Category: Blurb

Categories
Blurb Books

To Read, or Not to Read (April 2024)

(Photo: Canva)

As April comes to a conclusion and with Independent Bookstore Day tomorrow (Saturday, April 27th), it’s time for our favorite local booksellers to share their recommendations for what to read — because who else knows better?

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, Hanif Abdurraqib

“This week was my first time reading the work of the celebrated author Hanif Abdurraquib, beloved son of Columbus, Ohio. This book is a treasure trove of longing, hope, and the author’s personal quest to define what really makes a place ‘home.’ Abdurraquib once described his love for Columbus, Ohio, like this: ‘I’m not in love with the bridges. I’m in love with the people. The people are the architecture of the place.’ As a Memphian consuming this mind-bending and beautiful book in three days, I could relate. His affection for his gritty hometown will resonate with many local readers who see the soul of a city as more than just a skyline.” — Angie Doherty, Novel

“Every time I open a new book from Hanif Abdurraqib, I think I’m ready. I never am. His latest masterpiece is definitely a book about basketball, but also about life, and love, and home, and hope, and anything and everything not even basketball at all. There is not a word wasted, and the way he observes the world, unpacks it, then sharply and tenderly delivers it back to us always manages to crack my heart and my mind wide open. Hanif is a brilliant poet, and just seems to see the world differently. I encourage everyone to take a moment to sit with him and see things differently, too.” — Nicole Yasinsky, Novel

Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein

“Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World navigates our polarized society with sensitivity and depth. Using the mix-up between herself and former third-wave feminist turned far-right darling Naomi Wolf as a launching point, Klein delves into contentious topics such as vaccines, climate change, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The narrative is both captivating and witty, weaving together personal and cultural anecdotes of mistaken identity. Klein’s analysis compellingly argues for acknowledging our collective responsibility in today’s dysfunctional political climate and striving to enact positive change. This book is a must-read, skillfully combining scholarship and storytelling.” — Alexandra Farmer, Novel

Ramona the Brave, Beverly Cleary

“Ramona Quimby is a hot mess. She has family problems, friendship issues, and troubles at school, but she manages to work through whatever life unexpectedly throws her way with her spunk and pluckiness. All books about Ramona were written by librarian Beverly Cleary who passed away in 2021 at the age of 104.” — Sheri Bancroft, Novel 

The American Daughters, Maurice Carlos Ruffin

“It is a historical novel based in New Orleans (one of my favorite cities) centered around a spirited young woman who joins a sisterhood. This story highlights the sisterhood and community of Black women whose efforts played a significant role in the Civil War.” — Jasmine Settles, Cafe Noir 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride

“A mystery of master storytelling. Questioning faith and newly discovered skeleton bones. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community — heaven and earth — that sustain us.” — Jasmine Settles, Cafe Noir 

Another Word for Love, Carvell Wallace 

“Keep an eye out for the release on May 14th. ‘To return, to be made whole again. This is another word for love,’ writes Carvell Wallace. In Another Word for Love, Wallace excavates layers of his own history, situated in the struggles and beauty of growing up Black and queer in America.” — Jasmine Settles, Cafe Noir 

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, Brad Gooch

“I typically am a 99 percent fiction reader but lately have been immersed in reading about art and artists (both fiction and nonfiction). I am currently reading the new biography of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch, Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring. It’s a wonderful overview of his short time in the art world as well as a vivid snapshot of New York City in the 1980s. I am also reading the Keith Haring Journals, which adds an extra layer to his life and art. A bit of trivia I learned: Haring’s father attended the Aviation Electronic Technician School in Memphis in 1957, where he stayed for six months. The high point of his stay was spotting Elvis joyriding around town in his white Lincoln. — Cheryl Mesler, Burke’s Book Store

Jeremee DeMoir, owner of Demoir Books & Things, has four books of poetry in mind for National Poetry Month. He’s broken them down into age categories for us:

  • Children’s — Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade: A picture book biography about Gwendolyn Brooks, the influential poet and the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
  • YA — Black Girl Evolving by Diana Townsend (a Memphian): Black Girl Evolving is a powerful and evocative poetry collection that delves into the complexities of the Black community, mental health, and the vital role of Black women in society.
  • YA — Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman: Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry.
  • Adult — Counting Descent by Clint Smith: Clint Smith’s debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming-of-age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition.

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

Categories
Blurb Book Features Books

To Read, or Not to Read? (March 2024)

Once again, the Memphis Flyer has taken to the streets (read: email) to ask Memphis’ booksellers what on Earth we should be reading this month. And, thank goodness, they’ve answered with recommendations that’ll fit on anyone’s bookshelf. Check them out below.

Black Roses: Odes Celebrating Powerful Black Women, Harold Green III
Black Roses is a beautiful collection of odes crafted by poet Harold Green III and pays tribute to all Black women by focusing on visionaries and leaders who are making history right now, including Ava DuVernay, Janelle Monae, Kamala Harris, Misty Copeland, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Robin Roberts, Roxane Gay, Simone Biles, and many others. The collection features full-color illustrations by Melissa Koby. We recommend this book because it’s a powerful expression of love for women during Women’s History Month!
— Jeremee DeMoir, owner at DeMoir Books & Things

Dance of Thieves, Mary E. Pearson
Dance of Thieves is a fantasy duology with a strong female main character. The book contains enemies to lovers, forced proximity, found family, and multiple plot twists. It is masterfully written as the reader is entirely captured by the plot and never bored with what is happening. Although it is set in a fictional world, it is an easily followed story and the characters are realistic. This duology is similar to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and I would definitely recommend it to any fantasy readers. — Maya Zelinski, bookseller and co-founder/co-leader of the Teen Writing Group at Novel

James, Percival Everett 
I only discovered Percival Everett last year and I’m now trying to catch up and read everything. He’s one of our finest and most versatile writers, and this new one is one of his best. Witty, wise, joyful, painful, important, and highly readable. I predict this will finally win him the Pulitzer. — Corey Mesler, owner at Burke’s Book Store

The Other Valley, Scott Alexander Howard
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard came out in February to glowing reviews, but hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention at the store if you ask me! Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro is an obvious and faithful comp, but while I have started NLMG more times than I can count and could never finish, I fell for this one immediately. It’s speculative fiction, sort of literary sci-fi, set in a world made up of a series of valleys — the same place, with the same people, duplicated over and over 20 years ahead of or behind the next, depending on whether you’re going west or east. Does this sound convoluted? I hear it, too. But trust me when I say it does not require any kind of mental mastery of its bent laws of physics to enjoy. The writing is so good I found myself rereading some sentences three or four times, just to soak them in. It’s a quiet, atmospheric novel full of big ideas that manages to double as a page-turner. Basically, my favorite kind of book. — Kat Leache, Social Media & Promotions at Novel

Thicker Than Water: A Memoir, Kerry Washington 
Award-winning actor, director, producer, and activist Kerry Washington shares the journey of her life so far in this bravely intimate story of discovering her truth. We selected this as it comes from the woman who changed television. Best known for portraying Olivia Pope on the ABC hit Scandal, when it premiered, a Black woman hadn’t had the lead role in a network drama for nearly 40 years. Kerry Washington changed the game and Scandal decimated the idea that a Black female lead would alienate audiences, proving, instead, that it would energize them. Why not celebrate such a powerful figure and share this powerful book during Women’s History Month? — Jeremee DeMoir, owner at DeMoir Books & Things

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations. Support indie and support local. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

Categories
Blurb Book Features Books

To Read, or Not to Read?

Photo: Canva

I don’t know about you, but my TBR (“to be read,” for those not keeping up with the lingo) list keeps on growing and growing and growing, and yet I’m out here acting like I just don’t know what to read. Because I don’t. There are just too many choices. So, like any good journalist, I took advantage of my power, wielded my press badge (which doesn’t exist), and went to the source (Memphis’ booksellers) to ask the age-old question, “What should I read?”, and have someone else make the choice for me. It’s important work, I know. And I don’t do it just for me. I do it for the people. For you. 

Jasmine Settles, owner of Cafe Noir, whose brick and mortar is slated to open at the end of this month, has two suggestions for me — I mean, us — The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham and Tenderheaded by Olatunde Osinaike. Of Tenderheaded, she says, “That was actually selected as a winner of the [2022] National Poetry Series. The book focuses on masculinity, Black male identity. And I love how the work is so gentle, but it has also kind of like a music rhythm to it. Just like how his work kind of expands with language and he will take a word and kind of build around it. And he is a coder, like a computer coder. I truly, really admire his work and his style.”

“I think The Mayor of Maxwell Street is a really good one as well,” Settles says. “[The author] is from Memphis. I think her work is brilliant.”  Within The Mayor of Maxwell Street, the daughter of the “wealthiest Negro in America,” Nelly Sawyer, finds herself the premier debutante of Black society after the sudden death of her only brother, and immediately, she is whisked off to a number of social engagements as part of her coming-out, much to her chagrin. She has her secrets, though — for the past year, she’s written as an undercover investigative journalist, reporting “the achievements and tribulations of everyday Black people living in the shadow of Jim Crow.” Nelly’s latest assignment: to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street. Soon, she enlists the help of the mysterious low-level speakeasy manager, Jay Shorey.

Settles isn’t the only one recommending Cunningham’s debut novel; so is Jeremee DeMoir of DeMoir Books & Things. For younger readers, though, he recommends Jason Reynolds’ Stuntboy (Children’s) and  Keith F. Miller Jr.’s Pritty (YA). And for a more classic read, DeMoir has been reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.

“He’s just a classic author, with a really amazing touch,” the online bookstore owner says. “He breathes fresh life into a romantic mystery. Giovanni’s Room is a classic queer novel that follows two characters in Paris as they’re going through discovering their identity within the queer community in Paris in the 1950s. So it’s a book definitely ahead of its time, but super refreshing and super current despite being written in the 20th century.”

Lastly, Corey Mesler of Burke’s Book Store gives his two cents on what’s in this month: “Claire Keegan’s outsize bandwagon is worth jumping on. I don’t mind being the hundred-thousandth reader to marvel at her spare, shimmering prose, and recommend her to all and sundry. Her latest, So Late in the Day, a collection of three short stories (two appeared in previous books) is more evidence that she is one of our best writers, despite her limited output. Quality over quantity. My favorite is her novel, Small Things Like These (the title might be a statement of purpose). You can read it in one sitting but you will savor its reverberations long after setting it down.”

All books mentioned can be purchased at the respective bookstore locations. Support indie and support local. For upcoming book events, including book clubs and author signings, visit the Flyer’s event calendar.

Categories
Blurb Books

Crazy, Stupid, Interdimensional Love

Photo: Courtesy Liana Kangas

Magic portals, sexy aliens, and sci-fi romance — these are just some of the things you’ll find in the graphic novel Mariko Between Worlds, written by Matthew Erman and illustrated by Liana Kangas. Set in the year 2099, Mariko and Rem are breaking up, their interdimensional relationship proving to be far too complicated, but they agree to make the most of their last night together in the Mall of Portals, “an interdimensional consumerist heaven full of unending vice.” What ensues, as Kangas says, is an exploration of communication, boundaries, and lots of aliens. 

The inspiration for the story came from writer Erman’s pandemic-induced binge of 90 Day Fiancé with his wife and comic book artist Lisa Sterle. “They really wanted to tell a story about this girl who doesn’t get a visa to essentially go be with her boyfriend,” Kangas says. “They brought, I think, the first three chapters to me and the editor, and Matt finished writing the rest of the book.”

Memphis-based Kangas’ playful and psychedelic illustrations flesh out the many worlds in the novel, adding to its “fun and bizarre” atmosphere and plot. “I watched movies like Paprika and really weird old anime to get inspiration for integrating the sci-fi elements but make it fun,” Kangas says, adding that they also read “corny romance novels to get in the right headspace.”

“Matt and I had poured a lot of our personal selves into the book as well, you know,” Kangas says. “We’ve all been in that angsty teen/early 20s break-up phases and stuff like that. So it’s been fun to do. I mean, it’s the first romance book, I think, I’ve really ever worked on.”

Previously, Kangas has worked with IPs, like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Stranger Things, and in addition to most recently releasing Mariko Between Worlds, she’s had two other books come out this past month: Know Your Station, a space horror book, and Trve Kvlt, a supernatural horror book. 

“All three [of those books] across the board are totally different,” Kangas says. “But I think being in a space and a city like this has allowed me to pursue that, by being connected with my peers. Like, I go to a lot of conventions and stuff, so I get to see them and feel refueled because there’s a small community of comics in Memphis. … The city is very vibrant in terms of diversity and how much they care about the arts and stuff. And so I really think having that sort of supportive community allowed me even during the pandemic to continue my freelancing and continue telling stories.” 

And Memphis, Kangas says, has slipped its way into her illustrations. “The book that I just did — Trve Kvlt — it’s a fast food heist, it’s a very bizarre, very fun, dark comedy,” they say. “I would say a lot of my inspiration came from Memphis. It feels a lot like the energy and the vibe of the city, which is very hardworking, very work hard, play hard. … But it’s hard not to see some of that in some of my work, but I definitely think that is the book that shows it the most. But otherwise, I would say, mostly because I’ve been complimented a lot on my diverse characters that I make, I do attribute that to living here.”

This Friday, November 3rd, at 6 p.m., Kangas will celebrate the launch of Mariko Between Worlds at Novel. They will also sign Trve Kvlt and Know Your Station. All three books are available at Novel or on Novel’s website.

Categories
Blurb Books

Your Quarantine Reading List, Part Two

Phase II of Memphis’ and Shelby County’s Back to Business reopening plan is underway, but things are still anything but business as usual for many Memphians and Mid-Southerners.

In one step toward normalcy, though, both of the Bluff City’s biggest indie bookstores have, with a set of well-thought-out guidelines, opened their doors to customers this week. Burke’s Book Store and Novel are allowing in-store shopping (and continuing curbside pickup for those who prefer it) with adherence to guidelines posted on their respective social media pages. Burke’s even shared this thoughtful, rhyming image to help customers remember the rules.

Burke’s Book Store

Burke’s posted this message to its social media pages to help customers remember to practice social distancing while shopping.

So for those still on the lookout for safe, socially distanced activities, here are a few more Memphis-centric books to help while away the homebound hours. There’s popular fiction, mystery, history, fantasy, and even a comic book series.

Sheree Renée Thomas

Sheree Renée Thomas
Nine Bar Blues, 2020 (Fiction)
From publisher Third Man Records (that’s right, Jack White’s record company) and two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author Sheree Renée Thomas, this short story collection explores music, myth, and history. Thomas’ prose is sure and lyrical; Nine Bar Blues reads like a prophetic warning or a song sung to beat the devil. Music is a recurring motif in the collection, making it the ideal starting point for Memphians eager to explore the literature of the New South.

Eric Jerome Dickey

Eric Jerome Dickey
The Business of Lovers, 2020 (Fiction)
All things considered, maybe now is the perfect moment for a novel that takes human connection as its focus. “It’s a novel about family — the family you have and the family that you choose to have,” the author says. The Business of Lovers follows Brick Duquesne, fresh from a fight against cancer, an ailment he never revealed to his family. “It’s one of those things where people go through something but don’t know how to ask for help because they don’t want to disturb the lives of others,” Dickey explains. In a novel with former child stars, comedians, engineers, and a tangled web of relationships, Dickey’s characters search for agency and for ways to lift up the family they choose to love. Of course, as Dickey points out, perception is everything. “Anybody can smile and take a picture in front of a palm tree,” Dickey says. Of course, as the author points out, that photo can only hint at what’s going on beyond the edges of the frame.

Claire Fullerton
Little Tea, 2020 (Fiction)

Little Tea is set in Memphis in two time periods — the narrative alternates between the present day and the ’80s. Fullerton’s fourth novel — the follow-up to 2018’s successful Mourning Dove — follows the narrator Celia Wakefield and hinges primarily on her friend Thelonia Winfrey, known also as Little T. It’s a novel about disparities, social norms and mores, about the slow march toward equality, but more than anything else, it is a novel about the deep-rooted friendships that bind our lives. “We’re all just comparing notes on life,” Fullerton says of herself and her fellow storytellers, whether they work in ink and paper, film frames, or song. And with four novels and a career in radio under her belt, Fullerton can boast her share of experience with storytelling. She worked in radio in Memphis for nearly a decade, logging time at WEGR-Rock-103, FM 100, WMC-79, WEVL, and WSMS. And that was before she made the move to a bigger stage in California. In other words, it’s a safe bet that the Memphis-born author knows how to tease out a good tale. And, as in so many things, Fuller says a good story needs subtlety. “A writer can’t come out, laying the cards on the table, and say ‘This is the point,’” Fullerton explains. “You’ve got to leave that to the reader.” Fullerton will be hosting a virtual book talk in partnership with Novel bookstore on Thursday, June 18th, at 6 p.m.

Claire Fullerton

Chanelle Benz
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead, 2017 (Fiction, Short Stories)
Chanelle Benz’s The Gone Dead was one of the best novels of 2019, and her debut short story collection is just as good, albeit in several bite-sized segments. The stories in The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead take a tour through various genres — the story from which the collection takes its title is a Western — demonstrating the author’s nimble skill switching between styles.

Tony Max
The Golden Silence and The Crimson Hand (Comics)

From the mad mastermind behind Memfamous Comics and No Regrets tattoo artist Tony Max, comes the two-part comics series The Golden Silence and The Crimson Hand. The books are all set in the same reality, in a walled-in Memphis 200 years from now. It’s a world steeped in the history of alternative comics and pulp fiction — with disgraced former cops, barbarians at the gates, and crumbling society. Max just put the finishing touches on the final issue of The Crimson Hand, making now the perfect time to get caught up on Memphis’ premier dystopian comic book. The series is available online for free at tapas.io/rabideyemovement.

Arthur Flowers
Another Good Loving Blues, 1993 (Fiction)
This novel takes Beale Street as its setting, telling the tale of bluesman Lucas Bodeen and Melvira Dupree, the conjure woman he loves. It’s a story of love in the time of Jim Crow, of happiness and connection and myth and history.

Categories
Blurb Books

Your Quarantine Reading List

Since we’ll all be socially distancing and sheltering in place for a while, we thought we would put together this Memphis-centric reading list. This list is by no means comprehensive. Depending on how long we’re on lockdown, there may just be time to do a series. And with all the storytelling talent in Memphis and the nearby Mississippi Delta, it would be a long time before we ran out of books to write about or had to use two books from the same author. There are some classics included, of course, but we’ve also made a point to include a little something for everyone. There’s popular fiction, mystery, history, grit-lit, young adult, fantasy, absurdism, and an essay collection.

Memphis

Chanelle Benz

Chanelle Benz
The Gone Dead, 2019 (Fiction, Mystery)
When I accepted this assignment, it was with the understanding that I would, once again, rave about The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz. The book has everything one could want from a rural noir — mystery, murder, coverups, family intrigue, a dog, and a deeply timely meditation on memory and legacy. “I got interested in the things that we think that we remember and whatever that truth might be and the space between the two,” Benz told me back in 2019. “Our memories are reconfigured based on the story that we’re telling ourselves about ourselves, our own mythology.” Read it. You can thank me later.

Shelby Foote
The Civil War: A Narrative, 1958-1974 (Nonfiction, History)
This one’s a classic. In this series of three hefty tomes, Foote creates the definitive guide to the Civil War.

Daniel Connolly

The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America, 2016 (Nonfiction, Sociology)
This book won first place for the Best Political/Current Affairs Book in the International Latino Book Awards 2017, and it was listed as one of Southern Living‘s Best Books of 2016.

Robert Gordon
Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music’s Hometown, 2018
(Nonfiction, Music)
Memphis is weird, and Robert Gordon gets it. This collection encompasses the vast breadth of the myriad of musical moments for which Memphis (and the Delta) is known. From raucous parties at bluesman Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint to Jeff Buckley hitchhiking in the rain, from Tav Falco’s Panther Burns to Cat Power, Memphis Rent Party embraces the many sounds of Memphis.

Alice Bolin

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, 2018 (Nonfiction, Essays/Criticism)
Dead girls were having a moment in American fiction. The runaway success of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girls is just one example of America’s weird obsession with dead girls.


Richard J. Alley
Five Night Stand, 2015 (Fiction)
Three seemingly disparate characters come together, drawn by the power of music. This book by former Memphis magazine contributor Richard Alley has jazz, journalism, estranged families, regret, secrets, and a search for meaning.

Michael Williams and Richard Cahan

Revolution in Black and White: Photographs of the Civil Rights Era by Ernest C. Withers, 2019 (Nonfiction, Biography)
This meticulously researched biography-meets-photo-collection is a mesmerizing look into the life of photographer Ernest C. Withers. Though the writers are Chicago-based, their subject, Ernest C. Withers, was a Memphian, and his photographs make up a good deal of the book.

Preston Lauterbach

Bluff City: The Pictures Tell the Story, 2019 (Nonfiction, Biography)
In this biography, author Preston Lauterbach gives a reasoned examination of the complicated legacy of Ernest C. Withers — photographer, chronicler of the civil rights movement, and FBI informant.

Kaitlin Sage Patterson
The Diminished, 2018 (Young Adult, Fantasy)
New rule: No one can be judged for seeking a little escapist entertainment while hunkered down and self-isolating during a global pandemic. Actually, I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, and, much as I love a well-researched history or a weighty work of literature, I have a mile-wide soft spot for good genre fiction. And if you’re hooked and need more, The Exalted, the sequel to The Diminished, was released last year.

Barry Wolverton and Dave Stevenson
Vanishing Island, 2015 (Middle Grade, Adventure)
In the first book in The Chronicles of the Black Tulip series, 12-year-old Bren gets more than he bargained for when he runs away to adventure on the sea. He’s stuck cleaning the vomitorium — at least, until a strange sailor gives him a curious coin.

Corey Mesler
Camel’s Bastard Son, 2020 (Fiction)
Absurdist, time-traveling love story from Memphis-based novelist, poet, and owner of Burke’s Book Store, Corey Mesler.

Various authors
Memphis Noir, 2015 (Mystery)
Uncertainty seems to be the new normal, so why not double down with this hardboiled collection of Memphis mystery fiction?

The Delta

Jesmyn Ward
Sing, Unburied, Sing 2017 (Fiction)
This is one of the best books published in recent memory. For Southern readers who missed this novel when it took the literary world by storm, can there be a better time to catch up?

Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, 1980 (Fiction)
Everyone should own this collection of short stories. End of story.

Donna Tartt
The Secret History, 1992 (Fiction)
Scandal, youth, friendship, murder. Donna Tartt’s first novel is set in New England, but she’s a Mississipian, so we’ll claim her for the Delta. The Secret History tells the tale of six close-knit college students — and one murder.

Larry Brown
Dirty Work, 1988 (Fiction)
Two men — one black, one white — share stories from their adjacent beds in a VA hospital. Both men were born and raised in Mississippi, and both fought in Vietnam.

Katy Simpson Smith
The Everlasting, 2020 (Fiction)
Why not trip the light fantastic through a four-part, epoch-spanning story set in Rome? Smith explores the primordial power of love and faith through the shifting lens of history. And, as Smith told me in a recent phone interview, “Looking at the world in terms of 2,000-year chunks of time instead of two-week chunks of time is maybe a healthy way to approach this current crisis, too.”


William Faulkner
The Reivers, 1962 (Fiction)
Some Faulkner fans discount his final novel because it eschews the complicated structures he’s famed for in favor of a more straightforward narrative. But this story of Mississippi country boys stealing the first car in Yoknapatawpha County to drive to Memphis is right up there with Absalom, Absalom! for me.

Lee Durkee
The Last Taxi Driver, 2020 (Fiction)
Absurd. Hilarious. Brutally honest.

Ace Atkins
The Ranger, 2011 (Mystery)
Ace Atkins’ Quinn Colson novels have achieved verified page-turner status. Former Army Ranger Quinn Colson returns home — only to have to clean up Tibbehah County.

You can find these books (and others) at local bookstores Novel and Burke’s Book Store. The Ask Vance Collection is available here.

Categories
Blurb Books

Picture Perfect: James L. Dickerson Releases Coffee Table Photo Collection

I write this from the Flyer’s offices in Downtown Memphis, surrounded by stacks of books. Novels, short story collections, works of nonfiction, and even a few comic books — all Advance Reading Copies, or ARCs, in the parlance of book reviewers, literary agents, and booksellers — line my bookshelf, sit atop it, and sometimes even linger on my window ledge. It’s pure heaven for a bibliophile such a myself. It does mean, however, that sometimes a really excellent book will get lost in the shuffle. I hope, fellow readers, that for this sin, I can be forgiven. Such is the case with journalist and photographer James L. Dickerson’s coffee table photo collection Mississippi on My Mind: Random Life Through the Eyes of a Journalist (Sartoris Literary Group), released at the tail-end of 2019, when this reviewer had his mind on the holidays.

The book collects some of the many photographs taken by Dickerson over the course of his career as a journalist — and a lover of the arts, music in particular. The photos are often accompanied by excerpts from interviews with the subjects, poetry, or touching or humorous anecdotes. On the page opposite a photo of late Texas guitarist and singer Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dickerson remembers allowing the legendary bluesman to break a strict no-smoking policy the journalist had and light up in his car. Dickerson recalls, upon hearing the news of Vaughan’s untimely death in a helicopter crash, rushing out to his car to look at the half-smoked cigarette, alone in an otherwise-pristine ashtray.
James L. Dickerson

Stevie Ray Vaughan

One of my favorite series of photos in the book is a delightful six-page spread of glam-pop, power-pop band The Bangles, looking decidedly ’80s and L.A. when placed next to Dickerson’s other, mostly Southern subjects. Next to a photo of bassist Michael Steele, Dickerson prints an excerpt from a phone interview — one in which every member of the band is in a separate bathroom in a “cavernous house in the heart of Los Angeles.” My particular favorite photo is one of Susanna Hoffs playing a solid-body Rickenbacker guitar slung low over a purple-white blouse with enormous shoulder pads. It is excellent.

Mississippi on My Mind includes photos of Estelle Axton (co-founder of Stax Records), Bobby Womack, Waylon Jennings, Tom T. Hall (who penned the lyrics to “Harper Valley P.T.A.”), George Klein, and Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley’s legendary original guitarist. It’s no surprise that Moore is numbered within the volume’s subjects; my first encounter with Dickerson’s work was his biography of Moore, That’s Alright, Elvis. There are also photos from beloved local landmarks such as the Memphis Zoo and the Levitt Shell.

James L. Dickerson

For the most part, Mississippi on My Mind can be broken down into three sections — Memphis, Mississippi, and Nashville. It’s a true trinity of Southern arts and music, and Dickerson knows his subject matter well. All in all, the book is a fun read, and it seems ample evidence of the truism that, in photography and journalism, there is no substitute for being there at the right time. For those who weren’t, though, Dickerson’s book makes a worthy passport. 

Categories
Blurb Books

Tom Graves’ White Boy

Memphis-based writer and publisher Tom Graves is set to publish his sixth book on Saturday, June 1st, with a booksigning to follow at Novel bookstore on Tuesday, June 4th.

The author of Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson and of Pullers, a novel about the weird world of competitive arm wrestling, has now set his sights on the art of memoir. The book will be released under the imprint of the Devault-Graves Agency (Graves’ Memphis-based publishing house, co-founded by Darrin Devault).

“Like every book I’ve ever done, this one came at me sideways,” Graves says of his new book, White Boy: A Memoir. The author had been working on a different book, when an autobiographical section expanded, seemingly of its own volition, blossoming far beyond the confines of its chapter.

“I’d been working on a cookbook,” Graves says. He is interested in soul food, specifically in learning to cook it. The only problem: “I wasn’t very good at it.”

So Graves set about trying to find a teacher willing to give him some one-on-one lessons in the great Southern art of soul food.

“I wanted somebody who was a good kitchen cook,” Graves explains. “I put this question to a reverend I know, Reverend Roger Brown, and he put me in touch with an 80-year-old lady, [Larthy Washington], who has been the church cook for him for 40-plus years. Every two weeks, we would meet at the church, and she would give me lessons.”

Graves still plans on finishing and releasing the cookbook he’s co-writing with Larthy Washington, but he decided he would first have to explore the autobiographical idea.

“Because I was working with an African-American lady and working on soul food, it had me thinking about all the different changes in my life regarding race in Memphis,” Graves explains. “I’m a lifelong Memphian; I’ve never lived anywhere else.”

As a witness to landmark events from his elementary school’s initial integration in the ’60s to the removal of the Confederate statues from city parks in 2017, Graves feels his perspective offers something valuable and relatable. So he set about expanding and editing that autobiographical chapter into a full-fledged memoir focusing on race in Memphis.

Graves lists banner moments in his memoir, times when he was forced to confront the injustices of society, and then, afterward, view the world in a different light. One such moment was a time he and his family were entertaining old family friends visiting from out of town.

“We were all picnicking at Overton Park,” Graves explains. They wanted to make a trip to the Memphis Zoo on a later day — a Thursday, which was, at the time, one of the only days that African Americans were allowed to visit the zoo. A young Graves pointed that detail out to his father, who explained that though their black neighbors were prohibited from visiting the zoo on “whites only” days, Tom and his family were not required to abide by the same rules. They could go to the zoo any day they wished. Graves was stunned: “I remember thinking, ‘Wait a minute. Something’s wrong here. That’s not fair.’”

In the memoir, Graves focuses on the multiple moments in his life when he was forced to acknowledge the injustices of racism. “[In White Boy], I talk about the day that my school was integrated,” Graves explains. “It would have been the ’64/’65 school year, and Bethel Grove integrated one black student. And what pressure must have been on that little girl … ” The author trails off for a moment before imagining the unfairness of shouldering so much pressure as a child.

Still, not all of White Boy is devoted to Graves’ childhood, and as the author ages and becomes more aware, he’s forced to confront still grimmer tableaus. And in his memoir, Graves hews close to the bone, not letting himself or his city off, nor shying away from acknowledging the gritty details when necessary. When asked how Memphis has changed, Graves is quick to answer. “It’s changed enormously,” he says of his hometown. “If you saw a fish fry or a barbecue, it was either all-black or all-white.” But, the author admits, “I think we have work to do.”

The author doesn’t intend the book to be a scholarly examination of racism in the South. White Boy is a memoir, and is intended to be read as such, which is why it ends on a personal note. “I ended [the book] with my tragic love story,” Graves says. He met his first wife in Senegal, but the marriage didn’t last long. Of course, like the rest of White Boy, that’s Graves’ story, and it’s best to let the author tell it himself.

Tom Graves will discuss and sign his new book, White Boy: A Memoir, at Novel bookstore, Tuesday, June 4th, at 6 p.m.

Categories
Blurb Books

Hampton Sides’ Latest Book

A small peninsula jutting out of Asia into the Pacific Ocean, separating the Yellow Sea on the west from the Sea of Japan on the east, Korea has been much in the news of late. Or rather, North Korea has, with talks of the looming denuclearization and occasional reminders of President Trump’s abiding infatuation with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un lobbed into the Twitter-verse. But North Korea as a separate entity from its half to the south is a relatively new development, dating only to the end of World War II, when the world’s two newest superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, split the country at the 38th parallel. Thus, after some 35 years under the rule of Japan, one nation became two, governed from communist Pyongyang in the north and the U.S.-backed Seoul in the south.

“It’s one people, it’s one culture, it’s one language. It should never have been separated” says Hampton Sides, Memphis native, award-winning author, editor-at-large of Outside magazine, and author of the just-released On Desperate Ground (Doubleday). “That tragedy lives on today.”

Sides is currently on a book tour for On Desperate Ground, his riveting account of the U.S. intervention in Korea, specifically the Marines’ battle at Chosin Reservoir, where U.S. troops were ambushed by wave after wave of Chinese soldiers. Sides called me from his hotel room to discuss his new narrative history, squeezing our conversation in between a delayed flight and a booksigning later that night. Sides book tour will land him in Memphis, Monday, Oct. 8th, for a talk and booksigning at Novel.

“I have historical ADD,” Sides says when I ask him what drew his attention to the conflict at Chosin. “I have to move around or I stagnate.” Sides’ far-ranging interests are evident in the diverse subject matter of his previous novels. Though his PEN Award-winning Ghost Soldiers, a WWII account of the an Allied prison camp raid, is not far off in tone from On Desperate Ground, his other books run the historical gamut, with perhaps one common thread: “A lot of my stories focus on human endurance and survival and what happens when people are confronted with extreme circumstances.”

During a book signing in Virginia, Sides was approached by a “grizzled old man” who suggested the author should cover the Chosin Reservoir. Sides noticed the man’s hand when the old timer handed him a business card — the man, a veteran of the conflict at Chosin, had missing digits; he’d lost them to frostbite while in the mountains of North Korea. During the conflict, temperatures dropped to 35 degrees below zero, and 85% of the men involved suffered from frostbite: “A lot of them say they’re still trying to get the cold out of their bones.”

Throughout On Desperate Ground, Sides pays attention, not only to star players like General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. President Harry Truman, and Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong, but also to civilians and the grunts on the ground. “The lifeblood of this book was interviews with these guys,” Sides says, referring to the soldiers who lost pieces of themselves to cold and Chinese bullets on a mountain range in North Korea. The author spent almost four years on research for the book, much of it consisting of interviews with veterans whose voices have been hitherto unheard, who were not followed by a coterie of journalists, as was MacArthur. “I wanted to cut back and forth between the guys on the ground and the decision makers,” Sides says.

Those decision makers make up the primary “protagonists” and “antagonists” of the book. Marine General Oliver P. Smith, the evident protagonist, led the U.S. intervention in Korea, first the liberation of South Korea from North Korean encroachment, and then a push into North Korea to throw off the communist yoke and unite the country under U.S.-influenced rule. The invasion of the north was instigated by MacArthur, who had come to believe his own press after his successes in the Philippines in WWII, and by MacArthur’s favored lieutenant, Army General Edward Almond. Whereas Smith believed intelligence about Chinese troops who had infiltrated North Korea in secret to support their communist allies, and took measures to slow the break-neck march north and save as many of his troops as possible, MacArthur and Almond denied the reports and, in doing so, spent the lives of their men recklessly.

If there is an antagonist to Sides’ book, he says it is MacArthur and his yeasaying staff. “MacArthur never spent a single night on the ground in the entire Korean War,” Sides reports. And so, leading from Tokyo, where he supervised the occupation of Japan, MacArthur vastly underestimated the resistance his troops would face. Almond was MacArthur’s man on the ground in Korea, and he pushed the advance with little concern for potential consequences. Though “quite brave,” Sides says, Almond was “almost criminally out of touch.” Sides went on: “I think he has a lot of blood on his hands. He and MacArthur both.”

But the generals and presidents are not the only subject matter of On Desperate Ground. Most riveting to my mind was the story of one civilian, a transplanted North Korean living in Seoul, who survived the siege and liberation of Seoul only to volunteer to accompany U.S. troops into North Korea as a translator. “Part of the book I’m most proud of is the story of the North Korean civilian Dr. Lee [Bae-suk],” Sides says, emphasizing Lee’s importance as a way of gaining perspective on the conflict. “We forget that there are civilians on the ground who experience [war] in such tangible ways.”

Forgetful, though, is not a charge one could level at Sides. The Memphis native takes great care to give background and context to the trials American troops faced at Chosin. And this attention to detail serves to bring into greater focus the horrors of the Battle of Chosin, from frostbite to miscommunication to waves of Chinese soldiers. The vista crystalizes in the mind’s eye, a frozen hell.

“There’s a lot of unfinished business,” Sides says, pointing out that there was an armistice to end the Korean War but no actual peace treaty. “The DMZ [Demilitarized Zone] is one of the most militarized places on Earth.” And whatever the news brings, whatever uncertain future exists for the two neighboring nations, with On Desperate Ground, Sides gives readers a crystal-clear and compelling glimpse into the past.

Hampton Sides signs On Desperate Ground at Novel, Monday, October 8th, at 6 p.m.

Categories
Blurb Books

Digital Baldwin @ Rhodes College

Presented by Rhodes College, this presentation will highlight aspects of James Baldwin’s works and their relevance in today’s cultural moment.

A writer and social critic, Baldwin often published works providing insights on race, spirituality, and 

humanity that also have become references for post-civil rights discussions of race in America. Free and open to the public, the event is presented by the Memphis Center at Rhodes as part of the college’s Communities in
 Conversation series. Digital Baldwin will feature Professors Zandria Robinson and Ernest Gibson of Rhodes College and Professor Terrence Tucker of the University of Memphis. Each will introduce, screen, and discuss a video clip of Baldwin as a means to inform, to contextualize, and to highlight aspects of Baldwin’s work.


This conversation follows from prior events at Rhodes and in Memphis featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jesmyn Ward, who along with the #BlackLivesMovement, have turned Baldwin’s work into the cultural touchstone of the moment.

The Rhodes College Communities in Conversation series provides the insights of scholars, philosophers, historians, journalists, and other thought leaders on the big issues faced nationally and around the world. Find Communities in Conversation on Facebook.com/Communities.in.Conversation on Twitter @Rhodes_CiC, or on Instagram @cic1848.

Digital Baldwin
Thursday, Feb. 2nd
6 p.m.
Hardie Auditorium of Palmer Hall
Rhodes College