were used, and other various information about the Battle of Kursk.