Poetry dying for readers
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955 by X.J. Kennedy. — The Johns Hopkins University Press,…
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Life chronicles
How To Make A Journal Of Your Life by D. Price. Ten Speed Press, $9.95. Ant Farm by Simon Rich.…
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The peril of complacency
The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture by Andrew Keen. Doubleday, 2007. $22.95 Web 2.0…
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Evolution In a Nutshell — the book
Evolution In A Nutshell by Martin Malloy. Trafford Publishing, 2007. 302 pages Evolution is one of those wonderfully fiery topics…
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Another mystery mines our fascination with the past
The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom. Forge Books,2006. 560 pages The last 20 years have seen the creation of a…
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Big as a mountain
The Encyclopedia of Appalachia. University of Tennessee Press, 2007. 1864 pages Sometimes good things come in big packages. And the…
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When Florida was wild
Crackers in the Glade: Life and Times in the Old Everglades edited Betty Savidge Briggs. University of Georgia Press, 2007.…
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Christmas traditions from the Moravians
Moravian Christmas in the South by Nancy Smith Thomas. The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. 184 pages Easter is…
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The way of the sword
The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter. Simon & Schuster, 2007. 384 pages. Eight seconds. Eight seconds, according to Stephen Hunter…
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A look at the dark side of the season
The Christmas Curmudgeon is available at: Barnes &Noble.com, the Western Carolina Internet Café in Dillsboro, or directly from the author…
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Reading for the holidays
Books are the ideal gift for the Yuletide season. Think of the many advantages in giving a book to a…
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An English breakdown
Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey. Melville House Publishing,…
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Of Fathers and Wardrobes
Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Dress by Russell Smith. Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. 256 pages. For many years…
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Carter through the eyes of a friend
Prophet From Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy by Frye Gaillard. University of Georgia Press, 2007. 144 pages In the…
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Paging all book lovers
Readers of the Smoky Mountain News are acutely aware of the writing and storytelling talent here in Western North Carolina.…
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Lessons from the jungle
The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesman and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War…
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Forgotten poetry illuminated by Dark Horses
Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems by Joy Katz and Kevin Prufer. University of Illinois Press, 2007. 232 pages Dark…
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A Storm in the Big Easy
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster, 2007. 384 pages. Fans of James Lee Burke’s bayou…
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An undefined culture gets its own guide
Emo. Emo. Emoooooo. Occasionally the word (pronounced, I believe, I-moo) pops up on the Internet or jumps out of some…
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Not such a safe place
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. Nan A. Talese, 2007. 255 pages “Let’s drop the big one and see what happens.”…
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Chick lit, chauvinism and modern Ireland
Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. Knopf, 2007. 352 pages. Recently my sister asked me if I had met anyone, which…
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What is wrong with teaching in the US?
In 1991, 30-year veteran and master teacher John Taylor Gatto resigned immediately after being named “Teacher of the Year” in…
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Intersection of American minds
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever. Simon & Schuster, 2006. 240 pages Susan Cheever, novelist, critic, and writer of acclaimed memoirs…
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Life in the midst of change
A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas. Harcourt, 2006. 192 pages A blurb on the front cover of Abigail Thomas’…
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A taste for noir
Wild to Possess and A Taste for Sin by Gil Brewer. Stark House Press, 2006. One of the great delights…
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Burning down the house
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke. Algonquin Books, 2007. 305 pages. Some writers come…
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Put your money on Saratoga Fleshpot
Murdering Americans by Ruth Dudley Edwards. Poisoned Pen Press, 2007. 236 pages. Skewering the politically correct codes of our colleges…
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Heading Home waffles but New Stories shines
Choosing the genre in which to write is, of course, a major factor in the success with which we communicate…
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Harry — The boy who lived
By Katie Polonsky I’m a firm believer that when reading a novel, you bring to it the whole of your…
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Book Mania: Showcasing some up-and-coming writers
Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell. Random House, 2007. 368 pages Readers planning to attend Book Mania in Waynesville have several treats…
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Deer hunting in the twilight of American culture
The Twilight of American Culture by Morris Berman. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 224 pages. When I think of…
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Author’s bias shows through
What’s Liberal About The Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education by Michael Berube. W. W. Norton, 2006.…
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Summertime and the reading’s hazy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Penguin Classics. 310 pages Summertime, and the living is easy ... For most of…
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A Frank look back
From Violins to Violence: A Memoir by Marshall Frank. Fortis Book, 2007. 308 pages In Tom Stoppard’s Lord Malquist and…
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A clean miss
Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture and American Democracy by Joan Burbick. New Press, 2007. 288 pages. While teaching Latin at…
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Dad’s take on father’s day
Father’s Day, surely a boon to the greeting card industry and certain segments of the male apparel industry, has taken…
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Schwartz discusses impacts of Catholicism on four British writers
A country which has accepted the mantle of “empire,’ however inimical that mantle may be to its professed destiny; a…
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A hard day’s work
On Earth’s Furrowed Brow: The Appalachian Farm in Photographs by Tim Barnwell. W. W. Norton, 2007. 224 pages. For a…
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The first lady of the South
First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War by Joan E. Cashin. Belknap Press, 2006. Civil wars are marked…
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Hootnoggers: History, definitely delightful
First, the tomatoes. Then the applause. Rob Neufeld’s Mountains, Heroes & Hootnoggers: A Popular History of Western North Carolina (The…
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Southern Comfort
Cornbread Nation 2 by Lolis Eric Elie. The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. In the last 50 years, home…
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Livingroom predators
Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. National Geographic, 2006. 176 pages. Four years ago, my family…
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Heir to the King
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. William Morrow, 2007. 376 pages Although both the publisher and the author of Heart-Shaped Box…
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Today’s writing smacks of sameness
The 1920s were a golden age for American fiction and poetry. F. Scott Fizgerald helped give the decade its name…
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Stories from the dead
In the small Southern community where she lives, Finch Nobles, the narrator of A Gracious Plenty, easily qualifies as a…
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The rise and rise of the American empire
H.W. Crocker’s Don’t Tread On Me: A 400-Year History of America at War, from Indian Fighting to Terrorist Hunting gives…
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War can be murder
Recently, a distressing bit of information surfaced on CNN about the war in Iraq. There has been a significant increase…
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Fascinating as Lewis himself
Among Christians, C.S. Lewis has a reputation that runs in several directions. As the author of The Chronicles of Narnia,…
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A debut reminiscent of other stirring westerns
Back in the 15th century, when Europe underwent a remarkable surge in creativity, the word “Renaissance” (meaning “rebirth”) was frequently…
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Thankfully, some books are short
Ludie’s Life by Cynthia Rylant. Harcourt Children's Books, 2006. 128 pages. Sometimes bad things come in small packages.
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