Nonfiction | Chapter 16

Writer M.D.: The Best Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction by Doctors

August 29, 2012

“When it was time to hang pictures in our new house in San Antonio, my wife asked me to buy a studfinder. As a husband I demurred; as an internist, I flat-out refused. We internists make it our business to devine the stutters and stumbles of lungs, hearts, brains, adrenals, guts, gonads – hence the term ‘internal medicine.’ Once upon a time, doctors examined patients not with CAT scans of MRIs but with their senses. ‘Surely’ I said, ‘skills that can find pus behind the chest wall can find a stud behind drywall.’”

— excerpt from Abraham Verghese’s “Bedside Manners”

Defining a Life Through Books

By Faye Jones

August 29, 2012

August 29, 2012 Perhaps all avid readers mark their lives by the books they’ve read and by the way those books have influenced them. Frye Gaillard certainly does, and as a journalist he also has a strong sense of how books show us pictures of the world at a certain time and place. More than just a memoir, The Books That Mattered is a fascinating blend of personal, cultural, and literary history. Gaillard takes readers to a segregated courtroom in Alabama, a prison in Argentina, the dust bowl of Oklahoma, and a small attic hideout in Europe. As disparate as those books and places are, they all live on in Gaillard, who will appear at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

The Slaw and the Slow Cooked: Culture and Barbecue in the Mid-South

August 29, 2012

“The Slaw and the Slow-Cooked has far wider relevance than the Mid-South of its subtitle. Its contributors examine many aspects of America’s oldest Slow Food, from its primeval origins into the age of Twitter and Facebook. They treat their savory subject seriously, but not (thank the Lord) solemnly. You don’t have to be a barbecue nut to enjoy this book, but if you are one, you’ll be in hog heaven.”

— John Shelton Reed, co-author, Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue

Ghosts Behind the Sun: Splendor, Enigma & Death

August 29, 2012

“This book is the bible of dixie-fried rockabilly psychosis and Memphis beat art underground true crime history myth – read it and scream for hell.”

— Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream

The Jewish Annotated New Testament

August 29, 2012

“It is an admirable piece of scholarship. It provides a wealth of highly relevant context, enriching the cultural and literary as well as the theological and historical terms in which these writings of first-century Jews should be approached. The contributors are tactful and sophisticated in their treatment of antiquity and respectful of its mysteries.”

— Marilynne Robinson, Wall Street Journal

Georgia Democrats, The Civil Rights Movement, and the Shaping of The New South

August 29, 2012

“In this timely volume, Tim Boyd challenges one of the most prominent explanations for this shift: the ‘white backlash’ theory. Taking the political experience in Georgia as a case study, he makes a compelling argument that New South politics formed out of the factional differences within the state Democratic Party and not simply as a result of white reactions to the civil rights movement.”

— From the Publisher

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker