Book Reviews

May 9, 2011 In the introduction to his new book, Dirty South, Ben Westhoff outlines the New York origins of rap, its transformation into a unique West Coast style, and the deadly rivalries that created real body counts between the warring factions. But the real focus of Dirty South is the rise of a third front that finds artists and groups from below the Mason-Dixon Line dominating the charts and soaking up the spotlights. It’s a style that emphasizes danceable bass and favors grunts and chants over metaphor-heavy lyrics. More than just a music book, Dirty South is an exploration of the racism, poverty, joie de vivre, and pride that are all a part of the art and lives of some of the biggest rap artists in the South and the world. Along the way, Westhoff plays equal parts flatfoot reporter and gonzo journalist, immersing himself—and his readers—in a culture that is as vibrant and provocative as the music it’s become known for. Westhoff will discuss Dirty South at DK Booksellers in Memphis on May 9 at 6 p.m.

May 4, 2011 In 1933, by the time William Dodd arrived in Berlin with his wife and two grown children, the country he had loved as a university student was almost completely gone. As was the case with most foreign observers in the early days of Hitler’s Germany, it was not immediately obvious to Dodd that anything was amiss, but as Erik Larson demonstrates in his captivating new book, Dodd would spend his four-year term as ambassador trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Larson will discuss and sign In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin at the Nashville Public Library on May 10 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series.

May 3, 2011 In her new book, Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation, architect and photographer Nell Dickerson teams up with the late Shelby Foote, her cousin by marriage, to offer two intertwining tales of a disappearing South. The first is a Foote novella that recounts the loss of historic structures to the torches of Union soldiers during the Civil War nearly 150 years ago. The second is the story told through Dickerson’s images, which document the neglect, poverty, and apathy that have caused the disappearance of so many historic buildings since the war. Nell Dickerson will discuss Gone: A Photographic Plea for Presentation at DK Booksellers in Memphis on May 7 at 1 p.m.

April 29, 2011 On myriad motherhood subjects—think sanctimommies, sex after baby, the challenges of monogamy, and an endless stream of dirty socks—Kyran Pittman is an eminently quotable writer with a sharp wit, a kind of David Sedaris for modern breeders. To read her memoir-in-essays, Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life, is to want to copy and paste sentences and whole passages repeatedly into emails to your mom pals. In these essays, Pittman’s quippy, often self-deprecating humor makes for a lively read as she simply and eloquently homes in on the significance of universal domestic ups and downs. Pittman will read from Planting Dandelions at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on May 5 at 5:30 p.m.