Book Reviews

A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia presents the natural variety of the mountain South through poetry and imagery created by 67 of the region’s artists.

Barry Zito’s memoir, Curveball, recounts the star pitcher’s triumph, failure, and long spiritual quest.

At 16, Cyntoia Brown-Long was imprisoned for murdering a much older man. Her memoir, Free Cyntoia, tells the story of her awakening to her own history of abuse and her efforts to save other young women from the horrors of trafficking.

In Hoffa in Tennessee: The Chattanooga Trial That Brought Down an Icon, Maury Nicely recounts the 1964 trial of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, which brought a national media frenzy to Tennessee.

In Meander Belt, M. Randal O’Wain crafts an impressionistic self-portrait of a young man determined to escape the buzz saw of poverty and a family forever on the edge of disaster. O’Wain will discuss Meander Belt at Novel in Memphis on November 29 and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 14.

Jodie Adams Kirshner’s Broke tracks seven Detroiters in the years following the city’s 2013 bankruptcy. Kirshner will discuss Broke at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 25.