Go Memphis Stories: Book Reviews

Historian Gordon S. Brown to talk at Rhodes College; 'Angel' author L. A. Weatherly comes to The Booksellers

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:40:00 -0000

A triumphant moment in the 1997 movie "Good Will Hunting" was Matt Damon's verbal barroom takedown of a history grad student that includes the sentence, "You're gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood, talkin' about, you know, the pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization."

Football star Michael Oher signs his memoir at Collierville

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:14:00 -0000

The day Michael Oher signed “I Beat the Odds” a year ago at Davis-Kidd Booksellers, the store sold more than 1,200 copies. Oher’s publisher says 3,500 people attended the event. “That’s still unbelievable,” Oher says of the turnout. Now his inspirational memoir about growing up in North Memphis is out in paperback, and the Memphis native and football star will launch a two-week national tour with a signing event at Barnes & Noble in Collierville at 7 p.m. Wednesday.<

Atwood's words flow in hectic pace

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:20:00 -0000

Margaret Atwood keeps tweeting while I'm talking, telling her 293,637 followers about her next appearance.

Author Kim Edwards comes to Memphis for Literacy Is Key

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:08:00 -0000

On tour with the paperback edition of her second novel, "The Lake of Dreams," Kim Edwards will stop in Memphis Thursday to appear at the second annual "Literacy Is Key" event.

Recount of 1937 flood fascinates with suspense and period details

charlier@commercialappeal.com (Tom Charlier) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:08:00 -0000

See if this has a familiar ring: As an immense flood rolls down the Mississippi River, national news media accounts make it appear that Memphis is utterly submerged, sending local leaders into a dither to proclaim that the city is mostly high, dry and open for business.

Quiet Midtown life belied posh past

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:00 -0000

During the last 25 years of his life, the photographer and graphic designer Jack Robinson worked in Memphis stained-glass studios, lived alone, and made no effort to inform the people around him about his glamorous past.

Time doesn’t dull travel stories of Memphian Richard Halliburton

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:59:00 -0000

Calling one-time Memphian Richard Halliburton “America’s greatest adventurer” sounds like hyperbole — until you read a few chapters of “The Glorious Adventure,” subtitled “Through the Mediterranean in the Wake of Odysseus.”