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Book Reviews

NCLR shares a Saturday Review Post weekly: usually a book review from the most recent or forthcoming online issue, but sometimes, in recognition of current events, from a back issue.

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:”

Bucher review of Minnie Bruce Pratt collection

Saturday Review: “A book of pages waiting to be turned” a review by Christina G. Bucher of Minnie Bruce Pratt collection The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems. (2003) from NCLR 15 (2006).

Since it is summer, we’re rerunning older book reviews. This week, we honor the memory of Minnie Bruce Pratt, who passed away early this month.

Rerun: Coby on Griffin & Gutierrez

Saturday Review: “A Little Mercy Left In The World After All” a review by Jim Coby in NCLR Online 2017
Matthew Griffin. Hide. (2016)
Michael Keenan Gutierrez. The Trench Angel. (2015)
Reviewer Coby writers, “Comes now a pair of eloquent and engaging books from first time North Carolinian novelists Matthew Griffin and
Michael Keenan Gutierrez, each tackling the subject of love in his own unique voice.”

Rerun: Knotts on Morgan

Saturday Review: “Giving Fictional Shape To History” a review by Kristina L. Knotts of Robert Morgan’s As Rain Turns to Snow and Other Stories. (2017) in NCLR Online 2018
About this 2017 collection, Knotts wrote, “More so than some of Morgan’s previous fiction, many of these stories look at the difficulties posed by chronic illness and aging, but all show Morgan’s impressive range as a writer.”

Rerun: Lawrence reviews Spencer

Saturday Review: “Love Just The Way It Is” a review by Sally F. Lawrence of
Elizabeth Spencer’s Starting Over:Stories. (2014) in NCLR Online 2015. “As a master of the short story form, Spencer continues to offer her readers fresh perspectives about familial connections in Starting Over.”

Rerun: Three Queer Poets Write About Love

Saturday Review: “Love and Death in North Carolina Poetry”: a review by Catherine Carter

Jessica Jacobs. Take Me With You, Wherever You’re Going 2019.
Wayne Johns. Antipsalm 2018.
Eric Tran. The Gutter Spread Guide to Prayer 2020.