Nevermore: Our Missing Hearts, Paris Orphan, Magnolia Palace, Immune

Reported by Garry

 

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. In this near future dystopian novel, 20-year-old Bird Gardner has not seen his mother, an acclaimed Chinese American poet and activist, since she vanished eleven years previously. Bird and his father live a quiet existence in a small room just off Harvard Square. One day, Bird receives a letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and he realizes the drawing contains clues as to the whereabouts of his mother. This novel was named a Best Book of 2022 by multiple news organizations and comes highly recommended by our reader.  AH 

The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester. Jessica May is an American photojournalist who comes to Paris during World War II, and faces an uphill battle as a woman on the front lines. Friendships with other war correspondents and military men help, but the love of an orphaned girl thrust into the arms of the soldiers is what keeps Jessica going. Skip to 2005 and D’Arcy Hallworth has come to a chateau outside of Paris to curate a collection of World War II photographs – an assignment that will upend everything she thinks she knows about her family. This historical fiction is loosely based on true events, was heavily researched and is an absolute page-turner. Our reader said that she couldn’t put it down.  WJ

 

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis. Romance, murder, high art and a true-life famous family all come together in this historical novel. In 1920, Lillian Carter, down-on-her-luck former model, starts working with the Frick family heiress and slowly but surely becomes entangled in the messy life of the family – affairs, stolen jewels, and high drama, culminating in a possible murder. Fifty years later, English model Veronica Weber chances upon a series of hidden messages in the Frick mansion (now a museum), a discovery that sets off a whirlwind adventure that could finally unlock the truth behind what really happened in the gilded halls of the opulent manor. Our reader was thrilled with this combination of romance, history, and art.  MH 

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer is an incredibly engaging, accessible deep dive into the human immune system. Each chapter delves into a different facet of the immune system that is engaged in a never-ending war against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and cancers. Our reader particularly loved the informative, colorful diagrams throughout the book, finding that they really helped clarify and emphasize the descriptions in the text, and found the book to be completely fascinating.  KM

 

Also mentioned:

Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: Personal Histories of Womanhood and Poverty in the South by Victoria Byerly

Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

The 12-Hour Art Expert: Everything You Need to Know About Art in a Dozen Masterpieces by Noah Charney

The Accidental Veterinarian: Tales from a Pet Practice by Philipp Schott

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri K. Greenidge

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Walking to Wijiji by Bunny Medeiros

The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes

All The Broken Places by John Boyne

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden

Tutankhamun's Trumpet: Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects from the Boy-King's Tomb by Toby Wilkinson

She and Her Cat: Stories by Makoto Shinkai

Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power by Kyle Spencer

The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill

Weird Virginia: Your Guide to Virginia's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor, and Loren Coleman

Nevermore: Dovekeepers, Bookshop of Yesterdays, Paris Seamstress, Spy and the Traitor, Alice Network, Great Mortality

Reported by Ambrea

Nevermore started their meeting off by sharing The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, which tells the story of four women and the tragic events of Masada nearly two thousand years ago.  The stories of these women—Yael, Revka, Aziza, and Shirah—intersect and weave a powerful story of secrets, hope, truth, and love.   Our reader said The Dovekeepers was actually a re-read for her, but she was glad she had the chance to check out Hoffman’s novel again.  She found the story interesting and she thought the characters were fascinating, complex.  Overall, she liked the book and she recommends The Dovekeepers to any and all fans of Hoffman’s work.

Next, Nevermore checked out The Bookshop of Yesterdays, a new novel by Amy Meyerson.  Miranda Brooks spent much of her childhood reading through the books of her Uncle Billy’s store and solving scavenger hunts he created just for her.  But when Miranda turns twelve, her Uncle Billy and her mother have a sudden falling out and he disappears from Miranda’s life—until sixteen later when she receives news of his death and clues to one final scavenger hunt.  Our reader found she really enjoyed The Bookshop of Yesterdays.  Although the story was pretty predictable—“I kinda had things figured out early on,” she noted—she said it was a novel well worth reading.

Nevermore also looked at another book from the new fiction shelves:  The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester.  Estella Bissette is a young seamstress living in Paris during the early months of World War II; Fabienne Bissette is her granddaughter, a museum curator who is attending the annual Met gala, which is honoring her grandmother’s accomplishments in fashion.  Their stories, both in 1940 and 2015, soon begin to interweave as Fabienne uncovers secrets about her grandmother that she never knew.  Our reader said she enjoyed reading The Paris Seamstress.  Intricate and heartbreakingly poignant, Lester’s novel was an interesting mix of history, romance, and mystery that seemed to hit all the right notes.  She highly recommended it to her fellow Nevermore members, especially those who enjoyed The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.

Next, Nevermore explored a particularly thrilling book titled The Spy and the Traitor:  The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre.  Oleg Gordievsky was the son of two KGB agents and spent time at the best Soviet institutions; he became one of the top intelligence agents in Russia and quickly became the best spy in London—and then he secretly started working for MI6 in 1973, quickly becoming one of Britain’s most important resources and a target for both the Soviet Union and the CIA.  Our reader said she “thoroughly enjoyed The Spy and the Traitor.”  Macintyre’s book read like an espionage thriller, alternating between nail-biting action and fascinating insight into the social and political atmosphere of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.  “It was truly fantastic,” our reader finished.

Staying in the vein of espionage, Nevermore took a look at Kate Quinn’s novel, The Alice Network.  In the aftermath of World War II, Charlie St. Clair is an American college student on the verge of being cast out by her family—after all, being pregnant and unmarried is hardly proper.  Now, sent to Europe to take care of her “little problem,” Charlie finally has a chance to break free and, with the help of a former spy, find the cousin who disappeared from Nazi-occupied France.  Our reader said The Alice Network was “a good, intense story.”  Filled with a little espionage, some romance, and plenty of adventure, Quinn’s novel was an immediate hit for our reader and it was quickly passed along to another member.

Last, Nevermore shared The Great Mortality:  An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly.  In 1347, the Black Death began its journey across the Europe and Asia; five years later, nearly twenty-five million people were dead and many more were left reeling from the devastation of one disease.  Our reader picked out The Great Mortality on her Kindle on a whim and she was pleasantly surprised to find she enjoyed reading Kelly’s book.  She was fascinated by The Great Mortality, by how much detail and research Kelly put into his book to create such comprehensive and intriguing guide to one of the most gruesome times in history.  “It’s incredible what happened to [all of these people and countries],” she said.