Margaret Renkl

“Drawing mainly on his own participant-observation experiences, Kelner situates the program in a context of political tourism, giving us new tools with which to understand the visceral, emotional and cognitive impacts on the participants. This provides a sophisticated lens through which to analyze what the Birthright program, and others like it, does, how it accomplishes its goals, what those goals are and why the mechanisms used may also limit its impact.”

“In interviews with 13 black writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nikki Giovanni, and Edwidge Danticat, Golden (Migrations of the Heart) celebrates the pleasure of reading and writing spliced with personal glimpses of the contributors (late reader, straight-D student, ex-prisoner, college professor, illiterate mother, bookstore-owning father) that reveal the extraordinary diversity in literary tastes and habits. Even as many of the writers mention reading the canonical Du Bois, Hughes, Morrison, Ellison, and Baldwin, others are drawn to Madame Bovary and Madeline, Catch-22 and Carlyle. Essayists testify to the inspiration of particular teachers, the encouragement of other writers (two mention Gwendolyn Brooks specifically), and most frequently parental enabling and support. Golden’s introduction is moving and often lyrical; her headnotes are succinct and helpful; her interviewer voice is muted, direct, and consistently directed toward letting the writer speak. ‘I tremble with anticipation each time I open a book,’ writes Golden. ‘I smile with satisfaction when I read the last page.’ Her readers will do the same.”

“The so-called New Negroes of the period between World Wars I and II embodied a new sense of racial pride and upward mobility for the race. Many of them thought that relationships between spouses could be a crucial factor in realizing this dream. But there was little agreement about how spousal relationships should actually function in an ideal New Negro marriage. Shedding light on an often-overlooked aspect of African American social history, Anastasia Curwood explores the public and private negotiations over gender relationships inside marriage that consumed upwardly mobile black Americans between 1918 and 1942. Curwood uses private correspondence between spouses, including her own grandparents, and public writings from leading figures of the era to investigate African Americans’ deepest hopes within their private lives. She follows changes and conflicts in African American marital ideals–and demonstrates how those ideals sometimes clashed with reality. In the process, Curwood shows how New Negro marriages are an especially rich site for assessing the interactions of racial, class, and gender identities.”

“In 2006, Hilary Williams, the 27-year-old daughter of Hank Williams Jr., and the granddaughter of country icon Hank Williams, was driving to her maternal grandfather’s funeral in Louisiana, when she and her younger sister, Holly, were in a terrible car crash along legendary Highway 61. Williams recalls the details of the moment that she reached down to change a song on her iPod—Patty Griffin’s ‘Tony,’ about a suicidal gay man—when their Toyota 4Runner skidded across the road and flipped over. Her sister was banged up, but Williams suffered the most severe damage: broken legs, ankle, back, collarbone, tailbone, pelvis, ribs as well as shattered hips. Worse, her heart stopped briefly before she could be revived again. This inspirational and sweetly written memoir recounts her many surgeries and her determination to get better. Although Williams also discusses the careers of her famous relatives, the brunt of the book is devoted to her long and arduous rehabilitation, and her triumphant return to the stage. Country-music fans will especially find it appealing.”

“Dunea is back with a celebration of a musical genre known for good ol’ down-home God-fearing folk: country. She’s assembled 50 musicians, both famous (Kenny Rogers) and obscure (Julianne Hough), in lavish full-color photo spreads. Though Dunea unfortunately asks the same questions of all involved, it’s still interesting to discover that Clint Black would have been an astronaut if he hadn’t gone into country, or that David Allen Coe doesn’t ‘believe in the God that you’re wanting me to think of,’ or that Rosanne Cash wishes she had written ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ Had Dunea included stories behind these basic responses, she may have combated the redundancy. There are also some glaring omissions, like Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, and Loretta Lynn. But a short list of each performer’s favorite songs almost makes up for the flaws (and Kris Kristofferson fans will be pleased to see how often ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ appears).”