Nevermore: Strength in What Remains, Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton, Coming Plague, Betrayal

 

Reported by Garry

 

The biography Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder kicked off this week’s Nevermore book club. This 2009 tale of Burundian emigre Deo traces his life as he flees from his war-torn homeland to Rwanda and even worse conditions, back through Burundi and on to New York City and finally back to Burundi as a medical doctor. When he arrived at JFK Airport, Deo had only $200 to his name, spoke no English, and had no contacts. Amazingly, he managed to get a working visa and taught himself English by reading dictionaries in bookstores (he should have gone to the library!) Eventually making connections and building a network of people who helped nurture and guide him, Deo attended Columbia University where he graduated as an MD, and then returned to his homeland to provide medical care to those in the community where his story started. Our reader loved this book and highly recommends it not only as an unblinking look at civil war and the immigrant experience but for the exquisite and insightful writing.  DC

 

The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton is a debut novel by Eleanor Ray. In this good-humored and uplifting story, Amy is a woman whose fiancé and bridesmaid both disappeared at the same time eleven years ago. Over time, Amy has sunk into depression and isolation, becoming a hoarder in her London home. New neighbors move in across the street and Amy’s interaction with the young children helps her not only come to terms with her past but to heal from the trauma and start to live life again. Our reader really enjoyed this touching novel and noted that it deals with hoarding in both a realistic and sympathetic manner.  AH

 

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, first published in 1995, is a prescient look at the world of new diseases with which humanity is not prepared to deal. Written by Laurie Garrett, this extensively researched book looks at the many, many ways that our behaviors, both as individuals and as societies, set the table for the explosive emergence of a variety of diseases that have devastating impacts on a global basis. Garrett traces back through fifty years of virology to look at the worldwide conditions that lead not only to outbreaks of new diseases, but the resurgence of old diseases that are no longer curable. Garret also points out ways that we can mitigate the effects of these plagues – all it takes is societal willpower, leadership, money, and understanding – a tall order!  CD

 

Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl is an explosive look at the aftermath of the November 2020 U.S. election and the months of turmoil that followed, culminating in the attack on the Capitol building in which five people died. Karl is ABC news’ chief Washington correspondent and fills this book with detailed accounts of the behind-the-scenes events surrounding the last days of the Trump administration and lays out how perilously close America was to a true insurrection and constitutional crisis. Our reader was stunned by the details in this book and stated how the reality of what was going on out of sight was so much worse than what was on public view.  NH

 

 

Also mentioned:

Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving

Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein

The Whispers of War by Julia Kelly

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel

A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930’s and 1940’s by Robert Polito, Horace McCoy, Kenneth Fearing, William Lindsay Gresham, Cornell Woolrich, James M. Cain, and Edward Anderson.

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy

She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright

The Ghost Map:  The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How it Changed Science, Cities and The Modern World by Steven Johnson

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

Underwater Wild by Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck

Patient Zero:  A Curious History of the World’s Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen

Lost Cove, North Carolina: Portrait of a Vanished Appalachian Community, 1864-1957 by Christy A. Smith (Contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies series)

The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith

The Pure Land by Alan Spence

Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

Nevermore: Ward, Adichie, Carter, Kelly, Sides, Lewis

Reported by Ambrea

This week, Nevermore kicked off their meeting with Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.  Jojo is thirteen-years-old and struggling to understand what it means to be a man.  With an incarcerated father, a drug-addicted mother, and an absent grandfather, he’s trying to learn and survive; luckily, he has his mother’s father, Pop, to teach him—and the ghosts from the past to help him learn.  Our reader said Sing, Unburied, Sing was a beautifully written novel.  “It’s a beautiful book about a young boy going through turmoil...it’s a story of survival,” she commented.  She thoroughly enjoyed it and she highly recommended it to her fellow readers.

Next, Nevermore checked out Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which tells the interweaving stories of Ifemelu and Obinze.  Ifemelu and Obinze, a young couple who fall in love military-ruled Nigeria, decide to leave their homeland in search of better lives; however, when Ifemelu reaches America, their plans are derailed and they find themselves separated by a vast ocean.  Our reader originally picked up the book, because it appeared on a list of favorite books from Barack Obama.  Sadly, she found she did not enjoy Americanah as much as the former president.  She thought it could have been a good book, but she found she wasn’t a fan of the main character, Ifemelu.  Although it was a well-written book, she said it wasn’t her cup of tea and she was content with leaving it unfinished.

Switching gears to nonfiction, Nevermore also took a look at Invisible:  The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter.  In this book, Carter explores the extraordinary life of his grandmother and America’s first black female prosecutors, Eunice Hunton Carter.  Eunice became involved in the arrest and prosecution of Lucky Luciano, one of the most powerful mob bosses in history, and was integral to devising strategies and piecing together information that would see the mobster behind bars.  Our reader said she was a little ambivalent about the style and writing of the book; however, she noted the story was great and she loved the concept.  Although she wasn’t a fan of some of the speculation the author makes, she found it to be an interesting book and recommended it to her fellow history buffs.

Next, Nevermore shared Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly, author of The Lilac Girls.  In Lost Roses, readers meet Eliza Ferriday and Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs.  Together, the duo explore Russia on the trip of a lifetime—until Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia’s imperial dynasty begins to crumble.  Our reader, who previously enjoyed The Lilac Girls, found Lost Roses to be a bit of a disappointment.  She said the characters were not likable people.  “It was way into the back [of the book] before you even like them,” she told her fellow readers.  Despite being closely based on history, the story felt terribly contrived and uninteresting.  She did not recommend it.

Returning to nonfiction, Nevermore explored Hellhound on His Trail:  The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides.  On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorrain Motel—and promptly fled to Canada and then England.  His actions spurred one of the largest manhunts in the history of North America and a media frenzy.  Our reader said Sides book was incredibly well researched and absolutely fascinating.  “It gives you context [for the time period],” she told her fellow readers.  It was also a fascinating account of James Earl Ray that offered glimpses into his history, as well insight into the Civil Rights movement.

Nevermore rounded out their meeting with another nonfiction book, The Improbable Wendell Willkie:  The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order by David Levering Lewis.  Wendell Willkie was an American businessman, who rose to prominence as the Republican candidate for president in 1940.  Although he would ultimately lose to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Willkie would gain a foothold in and help revitalize the Republican party with new ideas, including civil rights reform, internationalism, and more.  Our read found Lewis’s book to be very interesting.  She noted it had lots of footnotes—much more than she expected, she admitted—and it would sometimes grow a little wordy and dry; however, she enjoyed it overall and she recommended it to readers with an interest in World War II politics.