Nevermore: Paris Agent, Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Lincoln Highway, Great Lakes

Prepared by Rita

This is an experiment with a new program.  Please comment and let us know what you think!

 

Nevermore: Ripped from the Headlines, Gentleman in Moscow, Klara and the Sun, Agent for the Stars

 

Reported by Garry

 

Ripped from the Headlines by Harold Schechter had a rave review.  “This is the most fun book!” says our reader.  This collection of essays digs into the true stories behind 40 of the most iconic movie killers in history.  Psycho, The Hills Have Eyes, Arsenic and Old Lace, Scream and more film all had some basis in real events and stories.  Each essay is less than 10 pages long and self-contained, so our reader really liked the ability to finish a “full story” in a quick sitting.  This salacious, fun read tells the true stories behind the fictionalized stories that we know so well, many of which are far stranger than their fictional counterparts.  Two of our readers highly recommend this book. 

 

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles was our next book.  This hefty (480 pages) book tells the story of life and societal changes in Russia in the in the run-up to World War II.  The novel starts in 1922 when Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in The Hotel Metropol Moscow, a storied luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin.  The hotel is the location of plots, affairs, thievery and revolution – all of which Count Rostov must negotiate while keeping a low profile.  Our reader loved this novel for its vivid characterizations of the various denizens of the hotel, and the way that it looks at personal growth over time despite circumstances.  This book is highly recommended by our reader.

 

The speculative fiction Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro was the next book reviewed.  This novel by the Nobel Prize winning author is told through the eyes of Klara, a solar powered Artificial Friend – a type of robot that has been programmed be highly observant of human behavior and give kindness.  Klara is purchased by the mother of Josie, a sickly teenage girl with an unspecified disease.   Our reader found this dystopian near-future book to be very interesting and moving, particularly in the way that the author weaves in sunlight, which Klara must have in order to survive.  This moving, complex book comes highly recommended. 

 

Another science fiction novel, Agent to the Stars, by John Scalzi comes highly recommended by our next reader.  This funny, insightful romp is written by our readers’ very favorite sci-fi author and follows the story of Tom Stein, a young Hollywood agent who is hired by a race of aliens to manage the reveal of their existence to the world.  One of the (multiple) complicating factors that Tom has to deal with is that the aliens communicate by smell, but themselves smell horrifically awful.  Hijinks ensue involving an elderly dog, a brainless but ambitious blonde actress, Tom’s aging grandmother and a Holocaust film.  Our reader loves Scalzi’s lighthearted, funny, sarcastic wit, and this debut novel is a great example of the author’s works.

 

Also mentioned:

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

So Cold the River by Michael Koryta 

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux 

The Unidentified:  Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

This Is The Fire: What I say to my friends about racism by Don Lemon

The Black Church:  This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates

The Girl Explorers: The Untold Story of the Globetrotting Women who Trekked, Flew and Fought Their Way Around the World by Jayne Zanglein

Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews

Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

 

Nevermore: Le Carre, Gonzalez, Miller, Towles, Trevanian, Jennings

Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with a re-reading of a John Le Carre book, The Russia House. Published in 1989, the plot has a Russian physicist smuggling out his manuscript proving that the Russian missile system is unworkable.  He wants it to go to a minor British publisher, but it ends up in the hands of MI5 and the CIA, who then recruit the publisher to go to Russia in order to get more information.  Our reader said she remembered liking it very much, but this time—not so much.

However, she was thoroughly enjoying the next book, Remnants of America’s Southeast Aboriginals:  Paleo to Mississippian by Maury E. Miller.  The book is archaeological finds in the Southeast United States, including a number of sites in Middle Tennessee.  There are some excellent photos of implements such as axes, scrapers, spear points, etc.  The reader’s grandfather was from the same area as some of the excavations, and she had photos of some of his discoveries that were quite similar to those in the book.  It’s an excellent book for anyone interested in the earliest inhabitants of the region.

Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez begins with the European exploration of the continent. The Spanish traveled vast distances through South, Central, and North America, encountering numerous indigenous tribes.  Gonzalez examines how the Europeans influenced the regions socially, politically, and economically from first contact, and how that influence has created problems today.  Our reader praised the book highly for looking at each country and culture individually, instead of lumping all together as is often done, and it includes Cuba and Puerto Rico along with the South and Central American countries. She says that the author points out the different waves of immigrants were determined by the circumstances in the individual countries, and that most such were those who were industrious and hardworking, willing to brave hardships to find freedom and a better life.  She hadn’t yet finished the book, but recommended it highly for anyone who wants a better understanding of situation.

Amor Towles’ novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, drew rave reviews from our next member. The story begins in 1922 when Count Alexander Rostov is put under house arrest in a hotel across from the Kremlin. He spends the next 30 years there, watching as history unfolds, meeting a diverse group of people who come to the hotel. The Count is a cultured man, forced to live in an attic room, but he finds life in the marvelously depicted characters.   Our reader said the book was “very clever, very interesting, very wonderful” and that it is seriously recommended.

Spy fiction returned with Shibumi by Trevanian, a pen name for Rodney William Whitaker, an American author who wrote in a number of genres.  The plot revolves around Nicolai Hel, the son of a Russian aristocrat who grew up in Japan and who learned not only numerous languages but martial arts techniques. Hel had hoped to live the rest of his life in peace, having achieved “shibumi”—the art of effortless perfection-- but is drawn into a conflict when an international conglomerate known as the Mother Company.  Our reader said it that while it was written in 1979, it almost felt contemporary, with the way that giant corporations influence the world politically, socially, culturally, and economically.

Finally, No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings is the second in the Killing Eve series.  British agent Eve is hot on the trail of her arch-rival Villanelle, the assassin whose existence she discerned in the first novel.  There is a lot of action, international travel and intrigue, and –as our reviewer put it—“less sex, which is a plus.”