Nonfiction | Chapter 16

Pornography for Oenophiles

Matthew Gavin Frank’s account of the six months he spent picking grapes in Barolo is ripe reading for lovers of wine, food, and Italy

By Liz Garrigan | July 27, 2010

July 27, 2010 After making over-medium eggs in Juneau for an ex-goldpanner, Matthew Gavin Frank decided to take the advice of the patron who’d just spit out his food: “In a world full of idiots, you have to go to the place with the fewest idiots.” Barolo is Frank’s account of the six months he spent living and working—the back-breaking labor of grape harvesting—in Barolo, Italy (pop. 646), in the country’s northern Piedmont region. He will read from his book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on July 27 at 6 p.m. and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on July 28 at 7 p.m.

In Search of the Moments

Greil Marcus turns his eye toward the music of Van Morrison

By Paul McCoy | July 26, 2010

July 26, 2010 Greil Marcus isn’t simply a music critic. He is, as Nick Hornby calls him, “peerless, not only as a rock writer but as a cultural historian.” In Marcus’s writing, music is often the point of departure. Where the vehicle goes from there is anyone’s guess, but you can bet it will be an interesting, often thrilling ride. Marcus’s latest book, When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison, considers the indefinable moments in an enigmatic performer’s work where the artist transcends ordinary communication and reaches for the sublime.

A Legal Lynching

Journalist Alex Heard investigates the confounding historical case of Willie McGee

By Clay Risen | July 19, 2010

July 19, 2010 Did a poor black man named Willie McGee rape a white housewife named Willette Hawkins in Laurel, Mississippi, in 1945? Was she even raped, or did she just dream it? Or were the two—as Bella Abzug alleged in McGee’s third trial—lovers? As journalist Alex Heard finds in The Eyes of Willie McGee, the truth is disturbingly gray. The book is part history and part detective story, with Heard intersplicing McGee’s story with the tale of his own hunt for the facts. Heard discusses the book at the downtown branch of Nashville Public Library on July 21 at 5 p.m., and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on July 22 at 6 p.m.

Humanity's Final Exam

Forget nuclear suicide. Forget terrorism. Gwynne Dyer’s Climate Wars makes a case for the truly global issue we should be addressing now

By Ralph Bowden | July 16, 2010

July 16, 2010 Most of the scientific information predicting global warming that Gwynne Dyer outlines in his new book, Climate Wars, has been in the news for years. Many people have ignored it, however, and even those who are both informed and concerned may not have thought through the logical consequences of what scientists predict: famine and war—and human extinction. Dyer will discuss Climate Wars at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on July 20 at 7 p.m.

Giving It Her Best Shot

Rocker Pat Benatar writes a memoir

By Anne Delana Reeves | July 8, 2010

July 8, 2010 Pat Benatar ruled the radio airwaves during the 1980s, and for good reason. Her talent for writing and choosing clever, anthemic, and arena-ready songs earned her four Grammy Awards, produced nineteen top-forty singles, and sold more than 22 million records worldwide. Now she’s written a memoir, Between A Heart And A Rock Place, which she’ll discuss at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on July 9 at 12:30 p.m.

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Sam Pickering pens a delightfully meandering memoir about his angst-free boyhood

By Liz Garrigan | June 29, 2010

June 29, 2010 A Comfortable Boy is essayist Sam Pickering’s twenty-third book, but the message is the same one he’s been offering since he first began writing relatively late in life. For Pickering, ambition and conformity are overrated, paling in comparison to a life led not so much for purpose as for finding pleasure and passion in the most quotidian occasions.