Nonfiction

“I met Jerry Wexler in New York City on Dec. 11, 1967, the day after Otis Redding had died. A self-described “vehement Jewish atheist,” he might have called our encounter a mitzvah. For me, plunged into despair and confusion, after being in the studio with Otis all the previous week, at Stax Records in Memphis, Tenn., as he recorded “Dock of the Bay,” it was nothing short of a miracle. Indeed, our meeting saved my life, as Jerry was to do, over and over, in the 40-plus years of our friendship.”

“By focusing on the lives of individual women, known and unknown, over many years, this volume is an important addition to the history of Tennessee and the evolving history of southern women.”

“Hance, in her guise as that mistress of all things inexpensive, readily provides readers with a plethora of suggestions for keeping it frugal. With suggestions ranging from ways to save on travel and vacations to responsible methods for cutting household expenses, Hance is right on the money.”

“One couple’s perilous quest for parenthood becomes a universal flight of hope and courage in Lauren Braddock Havey’s A Journey to the Son. You’ll want to be securely seated for the landing (and the first venture outside the capsule.”

“At first blush it might seem a wee bit sacrilegious to parallel the history of Christianity with the history of beer, but Stephen Mansfield makes us wonder why no one has done it before. The strands come together in the person of Arthur Guinness, an 18th century entrepreneur who was to beer what Mayer Rothschild was to bonds. In this smart, good-humored, always-engaging book, Mansfield makes a quietly serious case for the essential role that faith has played not only in the Guinnesses’ success but also in the evolution of democratic capitalism.”