Book Reviews

May 28, 2010 So hoary is the tradition of novels about writers that it’s impossible to attend a graduate writing program without being warned against the shopworn trope of writing about being a writer. Nonetheless, with said programs popping up on seemingly every campus, a new breed of books about writers—specifically, MFA candidates and graduates—has emerged. Husband and Wife, the new novel from Leah Stewart (a Vanderbilt graduate and former visiting professor at both Vanderbilt and Sewanee), takes up the task with keen insight and subtle wit. But it also has, significantly, a broader sweep in its intelligent portrayal of modern motherhood and the challenge of creative productivity in a two-breadwinner world.

May 27, 2010 Nowhere, Carolina is the second novel in Tamara Leigh’s bestselling Southern Discomfort series, and while the book is overtly Christian in nature, more secular readers will enjoy the novel’s appealing and very human characters. Readers of chick-lit novels will see early on exactly where this book is going, and Christian chick lit is no different, except that it has less sex. Still, Tamara Leigh is able to throw in some curve balls and the story, while hopeful, is anything but pat.

May 20, 2010 An ex-Marine, Loyal Ledford has seen things that will forever haunt his dreams. After serving in World War II, he returns to his job at a West Virginia glass factory. Increasingly restless, he marries the boss’s daughter and quits work with no other plan than to forge a better life for his young family. Aided by a crew of misfits, Ledford builds the Marrowbone Marble Company on ancient family land. In addition to manufacturing the decorative glass orbs, the Marrowbone “commune,” as it’s pejoratively known, becomes a hotbed of civil-rights activism. As Ledford and his diverse band resort to increasingly forceful tactics to unseat the status quo and preserve their lifestyle, author Glenn Taylor schools his readers on the complexity of violence and the nature of good and evil. Taylor will read from his book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on May 21 at 6 p.m.

May 11, 2010 Scott Pratt’s third novel, Injustice for All, continues the adventures of Joe Dillard, assistant district attorney in Washington County, Tennessee. Dillard has his hands more than full in this outing as he battles an imperious judge, a drug kingpin, a sleazy DA, and a collection of other colorful members of the criminal and criminal-justice communities.

May 7, 2010 In Jeffrey Stepakoff’s Fireworks over Toccoa, it’s 1945, and Lily Davis Woodward is waiting for her husband to come back from World War II. In fact, the entire town of Toccoa, Georgia, is preparing to celebrate the return of its soldiers. The welcoming ceremonies will include a fireworks display, and the town has imported a technician named Jake Russo, a handsome young immigrant from Italy. Elaborate pyrotechnics are, of course, Jake’s stock in trade (and elaborate metaphors are this genre’s). Jeffrey Stepakoff will be in Nashville on May 10 at 7 p.m. to sign copies of his debut novel at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.