Nevermore: Blessings, Final Girl Support Group, Man Named Doll, Dude?

 

 Reported by Garry

Blessings by Anna Quindlen was our first book reviewed this week.  A baby is left at the doorstep of the estate of the elderly Lydia Blessing late one night.  The arrival of the baby sets off a series of events in the household that reveal long-hidden secrets and tragedies of past and present, as well as redemption and healing.  Our reader said that this novel, set in modern times, was a great book and that she could hardly put it down.

 

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix was our irreverent second novel reviewed this week.  Hendrix, who also wrote the Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and My Best Friend’s Exorcism brings his sense of wit and horror to a story about Lynnette Tarkington, a young woman who has survived a massacre.  She meets weekly with other survivors who are trying to put their lives back together – until one goes missing.  Our reader said that this book was laugh-out-loud funny in places and nail-bitingly scary in others.  If you like to read books that have a strong nostalgia streak to them, but don’t take themselves too seriously, this may be a great choice!

 

A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames introduces us to Happy Doll, a retired Navy Seal/LAPD officer turned part-time private eye/part time security guard at a Thai massage spa.  Happy, who prefers to go by “Hank,” is  charming but somewhat inept and has a tendency to act first and ask questions later.  This leads to trouble when one of the spa customers gets out of control and Happy intervenes with disastrous results that simply lead to more disasters. 

 

Dude? Where’s My Walking Stick? is a memoir by Kevin Moore, recounting his trek across 1300 miles of  the Southern Alps – a formidable set of mountains on the southern island of New Zealand.  Unprepared and over-confident, Moore spent 69 days on the trail, traversing streams, valleys, mountains and fields, and making life-long friends along the way.  Our reader loved this book about hiking the beauty of New Zealand and finding one’s self on the journey.

 

Also mentioned:

When I Fell from the Sky by Julianne Koepcke

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Zen Living by Gary McClain and Eve Adamson

The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin

Cashelmara by Susan Howatch

The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson

Buttons and Blows by Gayle Leeson

Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep

Heart of Joy:  The Transforming Power of Self-Giving by Mother Theresa and Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Bring Your Baggage, and Don’t Pack Light by Hellen Ellis

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford

Radar Girls by Sara Akerman

Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

Nevermore: Mudbound, Dying of Whiteness, Sum of Us, Sacre Bleu

 

Reported by Garry

 

Our first book reviewed was Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  Our reader had watched the movie a while ago, and states that this is definitely one case where the book is much better.  There are six main characters in this book, and each tells their side of the unfolding story that is set in the Mississippi Delta in 1946.  Race relations, romance and the remaining shadows of war set the backdrop to this award winning debut novel.  Our reader cannot recommend this book enough.  

 

The ongoing corrosion caused by racism is examined in our next book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland by Jonathan Metzl.   In this provocative book, Metzl, a professor of psychology and sociology at Vanderbilt University looks at the decades long effects of conservative white voters embracing the idea that if someone else gains, they lose.  He examines how racial resentment has led to pro-gun laws in Mississippi, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas.  The results have been increasing suicide by gun, dropping life expectancies and an increase in high-school dropout rates amongst the very population that these laws were supposedly designed to assuage.  Our reader thought this was an extremely well written and researched book that outlines how people for decades have been voting against their very own best interests.  

 

The next book, The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee dovetails beautifully with Dying of Whiteness.  In this New York Times best-seller, McGhee takes a close look at how racism is the underlying cause to myriad socio-economic and democratic problems across the country.  These problems that don’t just harm people of color, but all Americans, especially the poorer citizens of the country.  She examines why many believe that progress is zero sum game – progress for some only comes at the expense of others, and how this thinking has led to growing economic inequality, stagnating wages, and the startling fact that America alone is the sole first world country that does not have universal healthcare.   Our reader thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommends it for anyone wanting to have a deeper understanding of how we got to this place in our history and how we can go forward.

 

Our next reader thoroughly enjoyed the satirical Sacre Blue by Christopher Moore.  This bawdy historical novel follows the (mis)adventures of Lucien Lessard and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as they search for the source of a near mythical shade of blue paint and try to find out the truth behind Vincent van Gogh’s death.  This historical fantasy incorporates elements of mystery, romance, science fiction and features appearances by many of the prominent Impressionist artists of the time.  Our reader thought this was a hilarious book and, being an artist herself, loved all the “cameos” by the late nineteenth-century high-rollers, and greatly recommends this book. 

 

Also mentioned:

Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta.

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott

After the Fog by Kathleen Shoop

The Paris Library by Janet Charles