Nevermore: John Rabe, Night Ocean, Long Black Veil, Sugar, Glass Castle

 Reported by Ambrea

This week, Nevermore shared a The Good Man of Nanking:  The Diaries of John Rabe.  John Rabe was a native German, a supporter of the Nazi party, and an unexpected hero in China.  In November 1937, prior to the alliance of Germany and Japan in 1940, Japanese troops overran Nanking and began one of the cruelest campaigns of genocide imaginable.  Japanese soldiers slaughtered Chinese citizens, slowly eating away at the country and acquiring vast swathes of territory for their native country.  John Rabe, who became known as the Oskar Schindler of China, put himself at great personal risk to save the lives of more than 200,000 Chinese men, women, and children.  Our reader said John Rabe’s diary was intense and incredibly heart-wrenching; however, she highly recommended it to her fellow Nevermore members, calling it a very interesting and engaging book that offers insight into the complex political and social landscape of China prior to World War II.

Next, Nevermore checked out The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge, an unusual piece of fiction that tells the strange intertwining stories of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Barlow, William S. Burroughs, L.C. Spinks—and Charlie and Marina Willett.  Marina has a big problem:  Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and the relationship he cultivated with Robert Barlow, a young gay fan, in 1934.  When a new scandal strikes Charlie, he suddenly disappears—and Marina is left holding the pieces, trying to find out what happened and why.  Our reader said it seemed to focus on “crazy and quasi-crazy people,” which made it difficult to read.  She admitted she couldn’t finish it.  The story didn’t hold her interest and it didn’t spark a connection.  She managed to make it to page 44.

Nevermore also returned to a current favorite:  Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan.  In her latest novel, Boylan introduces a story of suspense, betrayal, and survival.  It’s 1980, a year full of promise and hope, until six college students sneak into the dilapidated ruins of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary—and someone doesn’t make it out alive.  Fast forward to the future, Judith Carrigan has made a career and built a family for herself.  When her friend, Jon Casey, is arrested for murder, Judith must decide if she’s willing to risk the life she’s created and unleash the secrets of the past.  Our reader said he found Boylan’s book “very interesting.”  Filled with intricate characters and deadly secrets, Long Black Veil handles sensitive subjects very well and creates an enjoyable, atmospheric story.

Nevermore picked up The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes, a sweeping book about the health risks and dangers of sugar.  According to the cover, “diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly ten percent of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.  And sugar is at the root of these…”  Our reader said she started reading Taubes book, but she eventually decided she’d had enough and she gave up.  She said she “left greasy streaks on [her Kindle] screen,” because reading about sugar had made her ravenously hungry.

Last, Nevermore looked at Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle.  In her memoir, Jeannette tells of her and her siblings’ remarkable story of survival and resilience in a family that was unique but terrifyingly dysfunctional.  Jeannette’s father was an intelligent, charismatic man with a drinking problem; her mother was an artist and a “free spirit” who chafed at the idea of taking responsibility for a family.  Jeannette and her siblings learned to take care of themselves, even during the most trying—most terrifying—of their lives.  Our reader complemented The Glass Castle for its incredible writing, calling it a joy to read.  “Not joyful,” she noted, “but [incredibly] well written.”  It details the struggles and desperate times the children faced; however, it does so with care and thoughtfulness, highlighting the bonds Jeanette forged with her brother and sisters.

Nevermore: Hello Girls, Girl on the Train, My Cousin Rachel, Long Black Veil, Taduno's Song, St. Louie Slow Drag, Hot Zone, Sapiens

Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with praise for Jennifer Boylan’s Long Black Veil.  The story revolves around six college students who sneak into an abandoned prison on a lark.  The situation turns deadly, and the survivors find their lives forever changed. Thirty years later, a police officer arrests one of the former students, and another is faced with revealing secrets that could ruin her life.  The story moves back and forth from 1980 to the present day, and one thing our reader found most intriguing was simply realizing how much social norms have changed in that relatively small period of time.  She said it was a good, scary book that reminded the reader that secrets will come out.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston was the next book up.  Our reader had lived near Reston, Virginia at one point, so the implications hit home for her.  The story is divided between a history of how the ebola virus was discovered and a frightening incident that occurred in a Reston lab in 1989.  Our reader said it a thrilling, terrifying book, and she recommended it to the others.

A Nigerian musician in exile receives a letter from his girlfriend that causes him to return home in the debut novel Taduno’s Song by Odafe Atogun.  Once there, he discovers no one remembers him, that his identification is all gone, and his girlfriend is missing.  It’s a Kafkaesque situation, in which the protagonist is powerless to do anything except play his music. Our reader enjoyed the book.

Sapiens by Yuval N. Harari details a number of different theories about mankind’s evolution, but he shows little or favoritism for any particular theory.  The author, a professor of history at Hebrew University, discusses the various human species whose remains have been found while describing the way our species has developed.  There’s an overwhelming amount of information packed into each page, which makes for slow reading; but the Nevermore member is finding it well written and quite good.

More recent history is covered in The Hello Girls by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman. World War I saw the first telephone lines used as a means of communication, and the first American women soldiers sent to France to operate them.  Their path was not an easy one.  They had very little respect, either from the male soldiers or the female nurses; they were in war zones; and both food and shelter were deplorable.  Our reviewer was impressed with General John “Black Jack” Pershing, who championed the women. She thought the book was quite an eye-opener, and thought more people should know about that particular part of WWI.

Our next reader was engrossed in Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  It’s the story of three different women whose lives become intertwined. Rachel takes the train to and from work every day.  She begins watching a couple who seem to be living perfect lives, including the perfect marriage— something that attracts Rachel, unhappily divorced and upset over her ex’s new wife.   Then an apparent crime draws together the lives of these three women, surprising the reader with twists and turns.  Our reviewer hasn’t finished the book, but is finding it to be intriguing, entertaining, and well written, with especially strong characterization.

St. Louie Slow Drag, the second in the Julia Nye series by Jo Allison, is a historical mystery set in St. Louis in 1910. Julia works as a typist in the local police department, which is not her only unconventional activity.  She’s also a suffragette and is willing to go on a date to a seedy part of town to hear ragtime great Scott Joplin play.  An explosion and fire sends the club-goers fleeing—and the kerosene can says this was no accident.  Our reader was impressed with the amount of historical detail in the book.  Allison creates a vivid portrait of life at the time, including race relations, the calls for women’s suffrage, and the march for Prohibition. She recommends the entire series.

Finally, a reader picked up My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.  A young man is intrigued by his late cousin’s beautiful widow in a complex romantic-suspense novel set in Cornwall.  Our reader gave up on it early, saying that she had just read Jamaica Inn and that was a hard act to follow.  She may try it again later.

Nevermore: Lost City of Z, Emory's Gift, Red Planet Blues, Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and more!

Reported by Kristin

Our first Nevermore reader enjoyed The Lost City of Z:  A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  Popular interest in the book has been sparked by the recent movie of the same name. (Available at the Main library: DVD LOS.)  Explorer Percy Fawcett trekked into the Amazon in an attempt to find the lost city of El Dorado (“City of Gold”) in 1925.  Our reader said that she particularly admired Fawcett’s incredible drive and purpose.

Yet another reader tried Brothers of the Sea by D.R. Sherman, an older novel set in the Seychelles Island, and another reader decided to jump on the bandwagon and read it in the coming week.  The reader who just finished it said that it portrayed a beautiful relationship between a sweet boy and a nice father.

The same reader absolutely loved Emory’s Gift by W. Bruce Cameron, author of A Dog’s Purpose.   After his mother dies, teen Charlie is lonely until a grizzly bear saves him from a mountain lion, then moves into the family barn.  Being in Northern Idaho, everyone else wants to kill the grizzly, but Charlie seeks to protect his friend and protector.

Turning to science fiction, another reader enjoyed Red Planet Blues by Robert Sawyer.  Within a frontier-like town set up in a bubble dome on Mars, human foibles are presented in a light breezy way.  Alex Lomax is a private eye, the only one in New Klondike.  Outside the bubble, a variety of treasure hunters are seeking extremely valuable Martian fossils.  Our reader appreciated the word play, such as someone being described as “kempt and sheveled,” as opposed to “unkempt and disheveled.”

Next up was a book published in 1917, The Grim 13: Short Stories by Thirteen Authors of Standing, edited by Frederick Stuart Greene.  These stories do tend to be on the grim side (as the title indicates,) but they are not tragic.  Our reader’s favorite one was about a man in the jungle whose job is to raise the bridge out of the way when a boat needs to pass.  Spookiness abound as the man questions what he hears.

Another classic, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, portrays outcasts and oddballs in a small Georgia town during the 1930’s.  When John Singer, a deaf mute, loses his mute companion to a mental institution, he moves in with the Kelly family.  Rife with racial and poverty issues, our reader compared this with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

A new-to-Nevermore reader discussed her recent reading of Madam Secretary: A Memoir by Madeleine Albright.  Published in 2003, this memoir takes the first female U.S. Secretary of State from her childhood in Czechoslovakia to her high ranking governmental position in Bill Clinton’s administration.  Our reader was very impressed that Albright rose to that post after a relatively late start in government—her first federal job was when she was 39 and had three children.

Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan tackles a 1980 murder mystery when six college students looking for a thrill are drawn into a terrifying situation where someone ends up dead.  Fast forward twenty years when new evidence comes to light.  The chapters alternate between the old and the new; titles at the beginning of each section make it easy to differentiate the time periods.  Our reader found this book very entertaining, saying that it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Next up in fiction was Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.  Involving three women who run in the same circles because they have children in the same Australian preschool, the storyline makes it clear right up front that someone will end up dead, but winds around and around before naming the victim.  Our reader said that if you have ever been a parent of an elementary school student, you will recognize the mommy politics in this tale.  Now an HBO miniseries, the book may resonate with many a striving, overachieving parent.

In Jamestown:  The Truth Revealed, William Kelso examines what happened to the lost 1607 Jamestown Settlement.  Historians had long believed that the original site of the James Fort was covered by the river, as the land surrounding it was a low swampy place.  After Jamestown burned, it was mostly forgotten.  In 1994, archeologist Kelso began to dig in another location and found definitive evidence of the stockade, church, and perhaps most unsettling—cannibalism.  The 13-year-old girl depicted on the cover is a representation from a found skull and leg bone which showed proof of being scraped out, and her flesh possibly eaten during “the starving period.”  Our reader’s descriptions engendered much curiosity and discussion within the group.

Neil Shubin argues in The Universe Within:  The Deep History of the Human Body that the very evolution of the universe is evidenced within the human body.  From our atoms to our sleep cycles, Shubin connects the strands that show how the universe around us influences the way our bodies have adapted.  Our reader said that she learned so many beautiful scientific things from this book.

Finally, The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn was enjoyed by another reader.  In this novel, two time travelers are sent back in time from the near future to 1815 London.  Their goal: recover an unpublished novel, and steal it.  (Without influencing history, of course.)  Our reader enjoyed the time travel aspect of the novel, and was amused by the fact that the travelers had not experienced “real food” in their own time period, but merely 3D replica composites made to nourish them.  The real thing in 1815 was surely a shock to their digestive systems and their sensibilities.