Nevermore: Sooley, An Event in Autumn, In Her Defense

 

Nevermore 6-23-26

Repoerted by Rita

 

Sooley by John Grisham

After seventeen-year-old Samuel "Sooley" Sooleymon receives a college scholarship to play basketball for North Carolina Central, he moves to Durham from his native, war-torn South Sudan, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season, but Sooley has a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America, working tirelessly on his game until he dominates everyone in practice, and when Sooley is called off the bench, the legend begins.

Overall, I found it to be a good book that I genuinely enjoyed, even though the ending left me a bit disappointed.     -MS     5 stars

An Event in Autumn: A Kurt Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell

After nearly thirty years in the same job, Inspector Kurt Wallander is tired, restless, and itching to make a change. He is taken with a certain old farmhouse, perfectly situated in a quiet countryside with a charming, overgrown garden. There he finds the skeletal hand of a corpse in a shallow grave. Wallander's investigation takes him deep into the history of the house and the land, until finally the shocking truth about a long-buried secret is brought to light. 

This was a good book. I love the Wallander series.     -DC      5 stars

 

 

In Her Defense by Philippa Malicka

The whole country has been riveted by the beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow, standing in court, accusing her daughter’s therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary for her own financial gain. Jean insists Mary’s traumatic memories arise from her upbringing and her time studying at a prestigious art school in Rome; wounds only Jean’s therapy can heal. But as the trial unfolds, it’s Augusta “Gus” Bird, Anna’s former employee, a seemingly insignificant bystander, a nobody, who holds the key to unraveling the tangled web of lies and deceit.

It was AWFUL. I only finished it to fill a square for Summer Book Bingo.       -LK       2 stars

 

 

Other Books Mentioned

 

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun

How to Do Hard Things: Actual Real Life Advice on Friends, Love, Career, Wellbeing, Mindset, and More by Veronica Dearly

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison

If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss

 

New Book

Travels with Agatha Christie by David Suchet

Nevermore's Books

 

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell

 

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun

 

How to Do Hard Things: Actual Real Life Advice on Friends, Love, Career, Wellbeing, Mindset, and More by Veronica Dearly

 

Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" by Margaret Powell

 

Sooley by John Grisham

 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

 

Enrique's Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother by  Sonia Nazario

 

The Library of Fates: A Dark Academia Magical Realism Psychological Thriller by Margot Harrison

 

If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss

 

ADHD for Smart Ass Women: How to Fall in Love with Your Neurodivergent Brain by Tracy Otsuka

 

In Her Defense (a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick) by Philippa Malicka

 

NEW BOOKS

 

Travels with Agatha Christie by David Suchet

Nevermore: Bonk, The Pyramid, Astonishing Color of After, Disappearance of a Scribe

 

Reported by Garry

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach is the hilarious and imminently readable book that focuses on sex. In her trademark witty and extremely well-researched way, Roach looks at the evolution of the science of sexuality. Our reader commented that there were many times while reading the book that she thought “Well, I was not wondering about that, but now that I’ve read a bit about it, I AM wondering.” The consensus amongst our readers is that any book by Mary Roach is entertaining, educational, very well-written and definitely about a subject that you wouldn’t normally think about reading, and this book is no different.  MC

 

The Pyramid is a prequel to the popular Wallander series of murder mystery books by Henning Mankell. This set of five short stories, stretching over nearly four decades, shows the evolution of the beloved Swedish police inspector. The first story is set when Wallander is a twenty-one year old rookie patrolman, with the last placed just prior to the first published Wallander novel “Faceless Killers”. This collection of short stories delves into the backstory of Wallander and those in his life, giving the reader further insight into the brusque but greatly insightful Swedish investigator. While this book was written well after the Wallander series was underway, our reader said that it really helped her understand the character better and cast a slightly new light on some of his quirks that show up in the novels.  DC

 

The Astonishing Color of After is a debut novel by Emily X. R. Pan strongly flavored with magical realism. Mourning, magic, art, and love all come together in this young adult story about Leigh Chen Sanders, a half-Asian half-Caucasian girl in the United States whose Taiwanese mother has killed herself and taken the hidden history of her family to the grave with her. Leigh is convinced that her mother has become a bird, and travels to Taiwan not only to track down the bird she believes is her mother, but to meet and get to know her family for the first time. Our reader is an artist, and was particularly taken with the way Leigh and her friend Axel described emotions as colors (Leigh is a synesthete whose senses tend to overlap; Leigh sees colors when she hears sounds.) Our reader liked this book and commented on how the author paints a realistic portrayal of depression and mental illness but also maintains a sense of wonder and joy.  MH

 

Disappearance of a Scribe is the latest mystery by best-selling author Dana Stabenow. Set in Ptolemaic Egypt during the reign of Cleopatra, this book is the second in her “Eye of Isis” trilogy. There is a possible serial killer on the loose – two bodies have been found on the bottom of the Alexandria harbor, two years apart. Both of them were fitted with cement sandals to hold them down, and their unsolved deaths threaten to derail Cleopatra’s plans to rebuild after the Alexandrian War. She asks Tetisheri, her new Eye of Isis, to find out who the deceased are and why they were murdered. Our reader enjoyed this historical fantasy novel with its well-crafted mystery and attention to historical details, and recommends it for an easy, fun mystery read.  MC

Also mentioned:

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl

Crossed Lines by Jennifer Delamere

House by Tracy Kidder

Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives by Paul D. Escott

Haiti After the Earthquake by Paul Farmer

Get Well Soon:  History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright

Dopesick:  Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy

My Own Country:  A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese

Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan

In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan

Free Speech Handbook: A Practical Framework for Understanding Our Free Speech Protections by Ian Rosenberg

You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston

Greek Myths:  A New Retelling by Charlotte Higgins

Nevermore: Italian Shoes, Last Englishman, I Am a Girl from Africa, The Firekeeper's Daughter, Empire of the Summer Moon

 

 Reported by Garry

 

Nevermore began with a story of redemption set in the cold of the Baltic Sea:  Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell. Fredrik Welin lives alone on a remote island inherited from his grandparents. Once a successful surgeon, he lives cut off from the rest of the world as a form of penance for a horrible mistake he made in the operating room many years ago. A series of unexpected visitors interrupt his solitude and slowly pull him out of his self-imposed isolation. Our reader loved the evocative writing in this brief novel and was particularly impressed by the depictions of solitude and reflection on a small Swedish island. DC

 

The Last Englishman:  The Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers is the biography of author Arthur Ransome. Raised in relative wealth and privilege in England, Ransome abandoned a young wife and daughter to go to Russia as an investigative writer where he came to sympathize with the Bolshevik cause, becoming personally close to a number of the Revolution leaders, including Vladimir Lenin. Upon his return to England, he divorced his first wife, Ivy Constance Walker, and married Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, a secretary to Leon Trotsky whom he met in Russia. Ransome then settled in the English Lake District and began writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books, which established him not only financially but as one of the best British children’s authors of the past century. Our reader greatly enjoyed this look at the complex figure behind a well-known series of children’s books, and recommends this well-researched and balanced biography. AH

 

I Am A Girl from Africa is the inspiring autobiography of Elizabeth Nyamayaro. Born in Zimbabwe, Nyamayaro was dying of malnourishment at age eight when her life was saved by a UN aid worker. This moment transformed Myamayaro who has since made it her life’s mission to aid others. Now a senior advisor at the United Nations and the founder of HeforShe, one of the world’s largest organizations for gender equality, Nyamayro charts her journey of perseverance from Zimbabwe to London, New York and beyond in this deeply empowering memoir that our reader absolutely loved. AH

 

In Angline Boulley’s debut novel The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Daunis Fontaine is a half-native, half-white 18-year-old who witnesses a horrific crime and becomes involved in the FBI investigation revolving around murder and methamphetamine sales on her Ojibwe reservation. This multi-award-winning novel (soon to be a Netflix series) is part crime novel and part coming of age story written by an author who is herself of mixed Native American heritage. Our reader was particularly impressed by not only the strength of the writing but the insightful, detailed, and highly relevant exploration of the issues that Native American women face on a daily basis. MH

 

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne is the historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West. This meticulously researched book focuses on the lives of two pivotal characters in American history – Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah. Cynthia Ann was captured by the Comanches when she was nine years old, and grew to love her captors and lived with them for 24 years. Her son Quanah became the most successful Comanche fighter and commander, effectively defending against the westward expansion of white settlers in the Texas Panhandle for decades. Our reader was enthralled by this book and highly recommends it as a detailed narrative of a portion of American history that is often-times portrayed only from the victor’s standpoint. PP

 

 

Also mentioned:

 

President Hamilton: A Novel of Alternative History by Lewis Ben Smith

How To Talk To Your Cat by Jean Craighead George

Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography by Jimmy McDonough

Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman

The Wrath of Angels by John Connolly

Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The Blue Tattoo:  The Life of Olive Oatman by Margo Mifflin

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes

Mountains Beyond Mountains:  The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure The World by Tracy Kidder

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Seven Brief Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Missing Pieces by Joy Fielding

The Betrayal of Anne Frank:  A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Disappearance of a Scribe by Dana Stabenow