Michael Ray Taylor

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.

The first tax created by the young United States government, writes journalist Max Watman, was levied against whiskey, creating a subculture of illegal spirits that grew with the nation and continues to thrive. In Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine, Watman comically explores the history and current practices of this (mainly Southern) subculture. In the spirit of submersion journalism, he not only researches this subject but also joins in the subculture, employing a succession of home-built stills. Despite a few missteps, both spirituous and literary, Watman ultimately serves up a palatable concoction, with a satisfying—and thoroughly illicit—burn.

Epidemics of encephalitis lethargica—sleeping sickness—have long inspired literature, writes Memphis-based science author Molly Caldwell Crosby in Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains one of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries. “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rip Van Winkle,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” are but three well-known stories written after separate outbreaks of the mysterious illness, which can cause patients to sleep for months or years, if they ever awaken at all. In Asleep, Crosby, author of the 2006 nonfiction bestseller The American Plague, has written a tale as timeless and disturbing as its fictional predecessors. Crosby will read from and sign copies of Asleep at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on March 2, and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on March 16.