Chapter 16 - Part 5

A Collision of the Beautiful and the Brutal

In a new anthology, John Branscum and Wayne Thomas have collected the literary treasures of Appalachia

By Ralph Bowden | October 31, 2013

October 31, 2013 For Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature, John Branscum and Wayne Thomas have compiled a group of stories, essays, poems, and graphic narratives from the work of twenty-three Appalachian authors. As the book’s subtitle suggests, the selections are truly contemporary, and many stretch the boundaries of traditional literary forms. They also stretch the old Appalachian stereotypes of primitive violence, poverty, and ignorance.

Counterterrorism from the Inside

Philip Mudd analyzes the federal response to terrorism

By Ralph Bowden | August 16, 2013

August 16, 2013 Philip Mudd’s Takedown purports to be Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda, and in some sense it is. More than that, though, it is a consideration of the way the American intelligence establishment responded to 9/11 and subsequent terrorist threats. It’s also a career memoir: Mudd, who now lives in Memphis, began in 1985 as a junior intelligence analyst at the CIA and rose to important managerial positions at both the CIA and the FBI. A dedicated insider, he respects the context in which he flourished and the people he worked with in the complex counterterrorist bureaucracy.

Once More from the Lake

Kim Trevathan paddles upstream in search of transitions between flooded and natural rivers

By Ralph Bowden | June 18, 2013

June 18, 2013 In Liminal Zones: Where Lakes End and Rivers Begin Kim Trevathan chronicles his kayak and canoe journeys upstream from flatwater, current-less lakes and reservoirs to places where rivers rise above the flooding and come alive. In this book that is both narrative and meditative, Trevathan samples rivers from Massachusetts to California to South Carolina, but he keeps returning to the rivers of Tennessee and Kentucky, his homeland.

Under Siege

Civil War novelist Jeff Shaara resurrects Vicksburg under Grant’s barrage

By Ralph Bowden | May 22, 2013

May 22, 2013 Legions of historians have written narratives of Civil War battles bristling with footnotes and rigorous research. They would never presume to include the principal figures’ real-time thoughts or speculate about any conversations between them. Civil War novelist Jeff Shaara, on the other hand, has the freedom to invent. Though his books are also grounded in historical sources, he gives his characters life and includes richly detailed scenes, recreating the guns’ thunder, the ringing ears, the sweat mixing with dirt. Shaara will discuss A Chain of Thunder, his newest novel, on May 26, 2013, at 3 p.m. at the East Tennessee Historical Center in Knoxville.

On the Origins of Ecology

James B. Hunt details the development of John Muir’s environmental thought

By Ralph Bowden | April 17, 2013

April 17, 2013 John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, set out on a walk from Indiana to the Gulf in the fall of 1867. In Restless Fires: Young John Muir’s Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf in 1867-68 historian James B. Hunt traces that walk through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. At the time, Muir was already a serious student of botany with a powerful calling to observe and collect species, especially in regions unfamiliar to him, but his thinking about the relationship of humans to the rest of nature was not yet completely formed. Hunt will discuss Restless Fires at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 24 at 6 p.m.

Waking to Racism in 1958

In James Williamson’s coming-of-age novel, a city boy is shaken by small-town racism

By Ralph Bowden | March 19, 2013

March 19, 2013 In 1958, institutional racism infected all life in the deep South. Because of distant threats—court decisions, freedom riders, and the like—its influence was perhaps more entrenched than ever. Yet many whites seemed oblivious to its pernicious effects. In James Williamson’s novel, The Ravine, a thirteen-year-old boy from a privileged white family in Memphis spends the summer in a small Mississippi community, where a violent tragedy changes his life profoundly.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly