Nevermore: Girls in Pine Brooke, Always Remember, Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

 

Nevermore:  Girls in Pine Brooke, Always Remember, Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

Nevermore 12-9-25

Reported by Rita

The Girls in Pine Brooke (A Detective Riley Quinn Pine Brooke Mystery Book 1) by A.J. Rivers

When the body of a young girl is found in the woods. Detective Riley Quinn finds herself in a mystery that intertwines with her tragic past…

After her best-friend is murdered in cold blood, to escape her traumas and big city life, Riley moves back to Pine Brooke. There she takes a position as the town’s detective. When she receives a call regarding a young girl in the woods, she never expected the terror of events that would soon unfold. It seems the thin and malnourished girl had fallen to her death. But closer examination of the body reveals new layers to the mystery. Was she running from something?

While trying to ID the body, she runs into Pine Brooke’s new doctor, Logan Elwood. A man that may be hiding a clinic full of secrets behind his gruff demeanor. Suddenly, the case takes on a more gruesome turn when multiple bodies of young girls turn up in odd circumstances. One thing is for certain, the once idyllic pines are harboring murderous secrets.

This was a fast read with lots of twists and turns. I found it enjoyable.      - FE      5 stars

 

Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm by Charlie Mackesy

Charlie Mackesy’s four unlikely friends are wandering through the wilds again. They’re not sure what they are looking for. They do know that life can be difficult, but that they love each other, and cake is often the answer. When the dark clouds come, can the boy remember what he needs to get through the storm?

Beautiful and delightful. The illustrations are great. I loved it!     - NH     5 stars

           

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

I hated it. I didn't finish reading it because I felt the characters had no redeeming qualities.      - CD       1 star

 

Other Books Mentioned

1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England by W.C. Sellar, R.J. Yeatman

Fear by Bob Woodward

Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein

For Better or For Worse: The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston by Lynn Johnston

Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

 

New Books

Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany by Rebecca Brenner Graham

Nevermore: Guns of August, Joan Rivers Confidential, Best Minds, Boneheap in the Lion's Den

 

Reported by Garry

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman recounts in impeccably researched details the outbreak of World War I, its first thirty days, and the lasting effects of the conflict on the modern world. Until the Great War, wars had been generally regional and of limited scope – that all changed in the summer of 1914 when Germany invaded Belgium and ended four years later with the deaths of 20 million and the maps of Europe and the Middle-East permanently redrawn. This Pulitzer Prize winning look at one of the most consequential conflicts of the last century is a fascinating and engaging read, and one that will leave you with a greater understanding of why our world looks the way it does today.  AH

 

Joan Rivers Confidential: The Unseen Scrapbooks, Joke Cards, Personal Files, and Photos of a Very Funny Woman Who Kept Everything by Melissa Rivers. Our reader loved Joan Rivers before reading this book, and loves her even more now. Famous as a trailblazing comedienne, Rivers was also a brilliant executive who kept immaculate records of everything from the reactions to jokes to exchanges with fans. Author Melissa Rivers is Joan’s daughter, and covers Joan’s career from the late 1950s until her sudden death in 2014.  KM

 

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen is a heart-wrenching and unflinching memoir about mental illness and the wake of tragedy it can leave. Rosen was childhood friends with Michael Laudor, a brilliant, charismatic young man who finished his college degree in three years and then graduated from Yale Law School. Laudor was schizophrenic and during a severe paranoid psychotic break, stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death with a kitchen knife. As tragic as it is, our reader says that this is an absolutely fantastic book that she could not put down. DC

 

The Boneheap in the Lion’s Den by Maya J. Sorini is a book of poetry, portraying the author’s harrowing time working in the trauma ward of one of St. Louis’ largest hospitals. Sorini never flinches away from the horrors of the ward, and her poems take the reader along for a blood-soaked ride. Sorini’s poetry shares her own trauma and is some of the most wonderful poetry our reader has ever read – in fact, she read this slender book three times over!  PP

 

Also mentioned:

 

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

Clay’s Quilt by Silas House

The Dutch Orphan by Ellen Keith

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Uncanny Times by Laura Anne Gilman

Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson

Thunder Dog:  The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust by Michael Hingson and Susy Flory

 

New Books:

 

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan

Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic by Simon Winchester

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph