Go Memphis Stories: Book Reviews

Missteps make one wonder what else Kantor got wrong

thomasw@commercialappeal.com (Wendi C. Thomas) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:41:00 -0000

If you believe "The Obamas," Jodi Kantor's book about how the first couple's relationship affects the presidency and the country, Michelle Obama is insufferable.

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.”

Author stretches wings in mystery

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:41:00 -0000

For this, the ninth in her series of Christmas mysteries, the indefatigable Anne Perry tries something different. "A Christmas Homecoming" could have been devised by Agatha Christie, and happens to take place at Christmas, but otherwise has nothing to do with the holiday. Nevertheless, if you like mysteries, and if you like Perry, it repays the reading.

Books take on financial bailouts

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:00:00 -0000

Three years after the U.S. Treasury orchestrated a bailout of the big banks, Detroit and Wall Street, a strong populist sentiment is in the air, judging from a selection of new books the publishers are putting on the market.

Retracing the paths of flight pioneers

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:52:00 -0000

The 40-year-old University Press of Mississippi is based in Jackson and supported by Mississippi's state universities, but its list of titles often embraces Memphis. Consider "Mayor Crump Don't Like It: Machine Politics in Memphis," for instance, or "You Must Be from the North: Southern White Women in the Memphis Civil Rights Movement."

Author follows the sound of music

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:11:00 -0000

Growing up deep in the mountains of western North Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s, a young Charles Frazier couldn't wait for the sun to go down. That's when the WLAC signal would suddenly come clear out of the night sky and things would get really interesting on his radio.

Books in Brief Capsule reviews of recently released books

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:00:00 -0000

Steve Jobs

Hillary Jordan in Memphis to sign "When She Woke"

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:05:00 -0000

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote "The Scarlet Letter" 150 years ago, and set it in colonial America 350 years ago, but contemporary author Hillary Jordan had an oddly easy time adapting the story for her current work.

Memphis as 'spiritual sanctuary'

beifuss@commercialappeal.com (John Beifuss) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:00:00 -0000

In his new book, Tav Falco describes his influential art-trash-punk band, Panther Burns, as recreating the sound of a feline predator in flames -- "an unholy amalgam of animal lust and divine transubstantiation."

Michael Lewis spins economic tales

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:00:00 -0000

LOS ANGELES -- Growing up in New Orleans, writer Michael Lewis learned three lessons that stuck with him for life:

Books in Brief Capsule reviews of recently released books

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:19:00 -0000

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

White House provides novel outlook

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:19:00 -0000

LOS ANGELES -- A few years ago, after a successful career in the White House communications shop and a much less felicitous turn as one of Sarah Palin's handlers during the 2008 presidential campaign, Nicolle Wallace got the ridiculously overconfident idea that she could write a novel that exposed the inner workings of the White House the way "The Devil Wears Prada" peeled back the perfect facade of Anna Wintour's Vogue.

Randall Kenan at University of Memphis; David Sedaris at GPAC

burch@commercialappeal.com (Peggy Burch) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:49:00 -0000

The River City Writers Series will bring author Randall Kenan to the University of Memphis for a reading Monday and an interview Tuesday.

Alter clarifies the Bible's influence on modern fiction

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:49:00 -0000

For nearly half a century, Robert Alter has taught Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has challenged decades of students and readers to do something novel with the Hebrew Bible, literally: to read it as literature.