Nevermore: Brave Enough, Parable of the Sower, Move Like Water

 

Nevermore 3-12-24

Reported by Rita

Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed

A collection of quotes from the columnist and author captures her wisdom, courage, honesty, spirit, and outspoken humor.

Quick and fun – a real attention grabber.  – CD     5 stars

 

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

In 2025 California, an eighteen-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages.

Very well written – sometimes horrifying. – MH     Not rated

 

Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea by Hannah Stowe

As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide's edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her mid-twenties, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea, and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters.

Spiritually beautiful with great illustrations.  – AH     5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

Always Faithful by Jerry McNeal

Three Years a Traveler: One Woman, One Dog, Seven RVs, and the Path Less Traveled to Heal the Heart by Leslie White

Home Again: a Novel by Kristin Hannah

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang

The Rosewood Casket: a Ballad Novel by Sharyn McCrumb

We'll Call You if We Need You : Experiences of Women Working Construction by Susan Eisenberg

The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life by Robin S. Sharma

A Wild and Heavenly Place: a Novel by Robin Oliveira

Always Looking Up: the Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox

New Books

The Fortune Seller: a Novel by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World-- and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo

Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson

They Included Me: A Five-Decade Teaching Career by Jerry L. Jones

Nevermore: Potter of Bones, Deathwatch Beetle, Parable of the Sower, All Boys Aren't Blue

 

Reported by Garry

 

“The Potter of Bones” by Eleanor Atwood Arnason is an award-winning short story that originally appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine in 2002. This story is part of Arnason’s Hwarhath series of tales about a planet of intelligent fur-covered beings where homosexuality is the norm for relationships and heterosexuality is only for procreation. Arnason’s stories explore the themes of art, anthropology, sociology, sexuality, and feminism by creating science fiction stories that feel like folk tales and allegories. The narrator of “The Potter of Bones” is from the planet’s present time, telling oral traditions that come down from early history. Our reader found this a beautifully written, highly entertaining short story that really captured her imagination and was a great distraction from the heavy news that surrounds us.  KN

 

The Deathwatch Beetle by Kjell Eriksson is the ninth in the Ann Lindell Mystery series. Set on the island of Gräsö, this thriller finds retired police investigator Ann Lindell becoming embroiled in the disappearance of Cecilia Karlsson, a young woman who vanished under mysterious circumstances four years previously. When Ann receives a tip that Cecilia has been seen alive, she cannot deny the pull of a mystery and decides to investigate. Our reader thought this Nordic-noir thriller was tightly written and engaging, and recommends it to readers who are fans of authors Helene Tursten, Ragnar Jonasson, and Katrine Engberg.  ML

 

The Parable of the Sower is a 1993 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Octavia Butler. This Nebula-award nominated story focuses on Lauren Olamina, a young woman who can physically feel the pain of others. Set in a climate-changed and economically segregated California in 2024, Lauren lives in the remnants of a gated community until it is destroyed by outsiders. Fleeing with two other surviving members of the community, Lauren travels north in search of safety and a paid job. As she travels, she gathers others and starts to develop her own religion which she calls Earthseed, based on the belief that “God is Change”. This prescient novel pairs well with other classics such as 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, and is now considered a classic of science fiction. Fun fact:  Octavia Butler is so well regarded that NASA scientists informally named the 2020 landing spot of the Perseverance Rover “Octavia E. Butler Landing” to honor her legacy.  AH

 

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto is an award-winning collection of essays by prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson. This oft-challenged book is an unflinching memoir of growing up black and gay, and covers such topics as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Our reader thoroughly loved this book and commented on the supportive family that Johnson had that many queer people do not. She also would recommend this book to anyone looking to gain more insight into growing up queer, from ages middle-school on up.  CD

 

Also mentioned:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Geographies of Home by Loida Maritza Perez

Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling by Ron Franscell

The Winter Hero by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

A God in Ruins by Leon Uris

French Braid by Anne Tyler

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

Sister Stardust by Jane Green

Never Simple by Liz Scheier

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life by Delia Ephron

Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falade

Origin:  A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon

Old Land, Dark Land, Strange Land: Stories by John F. Suter

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Nevermore: Eva Gates,Stuart Turton, Ariel Lawhon, Robert Kennedy, Octavia Butler

Reported by Kristin

By Book or by Crook by Eva Gates was declared to be a “cute little cat mystery” with a heroine named Lucy working in a lighthouse turned library. These stories never stay idyllic, so when a valuable book is stolen and a board member murdered, Lucy finds that her job turns from librarian to sleuth (other duties as assigned?) all too quickly. Our Nevermore member found this first in series book to be a light, fun read.

The same reader picked up The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and had a bit of a harder time with it, as the story is told from so many different viewpoints. Nevermore reviews have been mixed on this bestseller which is a dinner party murder mystery, but with a twist—Aiden, one of the guests, lives the day of the murder over and over but in the body of a different person each time. It’s up to Aiden to solve the murder, or die trying.

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon is another return to an earlier time, 1937 when the dirigible Hindenburg begins its final flight. Told from the viewpoints of a cabin boy, a newspaper reporter, and a stewardess, the days leading up to the disaster are revealed. Our reader thought that the author definitely had her own theories on what caused the airship to burst into flames. This book comes highly recommended and our reader is eagerly seeking out other books by Lawhon.

All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy’s 1968 Tour of Appalachia by Matthew Algeo touched our next reader in a personal way. Kennedy had come to the heart of eastern Kentucky, an area close to our reader’s home. She exclaimed that she learned so many things by reading this book, and empathized with the people in those poorest communities visited by the Senator. She also noted that even though people in that area were in deep poverty, most of them still had a roof over their heads even if it was just a tar paper shack.

Finally, another reader was intrigued by The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Written in 1993 but set in the futuristic 2025, this dystopian novel tells the tale of empathetic Lauren Olamina, a young woman who feels others’ pain in a dangerous world of walled communities surrounded by near anarchy. Lauren must depend on her family and her neighbors in a world where water is scarce, police and fire services must be paid by the individuals, and where bodies are all too often found in the surrounding foothills. Another reader chimed in saying she enjoyed Butler’s writing, and planned to seek out more.