Nevermore: Serling, Liberty's Blueprint, Invisible Code, Finfarran, Road from Coorain, Mary Shelly, Lord of the Mountain, Robert Browning, Stuart Woods, Geraldine Brooks, Dumpty

Reported by Laura

Nevermore was a fun time this week with a wide variety of books !

          The first book reviewed was The Twilight Man by Koren Shadmi. This graphic novel is a biography of Rod Serling, who is probably most remembered for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery series. The reviewer found it to be a wonderful and very informative book. I will definitely be adding it to my reading list!

          Our next book was also a nonfiction offering, Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael Meyerson. The subtitle pretty much explains it all. The reviewer enjoyed the book and shared one of the quotes from James Madison, “If people were angels, we wouldn’t need this constitution.”

          The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler was a very good, funny detective story. It covers the exploits of two very different detectives working for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. One is very logical, while the other uses supernatural ideas to solve crimes. This particular case leads them into the world of madness, codes, and the secret of London’s strangest relic.

          The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the first in the Finfarran Series. After a nasty divorce, Hanna Casey finds herself back where she started, living with her overbearing mother and licking her wounds. She restores a cottage left to her by her great aunt and takes a job as the local librarian. All goes relatively well until the threat of library closure jeopardizes her livelihood and she finds herself leading the community in a fight to save it. Our reviewer reported that the book was very good and she enjoyed it.

          Our next reviewer found The Road From Coorain by Julie Ker Conway to be a beautifully written book about Australia. This memoir tells of Ms. Conway’s beginnings growing up in the outback on a sheepherder’s ranch, the drowning death of her beloved father, the subsequent withdrawal of her mother into depression, and the resulting move to suburban Sydney. In later life, she becomes the first female president of Smith College, as well as a feminist and famous writer (this is her first memoir).

          The next offering was a YA novel, Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. It was written like a journal by Mary Shelley and feels like a biography that details what life was like before and after the publication of Frankenstein. The reviewer was impressed with the extensive research that went into this novel.

          Lord of the Mountain is a juvenile book that feels more like a YA rendering. It is an especially relevant book for our area as it follows a young man who lives in Bristol, TN and is endeavoring to disobey his father by attending the Bristol Sessions. The reviewer had not finished the book, but was enjoying it immensely thus far.

          Poetry was up next. Originally having read Elizabeth Barrett Browning and being left cold, the reviewer decided to try Robert Browning. He read some, but not all of the book, and still found it lacked something. Some of the poems seemed tacky and he found a lot of the poetry to include double entendres. He felt the Italy poem read almost like a tour guide.

          In Contraband by Stuart Woods, Stone Barrington is enjoying some time off while cruising Key West on a yacht with his friend, the police commissioner. While they are enjoying the view, a plane crashes into the water. Thrown into investigating a smuggling operation; the evidence keeps disappearing. Metal cases contained in the plane disappear and then the plane itself. This was considered a good, easy read.

          People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, was a lovely novel and comes highly recommended. Based on a true story, it tells of Hannah, an Australian rare-book expert, who is hired to restore the famed Sarajevo Haggadah. As she works, she finds tiny artifacts in the bindings of the book and uses those to unlock the mystery of the book’s owners throughout history.

          Also by Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord was reviewed this week. This book covers the history of the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The author found it to be a lot about who killed whom, and although it was well-written, she didn’t enjoy it.

          Dumpty is a small book filled with political cartoons and satirical verse about President Trump and others in his administration. It is written by the actor, John Lithgow. Our reviewer found it highly amusing.

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.

Nevermore: LaPlante, Liberty's Blueprint, Kalanithi, Ghosted, Sedaris, Lyon, 90% of Everything

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore kicked off the weekly book club meeting with a new novel:  Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante.  Jane, a single mother, left Berkeley after her teenage daughter was killed in a car accident.  Moving to Half Moon Bay, Jane hopes to begin a new life where no one knows her past.  When local children begin to disappear, the newcomer is accused, and Jane remains haunted by her past.  Our reader said that the plot kept her reading and she found it short, fast, and well worth the read.

Our next reader turned to non-fiction, with Liberty’s Blueprint:  How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael Meyerson.  Although written a decade ago, this work of political theory resonates with current events, and our reader found it very timely.  She said that the founding fathers had so much contention while drafting the Federalist Papers and the Constitution that it is amazing that these crucial documents were ever completed.

Another reader was fascinated by the complexities of how goods are shipped around the world, as described in Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George.  Imagine a floating behemoth as long as three football fields, loaded with more than 6000 twenty foot containers, all of which must be loaded, unloaded, and weight balanced.  The author researched this book by journeying on a container ship along a major shipping route.  Our reader found this very interesting and did not want the book to end.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi was found to be an uplifting book about finding the meaning of life while in the process of dying.  As a young neurosurgeon, the author suddenly found himself diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, and was forced to examine his life and career as he fought to stay alive.  Our reader found many beautiful and meaningful insights in Kalanithi’s journey.

Another reader picked up a new novel:  Ghosted by Rose Walsh.  Sarah and Eddie meet and fall in love, but suddenly Eddie disappears.  Sarah doesn’t think he has just dumped her; she is very worried that something bad has happened to Eddie.  Weeks pass and Sarah’s friends urge her to move on, but the uncertainty tugs at her.  Our reader said that it was an okay book, but that the ending tied things up in a bundle that was just a little too neat.

The same reader moved on to a classic David Sedaris book:  Me Talk Pretty One Day.  She found his writing wonderfully engaging and really connected to this memoir of a young gay man growing up in 1960s and 1970s North Carolina.  Sedaris uses self-deprecating humor in his writing, comedy, and radio work.  Our reader thoroughly enjoyed the volume, and hopes to read more of his work.

Finally, Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon caught another reader’s attention.  Lu Rile is a photographer whose life changes drastically as she is taking a self-portrait one day.  In the background of her image, she somehow captures a boy falling outside her window.  The tragedy both divides and unites the novel’s characters.  Our reader found the story sad, but well written.