Nevermore: Paris Agent, Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Lincoln Highway, Great Lakes

Prepared by Rita

This is an experiment with a new program.  Please comment and let us know what you think!

 

Nevermore: Lost German Slave Girl, The Road, Gap Year, Her Last Flight, Miracle at At. Anna, Twisted Twenty Six

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore book club members read widely and love to share their findings with others, whether that be in person or more recently during our Zoom meetings. This week, one reader enjoyed The Lost German Slave Girl by John Bailey. In 1818, a group of Germans migrated to the United States intending to settle in Philadelphia. After spending months on ships, many of them dying, some of the survivors ended up at the Port of New Orleans where they were treated as indentured servants to pay their expenses. One young girl who lost most of her family is sold into slavery, and doesn’t learn of her heritage until 1843. Our reader found this true story to be really interesting in that New Orleans culture was so richly portrayed using court documents and first person accounts.

The next Nevermore reader was sadly disappointed in one of the books she read this week, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Even though this title is a national bestseller and won McCarthy the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished fiction by an American author, (and even though this reader usually enjoys books about walking,) she found this one to be a total waste of her time and she could not name one thing that she liked about it.

Fortunately, our disappointed reader also picked up a new book by a local author that included walking, and enjoyed it much more. Gap Year: Rambling Through Brambles in England and Scotland by Anna Hess is a retrospective of sketching nature twenty years ago, as the author looks back at her earlier travels during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a small book which uses distinctive art and hand lettering to share her memories. Two more volumes are expected, covering the author’s continued journey through Costa Rica and Australia.

In historical fiction, Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams recounts the tale of Janey Everett, a photographer and war correspondent intent upon researching aviator Sam Mallory. In 1947, Janey is looking back over the last decade of early flight, and seeks answers, that may or may not lie in a remote area of Hawaii. Our reader enjoyed the book and recommended it to others.

Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride was yet another piece of historical fiction, this one also very much enjoyed by our next reader. Four black American soldiers in the Second World War, aka “Buffalo Soldiers,” found a different culture as they served in Italy. A heartwarming story, the black soldiers discovered a community without prejudice based on the color of their skin. Our reader claimed that she could not put it down.

Lastly, another book club member read Twisted Twenty-Six, the latest in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Grandma Mazur is up to her usual high jinks, but this time she makes it all the way to the altar with gangster Jimmy Rosolli. Fortunately, Stephanie doesn’t have to hear about the wedding night, because the groom expires from a heart attack within his first hour of marital bliss. Our reader called this a very silly, light read, and a great escape.

Staff Picks: Christmas Books

Rita

  12 Days of Winter by Stuart McBride

This collection of short stories takes place in North East Scotland during the jolliest time of the year. These twelve interconnecting chapters, however, are anything but jolly. There are bungled burglaries, drug deals, kidnapping, and murder and those are just the lighter anecdotes.   

This is a quick read and oddly entertaining. I liked the way each story revealed a new twist to the characters from previous chapters. If you’re a fan of authors such as Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiassen then add this to your holiday reading list.

(Note:  a copy is available through Tennessee READS!)

Jeanne

   A Gift From Bob by James Bowen

Of course I’m going to pick a book with a cat in it! This is the third book about James Bowen, a drug addict who turned his life around when he found an injured cat and took responsibility for his care.  Even though this book covers some of the same territory as the first two, I found it to be a sweet and thoughtful look at the season as seen by someone who didn’t have a lot to celebrate at the time.   

If you’re looking for something a bit more fantastical, then I would recommend Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis.  She’s a science fiction-fantasy writer with a sense of humor and a deft way with characters.  All of the stories in the book are well done, but I found three to be especially memorable for chills, tears, or cheer:

• ·         Inn, in which a choir singer finds a homeless couple hiding in the church

• ·         In Coppelius’s Toyshop, about a self-centered man who gets stuck in a toyshop near Christmas

• ·         Miracle, wherein a young woman receives a Christmas Spirit.  Literally.

If you’re looking for something fantastical, funny, satirical,and definitely off beat, then I recommend The Hogfather by Terry Prachett.  In Discworld, presents are delivered by the Hogfather, a jolly man in a red suit who rides in a sleigh drawn by eight pigs.  When the Hogfather disappears just prior to his usual gift run, a substitute is drafted—Death.  Let’s just say Death doesn’t quite understand the concept.  

Kristin

Everything I Need to Know About Christmas I Learned From a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow is a lighthearted romp through a variety of Little Golden Books.  Remember that "Christmas is Coming", as you see an old fashioned Santa Claus and little animal helpers readying the house for the holidays.  The nostalgic pictures may bring to mind Christmases gone by.  I certainly enjoyed this book as well as other recently published "Everything I Need to Know" Little Golden books.  If you're a fan of Star Wars, Disney, or simply Christmas, be sure to check out this modern take on old classics.