Book Reviews

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.

May 6, 2010 Tim Johnston’s Irish Girl, winner of the 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize, juxtaposes random incidents of violence and loss with moving portraits of repressed longing and regret. Written in elegiac, lyrical prose, these stories suggest that the past always weighs heavily on the present, and that, sooner or later, we will all be made to pay for our sins—or our innocence. Tim Johnston will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on May 6 at 7 p.m., and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on May 7 at 1 p.m.