A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Book Reviews

The Civil War, Up Close

By Ralph Bowden

October 17, 2011 In his 1882 memoir, Company Aytch, Sam R. Watkins, a private in the Army of Tennessee, explained what it was like at a whole series of Civil War battles—Shiloh, Stones River, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, and Nashville, among many others—doing his duty as the musket balls and artillery shells whizzed by him. Now this classic is being rereleased by Turner Publishing in Nashville with an introduction by Franklin historical novelist Robert Hicks. This edition, revised according to Watkins’s notes from the 1890s, includes many corrections and additions and should be considered the definitive text of the book.

The Pain of What Might Have Been

By Chris Scott

October 12, 2011 Charles Guiteau did much more than kill James Garfield. As Candice Millard explains in Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, the deranged Guiteau deprived America of a potentially great president. Even in death Garfield inspired much of the reform that he advocated in his too-short term of office. His murder, Millard writes, “brought tremendous change to the country he loved—change that, had it come earlier, almost certainly would have spared his life.” Millard will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Right Before Your Very Eyes

By Sarah Norris

October 11, 2011 Erin Morgenstern, the debut author of one of this fall’s most anticipated novels, is drawing widespread comparisons to both J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. With The Night Circus, the thirty-three-year-old multimedia artist has not only crafted a story of epic proportions but also turned her own life into a fairy tale, replete with what looks to be a very happy ending.

Extra Innings

By Michael Ray Taylor

October 7, 2011 As Bernard Malamud and W.P. Kinsella did before him, in The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach has reinvented baseball within a universe of his own creation, a place that is not quite the world as we know it, but a world as it might exist within the infinite lines stretching outward from home through first and third base. Harbach will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Deadly Information

By Lyda Phillips

October 4, 2011 Taylor Stevens grew up on four different continents as part of a religious cult, escaping only in her twenties. Now a novelist living in Texas, she used her unusual experience to create the fierce heroine of The Informationist, who flouts West Africa’s vicious power brokers to rescue a Texas oil heiress. Stevens will discuss The Informationist at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Shaped by Nature

By Susannah Felts

September 30, 2011 Based loosely on historical figures, Michael Parker’s new novel, The Watery Part of the World, focuses on the last three remaining residents of tiny Yaupon Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where the people are shaped and worn by the fierce forces of nature. The novel dazzles in its lyrical evocation of the harsh truths and beauties of the Outer Banks and in its piercing exploration of its characters’ hearts. Michael Parker will discuss The Watery Part of the World at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

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