Nevermore Notes: Beloved, Casket Chronicles, Booth, The Women of Chateau Lafayette

 

Reported by Garry

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a multiple award-winning 1987 novel, loosely based on true events. Set in 1873, the novel follows Sethe, her daughter Denver, and their interactions with the other-worldly Beloved, the ghost of her unnamed infant daughter. This unflinching novel examines the effects of slavery on not only Sethe’s immediate family, but looks at how the harm echoed down through time, even well after slavery was abolished, and the severe psychological damage it inflicted. Our reader was struck by the beautiful and powerful writing in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and recommends it highly, especially for its portrayal of the relationships between the main characters.  AH

Casket Chronicles: Living and Working in a Funeral Home is Not What You Might Think by T.A. Walters is a sometimes macabre, but always entertaining look at what is definitely an unusual housing situation. Walters recounts his time living in a funeral home while attending college in the 1960s and sharing one room with two other roommates, all while studying to be a mortician. Our reader thought this unique memoir was very well written, funny, and different, and recommends it for a look at a profession that few of us think about, but will all one day use.  CD

 

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler is a new look at the life and times of John Wilkes Booth, the actor who would become notoriously infamous for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Booth’s father was a renowned Shakespearean actor who had abandoned his wife and young child in Britain to settle in Maryland with his mistress and their children. Of ten children born to the couple only six survived, and all of the boys became actors. Told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of the individual family members, this heavily researched book places the reader inside the minds of the Booth children as they struggle to contain their father’s escalating alcoholism and instability, and idolize their long-suffering, beautiful mother. Our reader stated that she could hardly put this well-written historical novel down.  ML

 

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray is a centuries-spanning historical novel about three women whose lives and very identities are entwined with the historic Chateau Chavaniac, a 14^th century castle located in Auvergne, France. The story starts with Adrienne, the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, whose life is threatened by the events of the French Revolution. In 1914, Beatrice Chanler, a New York socialite turned activist, sees the devastation that the Great War is wreaking on France and the castle in particular, and sets about trying to get America involved in the war. In 1940, French school teacher Marthe Simone starts secretly using the castle as a hiding place for Jewish orphans trying to escape the horrors of the Nazi regime. The stories and lives of the three women interweave throughout the book, which, our reader states, makes keeping the timelines straight somewhat difficult. That said, our reader was highly impressed by the amount of historical research and detail that the author has put into this beefy novel (592 pages), and recommends it to those who love historical fiction.  ML

Also mentioned:

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

Aliens of Transylvania County by Patrick Bone

Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness by Pete Fromm

What My Hand Say by Glenis Redmond

Paradise by Toni Morrison

What to Wear For the Rest of Your Life: Ageless Secrets of Style by Kim Johnson Gross

White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America by Joan C. Williams

Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris

The Blonde by Anna Godbersen

Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne

Recitatif Toni Morrison

Nevermore: Serling, Liberty's Blueprint, Invisible Code, Finfarran, Road from Coorain, Mary Shelly, Lord of the Mountain, Robert Browning, Stuart Woods, Geraldine Brooks, Dumpty

Reported by Laura

Nevermore was a fun time this week with a wide variety of books !

          The first book reviewed was The Twilight Man by Koren Shadmi. This graphic novel is a biography of Rod Serling, who is probably most remembered for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery series. The reviewer found it to be a wonderful and very informative book. I will definitely be adding it to my reading list!

          Our next book was also a nonfiction offering, Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael Meyerson. The subtitle pretty much explains it all. The reviewer enjoyed the book and shared one of the quotes from James Madison, “If people were angels, we wouldn’t need this constitution.”

          The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler was a very good, funny detective story. It covers the exploits of two very different detectives working for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. One is very logical, while the other uses supernatural ideas to solve crimes. This particular case leads them into the world of madness, codes, and the secret of London’s strangest relic.

          The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the first in the Finfarran Series. After a nasty divorce, Hanna Casey finds herself back where she started, living with her overbearing mother and licking her wounds. She restores a cottage left to her by her great aunt and takes a job as the local librarian. All goes relatively well until the threat of library closure jeopardizes her livelihood and she finds herself leading the community in a fight to save it. Our reviewer reported that the book was very good and she enjoyed it.

          Our next reviewer found The Road From Coorain by Julie Ker Conway to be a beautifully written book about Australia. This memoir tells of Ms. Conway’s beginnings growing up in the outback on a sheepherder’s ranch, the drowning death of her beloved father, the subsequent withdrawal of her mother into depression, and the resulting move to suburban Sydney. In later life, she becomes the first female president of Smith College, as well as a feminist and famous writer (this is her first memoir).

          The next offering was a YA novel, Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. It was written like a journal by Mary Shelley and feels like a biography that details what life was like before and after the publication of Frankenstein. The reviewer was impressed with the extensive research that went into this novel.

          Lord of the Mountain is a juvenile book that feels more like a YA rendering. It is an especially relevant book for our area as it follows a young man who lives in Bristol, TN and is endeavoring to disobey his father by attending the Bristol Sessions. The reviewer had not finished the book, but was enjoying it immensely thus far.

          Poetry was up next. Originally having read Elizabeth Barrett Browning and being left cold, the reviewer decided to try Robert Browning. He read some, but not all of the book, and still found it lacked something. Some of the poems seemed tacky and he found a lot of the poetry to include double entendres. He felt the Italy poem read almost like a tour guide.

          In Contraband by Stuart Woods, Stone Barrington is enjoying some time off while cruising Key West on a yacht with his friend, the police commissioner. While they are enjoying the view, a plane crashes into the water. Thrown into investigating a smuggling operation; the evidence keeps disappearing. Metal cases contained in the plane disappear and then the plane itself. This was considered a good, easy read.

          People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, was a lovely novel and comes highly recommended. Based on a true story, it tells of Hannah, an Australian rare-book expert, who is hired to restore the famed Sarajevo Haggadah. As she works, she finds tiny artifacts in the bindings of the book and uses those to unlock the mystery of the book’s owners throughout history.

          Also by Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord was reviewed this week. This book covers the history of the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The author found it to be a lot about who killed whom, and although it was well-written, she didn’t enjoy it.

          Dumpty is a small book filled with political cartoons and satirical verse about President Trump and others in his administration. It is written by the actor, John Lithgow. Our reviewer found it highly amusing.

Nevermore: Trotsky, Vanderbilt, Careless in Red, The Reckoning, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen

 Reported by Ambrea

This week, Nevermore started things off with a political thriller based on true events:  The Man Who Loved Dogs by Leonardo Padura.  Recounting the assassination of Leon Trotsky, The Man Who Loved Dogs is a fictionalized story of Ramón Mercader, the assassin—and Iván Cárdenas Maturell, who unexpectedly becomes drawn into the conflict.  Our reader said Padura’s novel was excellent.  Although she was still working through the story, she enjoyed The Man Who Loved Dogs immensely and highly recommended it to her fellow readers.

Following in the vein of fictionalized history, Nevermore checked out A Well Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler.  Alva Smith’s family was left destitute after the Civil War, but, by a twist of fate, Alva met and married William Kissam Vanderbilt, joining on of the wealthiest families in America.  Determined to win respect from the old-money circles of New York, Alva spent years designing and building mansions, hosting grand balls, arranging for her daughter to marry a duke—all while defying social conventions.  Our reader said she rather liked A Well Behaved Woman.  She found the historical parts interesting, but she also thought it created a “good love story” and offered an intriguing look an unconventional female in history.

Next, Nevermore shared Careless in Red, a Thomas Lynley mystery by Elizabeth George.  After the murder of his wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley retreats to Cornwall to escape the painful memories—until he stumbles across the body of a young man who has fallen to his death.  First a witness, and then a suspect, Lynley must let go of the past if he hopes to help solve a murder and stop a killer.  Our reader, who is a very big fan of Elizabeth George, said she did not enjoy Careless in Red as much as she hoped.  “This book is incredibly long, and I skipped thorugh a bit,” she admitted.  Overall, George’s novel was okay, but not great—certainly not up to her usual standards for a Lynley mystery.

Skipping back to historical fiction, Nevermore took a look at a new novel by John Grisham, The Reckoning.  In Clanton, Mississippi, during the fall of 1946, Pete Banning—a decorated World War II hero, a friend, a father, a neighbor—went into town and committed a shocking crime.  With no answers, no motive, and no confessions forthcoming, the local sheriff and Banning’s lawyers are stumped.  Our reader said she enjoyed The Reckoning.  Although it has lots of tangents, especially as it delves into Banning’s experiences in the Philippines during World War II, and more “fluff” than necessary, it was a good mystery and worth reading.

Last, but not least, Nevermore read The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old.  A novel written by Peter de Smet, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen tells the story of Hendrik Groen as he deals with the daily trials of growing older in a retirement community.  To fight back against his age—and the retirement home—he helps create the Old But Not Dead Yet Club in the hopes of showing that there is still life to be lived.  Our reader absolutely adored The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen.  Although occasionally disheartening and slightly tragic, this novel was wonderfully written and unexpectedly hopeful.  She highly recommended it to her fellow readers, especially those who enjoyed A Man Called Ove.