Nevermore: Sleeping at the Starlite Motel, 90% of Everything, Winter Harvest, Mary Jane

 

Reported by Garry

Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: And Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White. A couple of weeks ago, we had a review of Mama Makes Up Her Mind, and this second book continues the comfy, down-home feelings for which White is known. Each chapter in this book is a self-contained capsule of eccentric small town Georgia. According to our reader, this collection of stories is enjoyable light reading that can be put down and picked up again at a later time, just like continuing a conversation with an old friend.  NH

 

Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George. If you were able to remove everything from your life that had to be shipped to you, either by a local carrier, or by an international one, you would be stunned to realize how little you had left. Without shipping, we would have no clothes, very little food, no furniture, electronics, or any of the other conveniences and comforts of modern life. In this fascinating book, George investigates the international shipping industry and its impacts (both positive and negative) on not only our immediate lives but on our civilization and the world as a whole.  CD

 

Winter Harvest by Norah Lofts is about a particularly gruesome part of the history of 1840s American westward migration. Loosely based on the ill-fated Donner Party, this 1947 classic novel introduces well-to-do businessman Kevin Furmage who has been given a map showing a shortcut to California from Missouri. A rag-tag group joins Furmage and they set out to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range to disastrous and horrifying results. Our reader really enjoyed the back stories of the various characters in the book, and highlighted the excellent character building.  WJ

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau is about a 14-year-old girl who lives a sheltered life listening only to show tunes and being taught to be a good wife by her mother. The high point of her week is singing in the church choir and she has a great talent for harmony. Then comes the summer when she is hired by a local doctor as a babysitter to his adorably precocious daughter, Izzy. Mary Jane immediately falls in love with the child and begins to organize the chaotic household, even cooking supper for the family each night. But unbeknownst to her mother, she is also becoming privy to an entirely different lifestyle and viewpoint than the one she was raised to appreciate. By the end of the summer, she will have witnessed a lifestyle that includes sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Mary Jane begins to realize that there are many different ways of living her life and a whole new world begins to open up for her. This wonderful coming of age novel was thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended by our reader. LK

 

Also mentioned:

 

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White

Ellie Dwyer’s Startling Discovery by Diane Winger

Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia by Larry Thacker

I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh

The Red Cotton Fields by Michael Strickland

Why Nations Fail:  The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning:  How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson

Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger

The Queen of the Summer’s Twilight by Charles Vess

Killers of A Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Billie Starr’s Book of Sorries by Deborah E. Kennedy

Real Queer America:  LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

Nevermore: Shipping, Lighthouses, Light, and Macbeth

 Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with a rave review of a book which has been making the rounds:  90% of Everything:  Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George.  While the title sounds dry, the book is anything but.  George sailed with a variety of people on all sorts of different vessels, looking at consumerism (all that junk we just don’t need, as our reviewer put it), modern day piracy, and shipping policies.  This is a book everyone should read before taking a cruise, our reader said, and will give you a new appreciation of the complexities of international commerce.

Another nonfiction book also had a bit of a nautical theme:  Out of Harm’s Way:  Moving America’s Lighthouse by Mike Booher and Lin Ezell. This is the amazing story of how the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved a half mile inland, an incredible feat of engineering.  Many felt the historic lighthouse—the county’s tallest—would never be moved successfully.  In fact, the movers were awarded the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 1999.  The authors present a history of the lighthouse as well as details about the move, which was accomplished by the International Chimney Corporation.  Our reviewer was entranced by the book, which also featured wonderful photos.

Beautiful Diana Cooke, born into fading Virginia gentry at the beginning of the 20^th century, is well loved by her parents who want what is best for her—but also expect her to marry someone wealthy enough to keep up Saratoga, the family mansion.  That someone turns out to be Captain Copperton, a vulgar and sometimes brutal man whose ample finances seem to be his only virtue but who does give Diana her adored son, Ashton. Dying of the Light, the new generational saga by Robert Goolrick, is an absorbing foray into a world of glamorous people and family secrets, and our reader recommended it for fans of historical fiction set among the upper classes.

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire features two teenage outcasts:  Elliott Youngblood because he is Native American and Catherine Calhoun because her family is held responsible for a local disaster.  Both are artistic and intelligent as well as socially inept. But the course of love never runs smooth, and the two are driven apart at a crucial moment.  The reviewer said she found some of the characters were sort of strange and that there was a twist ending.  It wasn’t her favorite, but it was interesting.

Finally, Jo Nesbo, usually a favorite, had a rare miss with Macbeth, according to our next Nevermore member.  The book is a part of a series in which well-known authors reimagine Shakespeare’s works.  This version is indeed set in Scotland, where Duncan is chief of police, trying to combat drug lords. Our reader said it was slow going with small print and just didn’t have the appeal of some of Nesbo’s other works, such as The Snowman.

Nevermore: LaPlante, Liberty's Blueprint, Kalanithi, Ghosted, Sedaris, Lyon, 90% of Everything

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore kicked off the weekly book club meeting with a new novel:  Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante.  Jane, a single mother, left Berkeley after her teenage daughter was killed in a car accident.  Moving to Half Moon Bay, Jane hopes to begin a new life where no one knows her past.  When local children begin to disappear, the newcomer is accused, and Jane remains haunted by her past.  Our reader said that the plot kept her reading and she found it short, fast, and well worth the read.

Our next reader turned to non-fiction, with Liberty’s Blueprint:  How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael Meyerson.  Although written a decade ago, this work of political theory resonates with current events, and our reader found it very timely.  She said that the founding fathers had so much contention while drafting the Federalist Papers and the Constitution that it is amazing that these crucial documents were ever completed.

Another reader was fascinated by the complexities of how goods are shipped around the world, as described in Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George.  Imagine a floating behemoth as long as three football fields, loaded with more than 6000 twenty foot containers, all of which must be loaded, unloaded, and weight balanced.  The author researched this book by journeying on a container ship along a major shipping route.  Our reader found this very interesting and did not want the book to end.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi was found to be an uplifting book about finding the meaning of life while in the process of dying.  As a young neurosurgeon, the author suddenly found himself diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, and was forced to examine his life and career as he fought to stay alive.  Our reader found many beautiful and meaningful insights in Kalanithi’s journey.

Another reader picked up a new novel:  Ghosted by Rose Walsh.  Sarah and Eddie meet and fall in love, but suddenly Eddie disappears.  Sarah doesn’t think he has just dumped her; she is very worried that something bad has happened to Eddie.  Weeks pass and Sarah’s friends urge her to move on, but the uncertainty tugs at her.  Our reader said that it was an okay book, but that the ending tied things up in a bundle that was just a little too neat.

The same reader moved on to a classic David Sedaris book:  Me Talk Pretty One Day.  She found his writing wonderfully engaging and really connected to this memoir of a young gay man growing up in 1960s and 1970s North Carolina.  Sedaris uses self-deprecating humor in his writing, comedy, and radio work.  Our reader thoroughly enjoyed the volume, and hopes to read more of his work.

Finally, Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon caught another reader’s attention.  Lu Rile is a photographer whose life changes drastically as she is taking a self-portrait one day.  In the background of her image, she somehow captures a boy falling outside her window.  The tragedy both divides and unites the novel’s characters.  Our reader found the story sad, but well written.