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Book Reviews

NCLR will share a “new” book review weekly: usually from the most recent or forthcoming online issue, but sometimes, in recognition of current events, from a back issue.

Colley reviews Smith

Saturday Review: “Lee Smith Goes To Key West” a review by Sharon E. Colley of Silver Alert (2023) by Lee Smith.

Goad reviews Hedge Coke

Saturday Review: “A History of Violence, a History of Beauty” a review by Jill Goad of
Look at This Blue: A Poem. by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (2022)
Goad highlights the book’s emphasis on portraying California as a brutal place of decay and extinction, while subtly refusing to give up hope.

Roberts reviews Greene on Spencer

Saturday Review: “Regarding Edward:” a review by Terry Roberts
Elizabeth Spencer and Sally Greene. The Edward Tales. (2022)
Occasionally we get to revisit friends who have passed on, when a new anthology or scholarly critique of their work is published.

Hallberg reviews Parker and Gaspeny

Saturday Review: “Naming The Unnameable and Communicating The Unknowable”: a review by Christy
Alexander Hallberg
Michael Gaspeny. A Postcard from the Delta (2022)
Michael Parker. I Am the Light of This World (2022)
We are so excited to start sharing our book reviews forthcoming in our fall issue!

Rerun: Godwin on Roberts plus Morgan and Herin

Saturday Review: “Historical Truth in Fictional Form” a review by Rebecca Godwin
Miriam Herin. A Stone for Bread (2015)
Robert Morgan. Chasing the North Star (2016)
Terry Roberts. That Bright Land (2016)

Rerun: Lazure on Hudson and Neiman

Saturday Review: “Contemporary Carpetbaggers Calling Carolina “Home” a review by Erica Plouffe Lazure in NCLR Online 2012
Marjorie Hudson. Accidental Birds of the Carolinas (2011)
Valerie Nieman. Blood Clay (2011)

Rerun: Coby on Ballingrud

Saturday Review: “Caught in the Teeth of Love” a review by Jim Coby in NCLR Online 2021
of Nathan Ballingrud’s Wounds: Six Stories from the Borders of Hell. (2019) Last time Coby wrote about Ballingrud was in 2021.

Rerun: Hamer on Price

Saturday Review: “The Tao of Disability” by Mike Hamer in NCLR Vol 2. Iss. 2. (1995)

A review of A Whole New Life by Reynolds Price (1994)

Over the summer, we’re sharing some reruns of older book reviews.

“Disability, whenever it comes, is always a mystery.”

Rerun: Mason on Morgan & Owens

Saturday Review: “The Regional Poet and the World” a review by Karen K. Mason in NCLR Online 2013
Robert Morgan. October Crossing (2009) and Terroir (2011)
Scott Owens. Something Knows the Moment (2011) and For One Who Knows How to Own Land (2012)

Rerun: Daughtridge on Gardner & Hopes

Saturday Review: “Always Timely, No Matter The Time” a review by Ashley Daughtridge in NCLR Online 2021.
Kati Gardner. Brave Enough (2018)
David Brendan Hopes. The Falls of Wyona: A Novel (2019)

Daughtridge starts the review stating, “Though taking place over half a century apart, both [books] upend prejudicial stigmas related to current social issues:”