A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Justice Delayed

May 5, 2010 In 2006, Eric Volz, a Californian with Nashville ties, was living and working in Managua, Nicaragua, when he received a phone call. A former girlfriend had been brutally raped and murdered. In the days that followed, Volz went from grieving ex-suitor to prime suspect. His trial and yearlong incarceration is a horror story of trumped-up charges, judicial corruption, and political intrigue; his release is a tale of hope. Eric Volz discusses and signs Gringo Nightmare at 7 p.m. on May 5 at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville.

This Doll Can Talk

May 4, 2010 A journalist who’s been writing about the South and its characters for more than three decades, Rheta Grimsley Johnson turns the probe on her herself in her second memoir, Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming. With both humor and poignancy, she writes about growing up among Southern Baptists, her college years at Auburn University, and a never-dull journalistic career that took her from a failed weekly startup with her then-husband Jimmy Johnson (who went on to create the Arlo & Janis comic strip) to big metro dailies such as the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She will sign copies of her book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on May 4 at 6 p.m.

This Doll Can Talk

30 Life Lessons My Boys Learned From Baseball

30 Life Lessons My Boys Learned From Baseball

30 Life Lessons My Boys Learned From Baseball

By Andy Norwood

Pelican Publishing
136 pages
$14.95

“Baseball parallels life in so many ways that it can be an incredible blessing to have some understanding of the game. Andy has written a heartfelt and entertaining book for novice and expert alike. These thirty insightful lessons aren’t only a necessity for our boys, but the men who impact their lives every single day.”

—Kent Bottenfield, former Major League Baseball pitcher

“Andy Norwood catches with impeccable timing and skill the very essence of what is good and solid and true about America’s favorite game and, more to the point, what is good and solid and true about America’s dads and their sons. This one will warm your heart and reassure your mind and, along the way, it will also rejoice your soul.”

—Phyllis Tickle, former religion editor of Publishers Weekly

Home Cooking With Tricia Yearwood: Stories and Recipes To Share With Friends and Family

Home Cooking With Tricia Yearwood: Stories and Recipes To Share With Friends and Family

Home Cooking With Tricia Yearwood: Stories and Recipes To Share With Friends and Family

By Tricia Yearwood

Clarkson Potter
224 pages
$29.99

“Singer Trisha Yearwood has found another way to reach her audience—with this follow-up to her successful Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen, she serves up more homey, Southern-inflected fare from her country music kitchen. And this newest is every pinch of salt the sequel—from the foreword by her husband, Garth Brooks, and her intimate personal anecdotes to the recipes donated by family and friends (her grandmother’s strawberry cake; Brooks’s mother’s cabbage rolls, her mama’s homemade waffles). Yearwood jumps off with some helpful hints, such as the importance of fresh-shredded cheese and how to use scissors to release a stubborn piecrust. The meat of the book is rib-sticking classics for both special occasions and weeknights, like sweet potato pudding, jalapeño hushpuppies, and a Lowcountry boil. … Yearwood’s enthusiasm and warmth come through, particularly in the handwritten notes at the bottom of the pages.”

Publisher’s Weekly

King Cotton and His Victims

April 30, 2010 Financial historian Gene Dattel literally follows the money in his account of America’s cotton trade. In this compelling analysis, he argues that King Cotton was critical to the economic interests of both the North and the South, and that an “amoral” quest for wealth consistently trumped the nation’s qualms about slavery.

Focusing on the "Story" in History

April 27, 2010 Like certain songs and film plots, there are some stories in history—George Washington’s life, D-Day—that can be taken up again and again, stories so captivating that all it takes is a good writer to give them new life. Martin Luther King’s murder is one of them, and Hampton Sides is the writer to tell it. He will give a free public reading from the book at Memphis University School on April 27 at 7 p.m.

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