Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Emancipation Memories

In Robert Hunt’s review of regimental histories, veterans of the Army of the Cumberland interpret the Civil War.

By Ralph Bowden | June 15, 2010

June 15, 2010 Recruits from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois went off to fight in 1861 to put down a rebellion promoted by radical secessionists. Few of these soldiers thought of abolition as an issue. As the war continued and intensified after 1863, however, their own practical experiences with freed slaves, led them to reconsider. In The Good Men Who Won the War, Robert Hunt traces the infinite variations in how the veterans came to think of the Civil War.

The Longest War

As the war in Afghanistan drags on, Sebastian Junger joins the ranks of Michael Herr and Ernie Pyle in exploring the psychological horrors—and insidious appeal—of modern warfare

By Michael Ray Taylor | June 14, 2010

June 14, 2010 On Monday, June 7, the war in Afghanistan became the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the eight and a half years the nation officially spent in Vietnam. As in that seemingly endless conflict, American troops in Afghanistan face a determined guerilla resistance that exploits hostile terrain to maximum advantage. Combat casualties have been heavy, and nowhere heavier than in the Korengal Valley, which sits about fifty miles due north of the Khyber Pass. Hellishly hot in the summer, bitterly cold in the winter, it is a place where foreign fighters infiltrate from the high peaks of Pakistan, paying local herdsman five dollars a day to take pot-shots at Americans crouched in tiny outposts. Sebastian Junger, author of the nonfiction bestsellers The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont, traveled to the Korengal Valley in 2007 and 2008 on assignment for Vanity Fair, to produce a series of articles on the most active combat unit within the U.S. Army. His reporting became the basis for War, a fascinating book that chronicles the daily practice of war. He will be in Memphis to discuss the book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on June 15 at 6 p.m.

Lifting Up Spirits

Anne Brown considers the faithful art of Brother Mel

By Maria Browning | June 4, 2010

June 4, 2010 Since 1958, Marianist Brother Mel Meyer has created inspired art infused with the joy of his faith. In Brother Mel: A Lifetime of Making Art, Nashville gallery owner Anne Brown offers a lavish, full-color guide and tribute to his work. Brown will join Brother Mel in an appearance at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on June 4 at 7 p.m. and at a reception honoring the artist’s 82nd birthday at The Arts Company on June 5 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Sons and Lovers—and MFA Degrees

In Leah Stewart’s new novel, an infidelity jars a former poet into reconsidering her marriage and its costs

By Susannah Felts | May 28, 2010

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.

Salvation, Chick-Lit Style

In Tamara Leigh’s new novel, a former mean girl finds redemption and love in her hometown

By Faye Jones | May 27, 2010

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.

Out of the Fire

In Glenn Taylor’s sophomore novel, a rural marble factory is home to an oddball army intent on advancing the cause of civil rights—and exorcizing its own demons.

By Paul V. Griffith | May 20, 2010

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.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher