Nevermore: Be Frank, Into Oblivion, Fossum, Straley, Mercy Street

Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with a debut novel, Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson.  Alice Whitley has been sent to the home of Mimi Banning, a legendary author who hasn’t written anything in years.  Now financial problems are driving Mimi to produce a new book and her publisher is anxious to keep her on track, so Alice is being sent to “help out”—and keep an eye on Mimi’s progress.  Alice soon finds herself assigned to look after Frank, Mimi’s nine year old son who is a sweet child but with the manner and dress of a 1930s movie star.   Alice finds herself wrapped up in all the oddities of the household and wondering just who is Frank’s father.  Our reader enjoyed this book, and felt it would appeal especially to those with a love for old Hollywood movies.

Arnaldur Indridason’s Into Oblivion was the next book discussed.  Our members have a penchant for “Nordic Noir,” and this thriller set in Iceland was a hit.  Junior detective Erlendur is juggling two different cases, one current and one set in the past.  Both plotlines were well done and our reader said this book was a lot of fun. She highly recommended it to others.

A second Scandinavian mystery was brought up in the same meeting.  Karin Fossum has many fans in the group, and her books almost always end up going home with a different Nevermore member after each meeting.  This week’s title was Black Seconds, in which Inspector Sejer investigates the disappearance of a nine year old girl.  Among the suspects is Emil, a mute man who lives by himself and is considered odd by the locals.  As usual, the book delves deep into the psychology of all concerned. Our reviewer found Black Seconds to be a very satisfying book.

The Woman Who Married a Bear by John Straley features hard drinking private eye and sometime poet Cecil Younger who is asked to investigate the motive behind the murder of a Native guide.  The presumed murderer is behind bars already, but the victim’s mother doesn’t believe the reason given for her son’s death.  Our reader praised the book for its use of the Alaskan setting, Native American myths and culture, and for being a good mystery.  She did add that it could a bit gruesome, but was that it was well-written.

The recent PBS series Mercy Street inspired one member to pick up the book Heroines of Mercy Street by Pamela Toler. While Florence Nightingale was pioneering women’s place in medicine in the Crimean War, her American counterparts took up the struggle during the Civil War.  All were met with hostility and resistance and not just from the doctors:  for example, at one point, the steward and cooks refused to give the women their allotted rations, sending meagre mounts or else food barely fit to eat.  This book centers on the nurses at Mansion House in Alexandria, Virginia and uses diaries, letters and other personal accounts to illuminate the lives of women such as Dorothea Dix, Hannah Ropes, and Mary Phinney von Olnhausen. Our reader found it enlightening.

The Nevermore Book Club meets every Tuesday at 11:00 am in the Frances E. Kegley Meeting Room.  Coffee is available as are doughnuts from the Blackbird Bakery. Anyone is welcome to join!

Nevermore: Donner Party, Lost Lake, Skylight, Villages, and Mysteries!

Reported by Ambrea

This week in Nevermore, our readers explored many interesting books, drifting from journeys on the Oregon Trail with the Donner Party to some excellent fiction by Karin Fossum and Sarah Addison Allen.  Our readers even visited Russell County with Come Saturday by Doris Music and Lisbon, Portugal, with Skylight by José Saramago.

The adventures started with Lisa Unger’s Black Out.  Annie Powers is happy:  she has a wonderful house in an idyllic Florida suburb, she has a husband who loves her and a daughter she loves unconditionally—and life seems wonderful.  Until her past comes back to haunt her.  Besieged by memories she had buried and haunted by a name that she abandoned, Annie must put together the pieces of her past to save herself and her daughter.  Our reader said that Unger’s novel was “unbelievable,” an exceptional novel that she couldn’t put aside.

Our reader also volunteered Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen, which weaves together the stories of Eby Pim, Kate and Devin Pheris, and others who congregate at Lost Lake, “looking for something that they weren’t sure they needed in the first place:  love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended.”  It involves mother and daughter relationships, as well as the redeeming qualities of love, which our reader said she really enjoyed.

Another reader had an interesting selection of reading material:  Across the Plains in the Donner Party by Virginia Reed Murphy and Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern.  As expected, Across the Plains follows the tragic expedition of the Donner-Reed Party.  After setting out for California, the Donner-Reed Party became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and spent the entire winter of 1846-1847 trapped without adequate supplies.  Starved and desperate, members resorted to cannibalism to survive—only 48 of the original 87 members survived.  Our reader said she was “in awe of the people who survived,” and she was amazed at the ability of pioneer travelers to actually meet on the trail and reconnect with other people.

In Sh*t My Dad Says, Justin Halpern has been dumped by his longtime girlfriend and forced to return home with his seventy-three-year-old father.  Sam Halpern, who Halpern describes as being “like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair,” is a man without a filter.  He isn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind—and, luckily, Halpern had the foresight to record the best of his father’s wisdom.  Sh*t My Dad Says is uproariously funny, according to our reader, and it was an absolute joy to read.  It comes highly recommended from our Nevermore group this week.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf followed next, unfolding a brand new story in Holt, Colorado.  Addie Moore and her neighbor, Louise Waters, have lived alone for many years, now in reconnecting as neighbors—as friends—they brave new adventures in their small town.  According to our Nevermore reader, it rings true of real life.  “You kind of get sucked in [to their lives],” he said.  “You think it goes one way, but it doesn’t.”  Our Souls at Night explores the depth and breadth of human relationships, chronicling senior realities with a gentle comforting that’s enjoyable.  Our reader definitely recommended reading Haruf’s novel.

Likewise, he was impressed by Karen Fossum’s Indian Bride.  Fourth in the Inspector Konrad Sejer mysteries, Indian Bride starts with a marriage—Gunder Jomann, a renowned bachelor in his hometown of Elvestad, visits India for two weeks and returns with a wife—and a murder.  On the day Jomann’s new wife is set to arrive, a woman is found on the outskirts of town and Inspector Sejer must uncover the culprit among the seeming good people of Elvestad.  One reader said, “It was quite good, I thought,” and he was satisfied with how Fossum wrapped things up; however, another reader in our Nevermore group didn’t hold the same opinion.  She felt that Fossum left her dangling with a dissatisfying cliffhanger.

One of our readers also tried to read Villages by John Updike.  Chronicling the life of Owen MacKenzie from his birth in rural Pennsylvania to his retirement in Haskells Crossing, Massachusetts, Villages is a story about one man’s lifelong education and his relationships.  Unfortunately, for our reader, John Updike’s novel was a grave disappointment.  As she reported, it was “awful, absolutely awful.”

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, likewise, didn’t fare so well for another reader.  Sharp Objects chronicles reporter Camille Preaker’s toughest assignment—her return to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls—and her renewed (and rocky) relationship with her estranged family.  For our Nevermore reader, Flynn’s novel was a study in several generations of very damaged, very disillusioned individuals, which intrigued her, but she thought Flynn seemed to put an emphasis on shock value rather than content.

By comparison, José Saramago’s Skylight performed well.  Skylight is series of intertwined stories—Silvestre and Mariana, an elderly couple who have been happily married for a number of years; Abel, a young nomad who has recently found a home; Adriana, a young woman who loves Beethoven; Carmen and Emilio, an unhappy couple who long to lead separate lives; Lidia, a former prostitute turned mistress—that overlap to weave a tapestry of life and relationships in one apartment in Lisbon, Portugal.  Our reader said Saramago’s writing reminded her of Alexander McCall Smith, but the story made her think of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.  Although Skylight seemed to end with a cliffhanger, our reader was glad that she “got to live in Portugal for a little while.”

Last, another of our readers picked up Come Saturday by Doris Musick.  Set in the rural mountains of Russell County during the Great Depression, Come Saturday details the extraordinary events of one Saturday morning at the local mill—and how it changed the county.  Our reader said it was really interesting to slip into the lives of these people, to learn something new about Russell County.  While our reader did say it was an interesting book, she said it would probably be even more fascinating for readers with ties to the area.

Nevermore: Oregon Trail, Come Saturday, Look Who's Back, Boston Corbett, Karin Fossum, Frightful's Mountain

 Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore hit the trail this week—the Oregon Trail, that is, with one member praising Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey. Journalist Rinker set out with his brother and a dog to recreate as best he could, what it was like to travel on the Oregon Trail. They traveled in the time honored way using a covered wagon and a mule team for transportation.  Buck also recounts a history of the trail along with their present day adventures.  

For a view of the Trail it its heyday, the same reader tackled another book written by a journalist in 1846.  Francis Parkman was a twenty three year old when he took a two month trip through Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas.  He wrote his adventures up as installments for Knickerbocker Magazine, then turned them into a book which was published in 1849. Some have noted that his views of the Native American tribes were generally negative, but Parkman still provides a vivid look at life at that time.  One thing that struck our reader was the many uses for dogs, including food.   Another member pointed out that travel along the Trail at that point was strongly dictated by nature:  travelers needed to leave by May or early June in order to reach the end of the trail before winter hit.  Those who failed to do so usually perished. Part of the problem was that on some parts of the Trail there was simply no way to turn around and go back.  The Donner Party was mentioned, but not so much as to spoil the fine Blackbird Bakery doughnuts the group was enjoying.

Another reader recommended Come Saturday by Doris Musick which is a novel based on a true incident.  In 1933, a group of men had gone to a gristmill near Lennon, Virginia when the boiler exploded. Several men were killed and several more were injured.  According to our reader, Musick does a good job with both the setting and with shedding some light on a bit of local history.

Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes presents an intriguing scenario:  what if Adolf Hitler came back? In the book, he awakens in 2011.  He doesn’t realize that decades have passed and treats everything from a 1945 perspective. People believe he’s an actor or comedian pretending to be Hitler and find his outrageous comments to be “authentic.”  He becomes a TV personality with an avid following.  Our reviewer said she couldn’t decide if this was a satire or a farce but it was certainly entertaining.  

Most folks have heard of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, but far fewer would recognize the name Thomas “Boston” Corbett.  He was the man who killed another presidential assassin, John Wilkes Booth and for a time his name was known far and wide.  For a while after the war ended, Corbett would earn money by giving lectures, styling himself “Lincoln’s Avenger.” An extremely religious man who had reprimanded his superior officer for profanity and taking the Lord’s name in vain, Corbett’s behavior became increasingly strange and he seemed beset by paranoid delusions. In The Madman and the Assassin, author Martelle Scott tells the intriguing story of this British immigrant who was court martialed for insubordination, who spent months in Andersonville prison, and who became a foot note in American history. Our Nevermore reader called it “fascinating.”

The next reviewer opened with, “Karin Fossum hasn’t let me down yet!” He’s reading When the Devil Holds the Candle, which he describes as being about what happens when young men get confused and become misguided: they can end up in more trouble than they’re ready for.  As usual, this Inspector Sejer novel is heavy on psychology and is darkly thrilling.

Finally, a reader said that when she needed to read something to fill her with joy, she turns to Jean Craighhead George’s juvenile novel, Frightful’s Mountain. Frightful is a peregrine falcon first introduced in the classic My Side of the Mountain. The book is told from the bird’s point of view and is beautifully written.  George was a naturalist, so her books are full of authentic detail as well as a deep respect for nature and the environment.  Our reviewer described this as both a “feel good” book and as a spiritual book.  She highly recommends it to everyone.  The depiction of migration is especially good, and it almost made her feel as if she were about to take wing.

Nevermore: Mystery, History, and More!

 Reported by Ambrea

At Nevermore this week, our readers encountered a variety of books—including some audiobooks—and revisited some familiar titles, such as Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain and Believer:  My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod.

To start off, one of our readers looked at a pair of audiobooks:  The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer and The 11^th Hour by James Patterson.  In The Last Surgeon, Nick Garrity, a veteran suffering from PTSD who spends his time working at a clinic in Baltimore to help the homeless, and Jillian Coates, a psychiatric nurse, are pitted against a dangerously efficient killer, an assassin who goes by the name of Franz Koller—a man who will stop at nothing to catch and kill his intended victims.  In The 11^th Hour, Patterson returns with his Women’s Murder Club and another terrifying series of murders, beginning first with the death of a millionaire and ending with the discovery of bodies in a famous actor’s garden!  According to our Nevermore reader, both audiobooks were excellent.  Although this was her third time reading 11^th Hour, our reader enjoyed it immensely and highly recommended the Women’s Murder Club novels.

Next, our readers dived into history with Across the Plains in 1844 by Catherine Sager Pringle.  Sager’s narrative recounts her family’s harrowing journey from Ohio to Washington, enduring harsh conditions and great tragedies of the Oregon Trail.  Considered one of the most authentic accounts of the American westward migration, Sager’s memoir chronicles an extraordinary passage of time in which all 8 of the Sager children were orphaned, rescued and adopted by Narcissa and Marcus Whitman, and endured an attack by the local Cayuse tribe in Washington.  Our Nevermore reader thought Across the Plains was absolutely fascinating, saying, “It’s just so amazing to me that people end up doing [things like this]…that people survived.”

Another reader picked a Scandinavian mystery:  When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum.  Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre are confronted with dark possibilities in their town, confronting the death of an infant and the disappearance of a delinquent youth—and all the terrible connections they will find.  Our reader, who is attempting to read all of Fossum’s work, enjoyed the fourth installment of Fossum’s Inspector Sejer series.  Although she said it doesn’t have a happy ending, she was glad that all the “bad people get their due.”

Next, our readers looked at a satire of historical proportions in Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes (translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch).  Vermes novel opens with Adolf Hitler—in 2011.  After waking from 66 years of sleep, Hitler discovers a Germany that’s entire changed:  social media spreads new ideas and fuels celebrity obsession; cities are multicultural, meshing together races, ethnicities, religions, and more into one common community; Germany is led by a woman.  And Hitler is suddenly jettisoned into popularity for the public believes he’s an impersonator of incredible skill—until he begins his own political party.  Full of references to events in World War II and brimming with a darkly comical humor, Look Who’s Back was a fascinating novel that was “very, very well done,” according to our Nevermore reader.

Two of our readers also revisited Quiet and Believer, rounding out our meeting with new impressions of the same material.  For our reader, Quiet, which examined the differences between and stressed the importance of extroverts and introverts of society, was a fascinating piece of work.  Although it read almost like a textbook, providing interesting little nuggets about introverts and extroverts (such as how introverts prefer meeting people in a friendly, noncompetitive context, and extroverts prefer meeting others in a competitive context), our Nevermore reader enjoyed Susan Cain’s study.

Believer, on the other hand, produced a divided opinion at the meeting this time.  One reader confirmed her original opinion of Axelrod’s work, saying she still enjoyed it as she drew to the final few pages; however, another reader disagreed, saying she wouldn’t finish it.  It “confirmed my opinion of people who are good, [reinforced my opinion] who I liked,” she said.  Showing the clash between idealism and reality, Axelrod showed the meaning of compromise—and, in some cases, showed how many politicians begin as good people and manage to compromise their values in the pursuit of political power—which turned our reader away from finishing

Ending on a lighter note, our Nevermore readers rounded out our meeting with The Public Library:  A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson.  Filled with more than 150 photos of libraries spread across the country, The Public Library explores the importance and, in some cases, decay of one of America’s most important institutions.  Our Nevermore reader said it was interesting to see the history of libraries, to read short commentaries by writers such as E.B. White, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Patchett, Dr. Seuss and others, and to get a visual exploration of some of America’s most memorable libraries.