Our Favorite Books Read in 2023: Christina, Laura

Here are two more staff members with lists of their favorite books read in 2023!

Christina:  A black hole is not a hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano (Juvenile audiobook from Libby)

Starter Villain by  John Scalzi (Libby audiobook)

Vera Wong’s unsolicited advice for murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Audiobook)

Losers club by Yvonne Vincent

No better friend by Robert Weintraub

When the corn is waist high by Jeremy Scott (audiobook) This one involves a serial killer and has an extremely unexpected twist.

Nala’s world by Dean Nicholson

The coworker by Freida McFadden

The bandit queens by Parini Shroff

Remarkably bright creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is my favorite of the year. It is a very poignant and well written work of fiction (only a tiny bit unbelievable).

 

Laura:  I made a list of 10. Mostly, I like thrillers, but I love books that tell fabulous stories. Mitch Albom is my favorite author of all time and he did not disappoint with his new one!

 

1. The Little Liar by Mitch Albom (As always, broke my heart and then put it back together. Fabulous book!)

 

2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (I kept avoiding this one thinking it would be sad, but it was fabulous!)

 

3. Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden (Wonderful book, I'll have to own it!)

 

4. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult (Fascinating book and I learned so much about bees!)

 

5. This Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (YA book about a school shooting-very well done.)

 

6. Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

7. You Look Beautiful Tonight by L. R. Jones

8. My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon (Creepy, but really good!)

9. Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich (I had about gotten over the Stephanie Plum series, (too repetitive), but this one made me laugh out loud!)

10. Episode Thirteen by Craig Dilouie (Another scary one. A little wild, but sure kept me interested).

Nevermore: Us Against You, She Come By It Natural, Ship Beneath the Ice, Wings of Gold

Reported by Garry

 

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman is the direct sequel to Beartown reviewed last week. This novel follows the story of the town and its attempt to re-build their championship hockey team after the events of the first novel. Backman is a master at building realistic, rounded characters and placing them in situations where they grow, change, and learn. Our reader noted that this book is just as character driven as Beartown,and is looking forward to finishing the trilogy with The Winners.  MP

 

She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh. Dolly Parton is a national icon not only for her music but for her business acumen, philanthropy, acting, and heart. Country music provided the soundtrack to Smarsh’s childhood growing up in rural Kansas, and no artist was more influential and prominent than Dolly Parton. Parton sings songs about growing up poor but proud and resilient, and Smarsh examines the impact that Parton has had (and continues to have) on generations of female artists and on the culture of America overall in this fascinating look at one of the most prolific musical artists of the past 50 years.  AH

 

The Ship Beneath The Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound tells the story of his rediscovery of the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated ship that was trapped by and sunk in the ice of the Antarctic in 1914. Shackleton and his men had made the trip from Norway in the 144-foot wooden boat in order to become the first explorers to transit from sea to sea via the South Pole. The unpredictable Weddell Sea ice trapped and crushed the ship, stranding Shackleton and his crew of 27 on the sea ice until they could make their way to Elephant Island where they eventually were rescued. The Endurance itself sunk without a trace into the ice and remained a near-legendary wreck until its rediscovery in 2022, just shy of 10,000 feet below the surface. In a fitting coincidence, the day the wreck was found was also exactly one hundred years from the date of Shackleton’s death. This inspiring modern-day adventure narrative captures the intrepid spirit that joins two mariners across the centuries—Shackleton and Bound—both of whom accomplished great things.  CD

 

Wings of Gold: The Story of the First Women Naval Aviators by Beverly Weintraub. In this incredibly well written biography of the first women allowed to fly for the Navy, the ridiculous limitations on females in the Navy are laid bare. For example, women could be naval flight instructors but were not allowed to land planes on aircraft carriers, yet ironically were still allowed to train the men who could land on the carriers. Weintraub herself is a licensed pilot and uses her insights to aid her writing. Our reader was truly impressed by the tenacity and drive that these patriots showed,and was especially impressed that they foresaw the road that they were paving for those coming after them.  KM

 

Also mentioned:

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indiginous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

At Home In Mitford by Jan Karon

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul by Brian Kilmeade

Veiled in Smoke by Jocelyn Green

Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

The Vote by Sybil Downing

 

New Books:

Smithsonian American Table: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us by Smithsonian Institute

The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England by Joanne Paul

The House Is On Fire by Rachel Beanland

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash

Where We Meet the World: The Story of the Senses by Ashley Ward

Nevermore: We Carry Their Bones, The Woman in the Library, Miss Jane Pittman, No Better Friend

 

Reported by Garry

 

We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle is the unflinching inside story of the recovery of dozens of remains of young boys from the grounds of the Arthur G. Dozier Boys School in Florida. Established in 1900 as a reform school for children, some as young as six years old, many of the children were Black and were hired out to local farmers as indentured labor by the management of the school. After the school shut down in 2011 after years of reports of cruelty, abuse and murder, forensic anthropologist Kimmerle stepped in to locate the school’s graveyards, both official and unofficial. Despite threats and intimidation by locals, Kimmerle continues to search for not only the remains of the children, but their relatives in order to reunite the deceased with their families. Our reader said that this book, while harrowing, is an interesting read and a real indictment of the reform school system both past and present.  CD

                                                             

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. A quiet morning in the Boston Public Library is shattered by a woman’s scream. Security locks down the building and four strangers pass the time sitting around a table in the reading room. Friendships begin and each member has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room at the time – except that one of them is a murderer. This book was reviewed by one of our readers who typically doesn’t go for such fare, but who was really taken with the twists and turns that Gentill works into her stories, and who thought that the final result was: “Not bad!”  SC

 

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines depicts the life and times of a 110-year-old Black woman born into slavery, who lived through both World Wars and the Civil Rights era of the late 1960s. Even though this book is a fictionalized account, the author went to great lengths to ensure that the voice and history of Pittman and others in the book were true to life. When the novel was initially published in 1971, many people believed that the book was non-fiction. Famously, the novel was turned into a groundbreaking television movie in 1974 starring Cicely Tyson. Our reader states that this book is very moving, useful, and a beautiful depiction of the human soul.  AH

 

No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII by Robert Weintraub is our feel-good book for the week. Judy of Sussex was an English pointer, born in China during World War II. Initially guarding boats on the Yangtze River, Judy became part of the crew and even accompanied them to a Japanese prisoner of war camp for three years when the team was captured. Judy placed her own life at risk many times during their internment, intervening when the soldiers were being beaten or tortured by their captors. Once freed, Judy and Fran Williams (who had the strongest bond with Judy) travelled the world as part of the Royal Air Force. To date, Judy remains the only official canine POW of World War II. This heartwarming story of fierce, unconditional love, and loyalty moved our reader deeply and she highly recommends it to anyone who has been lucky enough to know the love of a dog.  KM

 

The Red Cotton Fields by Michael Strickland

How Everything Can Collapse: A Manual for Our Times by Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens

Capture the Crown by Jennifer Estep

Death in a Blackout by Jessica Ellicott

Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

Haven by Emma Donoghue

The Chaos Machine:  The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher

The Bad Angel Brothers by Paul Theroux

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg

The Shadow of the Empire (A Judge Dee Investigation Book 1) by Qiu Xiaolong

Hollywood Horrors: Murders, Scandals, and Cover-Ups from Tinseltown by Andrea Van Landingham

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

Nevermore: Don't Make Me Pull Over, Portrait of a Murderer, Bonesetter's Daughter, Victoria, A Brief History of Everyone, No Friends but the Mountains,

Reported by Ambrea

Nevermore decided to kick things off with Don’t Make Me Pull Over!:  an Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Richard Ratay.  In his book, Ratay examines the family road trip from beginning to end, starting with the birth of America’s first interstate highways in the 1950s and the proliferation of vehicles.  Our reader said Ratay’s book was an interesting foray into the niche history of America; however, “it wasn’t as funny as I thought it was going to be.”  Although she found a handful of funny stories scattered throughout the book, she said it was comprised mostly of interesting history and, occasionally, a boring anecdote.  She didn’t think I was a bad book, merely one that wasn’t as amazing as it could have been.

Next, Nevermore explored Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith.  A reissue of the classic mystery, Portrait of a Murderer explores the death of Adrian Gray during the Christmas of 1931—and the murderer who committed the dark deed.  Our reader said Meredith’s psychological mystery was dated, but very interesting.  It follows the process of uncovering a murderer, specifically how one family reacts to the murder of the family patriarch and what happens after the discovery.  Overall, our reader said she enjoyed the book immensely and she highly recommended it to her fellow Nevermore members, especially those who enjoy a good mystery or psychological thriller.

Nevermore also took a look at Victoria:  An Intimate Biography by Stanley Weintraub, which highlights the life and times of Queen Victoria, starting with her birth in 1819 to her death in 1901.  Our reader said Weintraub’s biography weighed in at a whopping 700 pages.  “I feel as if I have had a graduate program on British history,” she told her fellow readers.  Although it was very interesting, very in-depth, she found the pace dragged along and made reading difficult.  She didn’t recommend it, except as a possible sleep aid.

Shifting gears to take a look a more scientific perspective of history, Nevermore reviewed A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived:  The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford.  According to the inside cover, “This is a story about you.  It is the history of who you are and how you came to be…[but] it is also our collective story, because in each of our genomes we carry the history of our whole species.”  A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived takes readers on a journey through genetics, examining how genes can tell our history and, possibly, even predict our future.  Our reader said she really liked reading Rutherford’s book.  Although it takes an extended look at very difficult, very complicated subjects, it offers insights that are understandable and provides explanations that are easy to digest.  Our reader enjoyed A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived and she highly recommended it to the rest of Nevermore.

Next, Nevermore shared No Friend But the Mountains:  Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Omid Tofighian.  In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, an island in northern Papua New Guinea, and he’s been there ever since.  Typed out on a mobile phone, his memoir is a vivid and heart-wrenching look at incarceration, exile, and survival.  Our reader said Boochani’s writing is absolutely beautiful, even bordering on poetic.  No Friend But the Mountains is a fascinating look at one man’s experiences, as well as a vivid portrayal of injustice that affects a broad swathe of people.  Although our reader has only finished half of the book, she highly recommends it.

Last, Nevermore explored Amy Tan’s novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter.  LuLing Young and her daughter, Ruth, have always shared a difficult relationship; however, as Ruth uncovers more about her other’s tumultuous life in China, she discovers more than she ever expected—secrets and terrible curses and profound hope.  Our reader said she was thrilled to simply sit and read The Bonesetter’s Daughter.  “If you’ve ever read Amy Tan,” she told the rest of Nevermore, “you fall in love with her.”  Like all of her writing, The Bonesetter’s Daughter captures a portrait of Chinese culture, human failings, and immigration experience.  Tan creates an involved, immersive story that’s “very, very good,” our reader continued.  She took a week to read Tan’s novel and she delighted in every minute.