Nevermore: Buckeye, Call of the Wild, How the World Ran Out of Everything, The Women, Molly and the Cat Cafe

 

12-30-25

 

Our first reader picked up Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, which has been generating a lot of interest as a Read with Jenna book club pick. Set in small town Ohio during and following World War II, this is a story of love and secrets in middle America. Highly recommended!

 

One of our young readers who attends Nevermore with a parent during school breaks read The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Buck, the canine main character, reminded our reader of their dog Millie. Next up by the same author: To Build a Fire.

 

A non-fiction title that our book club member summarized as “greed is ruining the world” was How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain by Peter S. Goodman. The author describes how companies will do absolutely anything to get results and to make profit, regardless of the fallout.

 

Another reader picked up The Women by Kristin Hannah. This reader noted that the second part of the book, when Frances “Frankie” McGrath returns to the United States, felt like an entirely different book from her Vietnam combat nursing experience.

 

Two books by Melissa Daley, Molly and the Cat Café and Christmas at the Cat Café were called light, fun reads, appropriate to the holiday season. (We can’t argue, as we like cat books around here.)

 

Also mentioned:

 

Hastings (Battles That Changed the World) by Samuel Willard Crompton

 

The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott

  

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

  

The Engine House by Rhys Dylan

 

The Truth about the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline

  

Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World's Greatest Mentalist by Oz Pearlman

 

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

Nevermore: Hummingbird's Gift, Echo, Mr. Smith

 

Nevermore 8-13-24: Reported by Rita

The Hummingbird’s Gift by Sy Montgomery

Hummingbirds fascinate people around the world. The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backward, diving at speeds of sixty-one MPH, and beating their wings more than sixty times a second. Miraculous creatures, they are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. That’s where Brenda Sherburn comes in.

I love everything she writes! This is a quick read full of fascinating information.    –CD           5 stars

 

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later, three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California, find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

A very good book. I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend enjoying it that way.    –MH   5 stars

 

Mr. Smith by Louis Bromfield

This is the story of an army major, a well-to-do Midwesterner stationed on a small island in the Pacific. The story is told on two levels of time: the main thread follows the life of Wolcott Ferris, growing up in a Midwest town in the throes of becoming a city; the transitions tell of his months of self-discovery on an isolated Pacific Island during the war and of the other misfits who served under him.

I thought the POV was negative – a rant. I’m glad I read it, but I am not sure I would recommend it.        –PP     4 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

How to Land on Your Feet: Life Lessons from My Cat by Jamie Shelman

The Hawk's Done Gone by Mildred Haun

Hanger by Vic Edwards

The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events by Stanley Coren

Ship of Theseus by V.M. Straka

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Witches of New York: a Novel by Ami McKay

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Bear: a Novel by Julia Phillips

Troubled: a Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class by Rob Kim Henderson

No Time Like the Future: an Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox

Servants' Stories: Life Below Stairs in Their Own Words, 1800–1950 by Michelle Higgs

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder: a Novel by C. L. Miller

The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster by John O'Connor

 

New Books

The Keeper of Stars by Buck Turner

The Bright Sword: a Novel of King Arthur by Lev Grossman

Nevermore: Traitor, Under the Whispering Door, Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Esperanza Rising, Between Certain Death

 

Reported by Garry

The Traitor by V.S. Alexander is historical fiction based on true events that occurred in Germany at the beginning of World War II. The White Rose was an underground non-violent resistance group based out of the University of Munich. In this novel, Natalya Petrovich is a student at the University who joins the White Rose group after witnessing the horrors of war first-hand as a nurse on the Russian front. Natalya’s life is soon in danger as the Gestapo closes in on members of the resistance. Our reader said that this is a very fascinating story about a part of Nazi Germany not that well known here in America, and commented on the excellent quality of both the writing and the research of this novel.  WJ

 

Under the Whispering Door is the latest fantasy novel by the award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune. In this heartwarming story, Wallace is a grump – cold, unfeeling, unforgiving, and dead. He first realizes that something is up when no one can see him in the sparse audience at his funeral, except for Mei, a young woman who turns out to be a reaper, (as in Grim Reaper,) to collect him. Mei takes him to Charon’s Crossing, a teahouse/waystation for those who are not yet ready to cross where Wallace has the time and guidance to reexamine his life and to learn to live, even when dead. Our reader really loved this book for its warmhearted, humorous writing and the fantastical world-building for which Klune is known.  WJ

 

Our next reader enjoyed the novel that set John LeCarre on the path to becoming one of the best-selling authors in the world: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Initially published in 1963, this thriller tells the story of Alec Leamas, a British agent who is sent to East Germany posing as a defector in order to sow damaging information about a highly effective East Germany intelligence officer. Revolutionary at the time for its portrayal of espionage agents as morally ambiguous and more interested in expediency of national security than doing the “right thing,” this book set the stage for the entire genre of modern-day spy novels. Our reader really loved this book, specifically the intricate and deftly woven plot, and highly recommends it for its masterful storytelling.  FC

 

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan is a young adult book that tells the story of Esperanza, a daughter of a wealthy rancher in Mexico. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Esperanza’s life changes dramatically when her father dies unexpectedly. Under pressure to marry a man she does not love, Esperanza’s mother makes the perilous decision to flee with her daughter to a migrant worker camp in the United States, where life is harsh and like nothing Esperanza has experienced (or even knew about) before. Our reader was touched by the sensitivity and depth of the writing in this book, especially in its depiction of the lives of migrant workers during the era of the Great Depression. Noting how immigration and workers’ rights are very current issues, our reader pointed out that this book, written in 2002 and set in the 1930s is as relevant today as it was when it was published.  AH

 

Finally, another reader recommended Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. A collection of essays from a diverse population of writers, this book explores the hopes, fears, and changing attitudes of those who grew up with the specter of HIV/AIDS as a potential consequence of connecting with another human.  KP

 

Also mentioned:

The Guest House (poem) by Rumi

My Planet: Finding Human in the Oddest Places by Mary Roach

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

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

The Sea-Wolf by Jack London

Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea by Arthur Ransome

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

The Lost World of John Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian by Heather Ewing