Nonfiction | Chapter 16

The Civil War, Up Close

By Ralph Bowden

October 17, 2011

October 17, 2011 In his 1882 memoir, Company Aytch, Sam R. Watkins, a private in the Army of Tennessee, explained what it was like at a whole series of Civil War battles—Shiloh, Stones River, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, and Nashville, among many others—doing his duty as the musket balls and artillery shells whizzed by him. Now this classic is being rereleased by Turner Publishing in Nashville with an introduction by Franklin historical novelist Robert Hicks. This edition, revised according to Watkins’s notes from the 1890s, includes many corrections and additions and should be considered the definitive text of the book.

The Pain of What Might Have Been

By Chris Scott

October 12, 2011

October 12, 2011 Charles Guiteau did much more than kill James Garfield. As Candice Millard explains in Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, the deranged Guiteau deprived America of a potentially great president. Even in death Garfield inspired much of the reform that he advocated in his too-short term of office. His murder, Millard writes, “brought tremendous change to the country he loved—change that, had it come earlier, almost certainly would have spared his life.” Millard will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

The Story Collector

By Beth Waltemath

October 3, 2011

October 3, 2011 A crush can make even the most creative writer into a cliché. Luckily the contributors to Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love are too funny and self-aware to fall into that trap for long. In the experienced hands of editor and East Tennessee native Andrea N. Richesin, the tales of their summer flings, student stalkers, eternal bad boys, celebrity fairy tales, long-distance romances, and lost innocence explain not how we lose what we love passionately but how we find ourselves in the process.

Titanic: One Newspaper, Seven Days, and the Truth That Shocked the World

By Tristan Hickey

September 28, 2011

The Titanic was the greatest ocean liner ever built and the news of its sinking 5 days into its maiden voyage, shocked the world. Captivated by the tragedy, audiences turned to the trusted Daily Telegraph hoping to find answers to questions of how the “unsinkable ship” could have ever gone down. Misinformation and erroneous reports of what exactly happened to the Titanic were numerous, and it was up to the Telegraph reporters to determine the truth. Focused entirely on media clippings and reporting from the time of the tragedy, Titanic is a ripped-from-the-headlines account of the sinking of the world’s largest ship.

— From the Publisher

Who Is My Enemy?: Questions American Christians Must Face about Islam–and Themselves

By Tristan Hickey

September 28, 2011

“Lee Camp knows Christianity is better than the worst things Christians have done, and he insists we must extend the same grace to Islam. Who Is My Enemy? is an invitation to start addressing the log in our own eye so we can more clearly see into the eyes of others.”

Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution

The Mack Marsden Murder Mystery: Vigilantism or Justice?

By Tristan Hickey

September 28, 2011

One of the last of the bad men in Missouri was Mack Marsden. For over three years he was suspected of every major crime in Jefferson County. Though the newspapers labeled him a desperado, he was tried only once and never convicted of any wrongdoing. When he was ambushed, shotgunned, and left dying on a dusty road, his life became even more mysterious. Who murdered him? And if Mack wasn’t the desperado behind all those crimes, who was? For the first time, all of the available resources, including oral histories, are mined for the clues that answer these questions and more. This narrative nonfiction book is a true mystery that bears striking parallels to the life of Missourian Jesse James—and is as thrilling as any of the more famous tales of the Old West.

— From the Publisher

Titanic: One Newspaper, Seven Days, and the Truth That Shocked the World

Who Is My Enemy?: Questions American Christians Must Face about Islam--and Themselves

The Mack Marsden Murder Mystery: Vigilantism or Justice?