Nevermore: My Name is Red, Himself: A Novel, The Covenant of Water

 Reported by Rita

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

A furor erupts when the Sultan hires a group of artists, under the direction of Master Uncle, to illuminate a great book in the European style to celebrate his reign at a time in which all figurative art is considered Islamic heresy, but the situation becomes worse when one of the miniaturists vanishes, in a mystery set against the backdrop of religious repression in sixteenth-century Istanbul.

Could not put it down – immediately reread it.  – DC     5 stars 

Himself: a Novel by Jess Kidd

When he discovers that his mother may not have given him up, but that foul play may have led to her disappearance, lovable car thief and Dublin charmer Mahony returns to the rural Irish Village where he was born to find out what really happened 26 years ago and, setting the town on its ear, enlists the help of a brash anarchist and retired theater actress to solve this mystery.

Incredibly clever – loved it.  - MH     4.5 stars

 

The Covenant of Water: a Novel by Abraham Verghese

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, and set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, an epic of love, faith, and medicine follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning.

A literary wonder – highly recommend.  – VC     5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

1912 Facts about Titanic by Lee W. Merideth

Nora Bonesteel's Christmas Past by Sharyn McCrumb

Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas by Jim Minick

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

The Night of the Storm: a Novel by Nishita Parekh

The Speckled Beauty: a Dog and His People by Rick Bragg

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness by Peter Kuper

The Magic All Around by Jennifer Moorman

 

 

New Books

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

A Wild and Heavenly Place: a Novel by Robin Oliveira

1001 Dreams: the Complete Book of Dream Interpretations by Cassandra Eason

Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall

Nevermore: My Name Is Red, Other Birds, This Will Not Pass, The Plot

 

 

Reported by Garry

 

My Name is Red is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. During the height of the Ottoman Empire in 1591, the Sultan assembles a small army of miniaturists to create a book singing his praises. Specifically, and perhaps dangerously, the Sultan wants the book to include paintings of himself – which is considered an affront to Islam. When one of the miniaturists is killed, anyone could be the killer – indeed, one of the 56 chapters is narrated by the killer. There are also chapters narrated by a corpse, a dog, a tree, and the color red. Unconventional and yet successful at every level, this book truly captivated our reader’s imagination, and she stated that she absolutely loved it.  MH

 

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen is a novel set in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina. Zoe Hennessey has come to town to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, a unique cobblestone building that holds five apartments and many secrets, both mundane and otherworldly. This atmospheric work of magical realism kept our reader guessing, and she stated it was just plain fun! She was never quite sure where the book was going, but the twists and turns were a delight to read.  WJ

 

This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns is the authoritative account of the immediate aftermath of the tumultuous 2020 United States presidential election and the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Drawing from multiple interviews, first-account documents, and recordings by Burns and Alexander (both reporters), this book lays bare the insularity of Washington politics and the duplicity with which both Republicans and Democrats treat not only their own people but the voting public. This book was so good that our reader recommends that anyone who has an interest in the current state of the political climate in our country read this for the astonishing insights it holds.  DC

 

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. What would you do? Jacob Bonner is a one-hit-wonder author whose career is on the skids. He has a student who is working on a book with a stunningly brilliant plot. Then the student dies and the book goes unpublished...until Jacob publishes it himself under his own name. Wildly successful, the book brings Jacob riches beyond his dreams. It also brings an email: “You are a thief.” Someone knows Jacob’s secret, but who and how far are they willing to go to uncover it, and how far is Jacob willing to go to keep it hidden? This nail-biting suspense novel is an easy read with incredibly descriptive characters and taut writing, and comes highly recommended by our reader. PP

 

Also mentioned:

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The Last Mile by David Baldacci

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiavarini

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Brazen by Julia Haart

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

The Recruit by Alan Drew

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits, and the Birth of a University by Richard White