Nevermore: The Lost Boy, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Ordeal by Hunger

 

Reported by Rita

Nevermore 8-5-25

The Lost Boy by Thomas Wolfe
A captivating and poignant retelling of an episode from Wolfe's childhood. The story of Wolfe's brother Grover and his trip to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair is told from four perspectives, each articulating the sentiments of a different family member.

A real page-turner. This immersive novella puts the reader inside the story. - PP 4 stars

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting and enjoyable. - NH 5 stars


Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party by George R. Stewart
The tragedy of the Donner Party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846, eighty-seven people — men, women, and children — set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George R. Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers. Ordeal by The Story of the Donner Party is an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance.

It is a very matter-of-fact telling of the Donner Party. I liked it. - FE 5 stars



Other Books Mentioned

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly
Cats in Art: From Prehistoric to Neo-Pop Masterpieces by Alix Paré
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
The Grandes Dames by Stephen Birmingham
The Swiss Family Robinson / Robinson Crusoe by Johann David Wyss
Chasing the Dime (Harry Bosch Universe, #12) by Michael Connelly
Abandoned Southern Virginia: The South Begins by Liz Roll
The Women by Kristin Hannah
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell
The Pirate's Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia



New Books:

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them by Max Cutler
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Nature of the Appalachian Trail: Your Guide to Wildlife, Plants, and Geology by Leonard M. Adkins
Absolution (Southern Reach, #4) by Jeff VanderMeer
House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Monique Grant is working for Vivant magazine, hoping to make a name for herself as a reporter when the incredible happens: Evelyn Hugo (or rather, her staff) reaches out to the magazine about doing an interview-- and Evelyn only wants Monique.

Evelyn Hugo is a star. She lit up the box office and the gossip magazines with her performances and with her off-screen life.  Then she became reclusive and elusive. She doesn’t walk the red carpet or visit talk shows or give interviews—at least, not until now.  This will be a huge coup for the magazine and for Monique.

With more than a bit of trepidation, Monique goes to meet Evelyn. It turns out that Evelyn doesn’t want to do an interview.  She wants Monique to write her biography. She doesn’t want a puff piece or a hatchet job. Monique is tasked with writing the truth.

And so Evelyn begins to tell her story, one that starts in Hell’s Kitchen and then heads to Hollywood, through husband after husband, scandals, love affairs, and secrets.  But the biggest secret, why she chose Monique, she saves for last.

Ah, Book Bingo! The way I finally get around to tackling many titles on my TBR list. This was my choice for “Read a historical novel,” since the story begins in the 1950s and continues to the present, more or less. I had heard great things about this book and I must say it lived up to the hype.  I grew up reading the old movie star magazines like Photoplay before moving on to reading novels and biographies of Hollywood, so Evelyn’s story had the ring of truth.  While Evelyn herself is a fictional creation, author Reid has said that she drew from the lives of stars such as Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor for inspiration.

Evelyn is a fascinating creation. In many ways, she’s a woman before her time.  She isn’t an innocent waif bedazzled by the bright lights:  she sees Hollywood as a way out to build the life she wants and she does what she needs to in order to achieve her goals. I think what intrigued me most is that while Evelyn has regrets, she’s not about to apologize.  She did what she felt she had to.  Agree with her or not, she doesn’t care.

I found Evelyn to be mesmerizing.

Love her or hate her, you will certainly remember her.

We actually had an earlier (and better written) review of this book back in 2019 but I was so enchanted with Evelyn that I had to throw in my two cents.   You can read Christy’s review here.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reviewed by Kristin

Nina Riva has taken care of her younger siblings for years. Their father is actor Mick Riva, still turning heads after decades on the screen. Mick has always been full of big promises but short on follow throughs. His wife June did what she could when Mick abandoned her with four children, but Nina was truly the one making sure everyone got to school and had something to eat.

Now a world famous model and surfer, Nina has been the only true parent of Jay, Hud, and Kit. She is the one who cared for her siblings, forged their permission slips, and helped them grow up into successful adults. Jay is a professional surfer winning competitions around the world. The quiet one—Hud—is an amazing photographer, following his brother and becoming known. Kit is the baby of the family, also a surfer, and is working hard on figuring out exactly who she is and what she wants to do with her life.

The main action of Malibu Rising takes place in the 24 hours following 7:00 am, August 27, 1983. The famous Riva party is that night, and all characters come together in this time period with varying motivations and agendas. This annual end of summer bash has grown over the years from more humble beginnings to this star studded gathering where the famous are rubbing shoulders (or doing lines of coke) with working class locals. There are no official invitations. If you know where the party is, you are invited.

Flashbacks take the reader backwards from 1983 to 1956 and many points in between. The tension remains high as the history of various characters is revealed, all while leading inexorably forward to a fiery conclusion.

Reid is brilliant in drawing dozens of little plot lines going all directions, and then pulling them taut. The author has created this world of the 1970s and 1980s in a way that made me think she was older, but I checked—she is only 38. Her other novels usually have some characters in common, but just as a tiny strand to connect her landscapes. Mick Riva played a large part here, but he was just a small part as the third husband in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Mick also made a brief showing in Daisy Jones & The Six. A few musicians from Daisy even make their way to Nina’s party, giving just a hint of the great fictional world Reid has created.

This book kept me wanting more, and it’s good to know that Reid is still creating and developing tangential characters, and that we might even see a few old favorites in passing in her future works. Tennis pro Carrie Soto comes up in the first few pages of Malibu, as the “other woman” Nina’s husband has taken up with. Carrie Soto is Back is Reid’s newest book, and I’m on the waiting list.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reviewed by Kristin

Imagine being in the middle of the hottest rock band in the seventies—let’s say a group like The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, or Led Zeppelin. With some bands’ meteoric rise to fame, all too many musicians go on the road chased by adoring fans, start popping a few pills (or worse,) and begin to see themselves as invincible. This familiar story is freshly told in an achingly poignant voice in Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The story begins with a description of Daisy Jones’ childhood. Her father is a well-known painter and her mother a French model, and they continue to live their lives as they had before parenthood, occasionally remembering that they have a daughter. Soon enough, teenage Daisy is making her way into the party scene of L.A, where everyone loves the young and the beautiful. And Daisy is beautiful, with thick red hair and the bluest of blue eyes. Not to mention, she has the purest, completely untrained singing voice. Daisy sings from the depths of herself, seemingly without effort. It is inevitable that Daisy will connect with the The Six, a band started by brothers Billy and Graham Dunne. When she does, sparks fly.

Billy is the acknowledged leader of The Six, and is none too sure about bringing Daisy into the group. Music fans and tabloid journalists question whether they are secretly a couple, or do they hate each other? The “truth” is ferreted out through a series of interviews by someone who is writing a history of the band at least three decades after the band broke up in 1979. Told through many voices and many points of view, the “author” has compiled an oral history of this mysterious band. Family, friends, and bandmates are intertwined as the complexities of their relationships are revealed. The audiobook version really brings the characters to life as it was recorded by different narrators for each voice.

The book is amazing enough, but now a television miniseries is being produced by Amazon. Reese Witherspoon promoted the novel with her book club, and is also one of the executive producers of the screen adaptation. Throw in the fact that Riley Keough—Elvis’ granddaughter—will portray Daisy, and I’m sold.

Christy also reviewed this book  soon after the release in 2019. Like her, I wanted to hear the band’s music, and remained disappointed that they did not actually exist in 1970s rock history. Instead I kept imagining Fleetwood Mac style songs. Wikipedia says that the author was partly inspired by seeing Fleetwood Mac performances on television, so I must have picked up on her subconscious vibes.

Read the book. I’m willing to bet that you’ll be wishing Daisy Jones & The Six were real too.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reviewed by Christy

            Daisy Jones and the Six is Taylor Jenkins Reid follow up to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Written as an oral history, this novel recounts the rise and fall of a 70s rock band called Daisy Jones and the Six. I listened to the audio book which featured a full cast of narrators, and it was delightful. I finished the book in two days which I think may be a record for me. It felt like I was listening to a podcast or watching an episode of Behind the Music.

            Reid gets into the background of  Daisy Jones’ life as well as the background of the members of the Six and then explains how they fused together to create a popular rock band and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 70s. Much like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the characters in felt real, and I kept forgetting that I couldn’t just go listen to some of their songs on Youtube. But eventually that wore off, and I have to admit that I found my mind wandering a bit when the characters get into the nitty gritty of how some of their songs were written. I obviously couldn’t listen to their music so I had no connection to that part of it. The physical book includes all the lyrics to all the songs mentioned so maybe that would’ve helped. I didn’t love this the way I do Evelyn Hugo, and there are a few things I’d tinker with regarding the ending but overall it’s a fun read, and I liked it a lot. I wonder if I would’ve had a different experience reading it traditionally (a lot of readers felt disconnected to the oral history style) but the audio is fantastic, and I highly recommend it.

            Reese Witherspoon is supposedly adapting it for an Amazon miniseries which will include original music, and I am so excited to check that out.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Reviewed by Christy

            Evelyn Hugo, born Evelyn Herrera, is a star of the highest order. Coming of age in the 1950s and shining the brightest in the 60s and 70s; she is A list Hollywood royalty. She fought ruthlessly for that position, and she had to make seemingly unbearable sacrifices. But in her later years, she has become a bit of a recluse. Holed up in her glamorous New York City apartment, she lives a quiet life of philanthropy. It isn’t until her daughter dies of breast cancer that Evelyn makes the news again: she is auctioning off some of her most notable gowns with all the proceeds going to breast cancer research. She also wants Monique Grant to do a feature on her for Vivant magazine. No one is more surprised than Monique that anyone, let alone an Old Hollywood idol, would specifically request her to do an interview. Monique is a talented writer but still low man on the totem pole.

            When Monique arrives to interview Evelyn, she discovers that this is no ordinary interview. Evelyn isn’t just going to talk about the upcoming auction. She is going to tell Monique everything about her life, her loves, and her secrets. Everything. And she wants Monique to turn it into a bestselling tell-all. Flabbergasted, Monique can’t make sense of this proposition. It would completely transform her life and give her the career she’s always wanted. But why her?

            I absolutely loved this novel. When Evelyn tells her story, it is completely immersive.  Although Evelyn is a fictional character (though loosely inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner), it was easy to forget that I wasn’t reading about real people. Many behind-the-scenes stories of Hollywood then, and now, have shown what kind of situations actors learn to navigate – whether it be lascivious producers or the iron fist control of the studios. Evelyn does things that are unpleasant to witness, and she does them without shame or regret.

            The story is divided into sections, by husband. And while Evelyn did love a few of her husbands, her marriages were mostly business deals. Her true love was someone she could not love publicly. It was heartbreaking to see Evelyn forced to hide her love (and suppress her Cuban heritage) but she simply saw it as a matter of fact. I wasn’t as interested in Monique’s side of the story or why Evelyn chose her but those parts are relatively small in comparison.

I picked up this book after seeing a lot of hype for it by book reviewers on YouTube, otherwise I’m not sure I would’ve bothered. I have to say, I think it lives up to the hype. Evelyn isn’t always likeable. She does some truly heinous things to get power and then to keep it. But she is captivating, and I loved every second of her story.