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he finished high school and moved into a teepee (his abode for 17 years), he wasconvinced that only encounters with "the high art and godliness of nature" could helpsave American society from its catastrophically wasteful habits and soul-deadening trivialpursuits. Conway is not alone in his beliefs, but he is unique in his maniacal drive toproselytize, and, ironically enough, he's taken his teaching mission to such extremes byattempting to create an Appalachian wilderness utopia that it's impossible for him to livethe very life he champions. Tough, shrewd, gifted, vigorous, and contradictory, Conway,who set a world record crossing the continent on horseback in 103 days, both enlightensand confounds all who know him. Gilbert, a top-notch journalist and fiction writer, braidskeen and provocative observations about the American frontier, the myth of the mountainman, and the peculiar state of contemporary America with its "profound alienation" fromnature into her spirited and canny portrait, ultimately concluding that Conway'smagnetism is due in part to his embodying society's most urgent conundrums.Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens by Robert GottliebCelebrity offspring like Charlie Sheen and Liza Minnelli are not an invention ofour own era. Charles Dickens, most famous as the author of the heartwarming “AChristmas Carol,” had ten children, all of whom struggled with the burden of theirrelationship with the most famous writer of their day. If you want to learn a lot aboutboth Dickens and the Victorian age, this slender book will serve you well.The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand by Jim HarrisonA fantastic collection of stories about eating, cooking, hunting, fishing, and living.This is a book that (almost) inspires me to write, certainly to read, and definitely to eatmore- and better! If you think you are a hunter or fisherman you will be surprised at howraw and refined Mr. Harrison can be all in the very same sentence. And yes, wood duckstock is every bit as good as he says it is! Recommended by Jason SladeA Long Day at The End of the World by Brent HendricksIn February 2002, hundreds of abandoned and decayed bodies were discovered atthe Tri-State Crematory in rural Georgia, making it the largest mass desecration inmodern American history. The perpetrator—a well-respected family man and a formerhometown football star—had managed to conceal the horror for five years. Among thebodies found was that of Brent Hendricks’s father. In A Long Day at the End of theWorld, Brent Hendricks reveals his very complicated relationship with the South as hetries to reconcile his love-hate feelings for the culture with his own personal and familialhistory there, and his fascination with the disturbed landscape. In achingly beautifulprose, Hendricks explores his fraught relationship with his father—not just the grief thatsurrounded his death but the uncanniness of his resurrection. It’s a story that’s so heartwrenching,so unbelievable, and so sensational that it would be easy to tell it withoutdelving deep. But Hendricks’s inquiry is unrelenting, and he probes the extremelydifficult questions about the love between a parent and a child, about the way humanbeings treat each other—in life and in death—and about the sanctity of the body. It’s theperfect storm for a true Southern Gothic tale.
Midnight Rising by Tony HorwitzWho could be better than the Pulitzer-winning author of Confederates in the Atticto tell the astonishing tale of one of America's best-known and least-understood historicalfigures? Let Horwitz introduce you to John Brown, the fanatical leader whose raid onHarper's Ferry helped catapult the nation into the Civil War--exactly as he'd hoped.War by Sebastian JungerJunger spent 14 months in 2007–2008 intermittently embedded with a platoon ofthe 173rd Airborne brigade in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The soldiers are a scruffy,warped lot, with unkempt uniforms—they sometimes do battle in shorts and flip-flops—and a ritual of administering friendly beatings to new arrivals, but Junger finds them to besuperlative soldiers. Junger experiences everything they do—nerve-racking patrols,terrifying roadside bombings and ambushes, stultifying weeks in camp when they longfor a firefight to relieve the tedium.We Learn Nothing by Tim KreiderOne of modern America's most pointed, black-humored cartoonists turns out to bea surprisingly thoughtful and human essayist, as he reveals here in short pieces abouteverything from his friend's sexual reassignment surgery to his reconnection with hisbirth family. Hilarious,occasionally brutal, and always interesting.Shadow Divers by Robert KursonI am neither a SCUBA diver nor a history buff, yet I was riveted by this true storyof deep-sea divers, treasure-hunting, and the quest to solve a historical mystery involvinga World War II-era German submarine discovered at the bottom of the ocean in 1991,sixty miles off the New Jersey coast. From the historical facts, Kurson crafts asuspenseful narrative, featuring characters driven by fame, fortune, a sense of adventure,great daring, greater ego, and surprising pathos. Recommended by Paul VickersKaffir Boy by Mark MathabaneThis riveting memoir depicts the author’s experiences growing up in the slums ofSouth Africa in the last days of apartheid. It is shocking and heartbreaking but ultimatelyhopeful and joyful. A page-turner which will also make you think and put you in theshoes of someone in far, far different circumstances than your own. Recommended byBen HaleThomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon MeachamThis highly acclaimed, eminently readable biography does a wonderful job ofconveying how Mr. Jefferson, both a wise philosopher and a canny politician, used hiswisdom to motivate the citizenry and make his ideas prevail. But he’s more than just afounding father: He’s a man of deep and varied interests, of sensuous appetites, andpassionate love for his region and his new nation. Meacham conveys all these sides to hischaracter and, in the process, explains how Jefferson saw the world in which he lived.
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Page 14 and 15: Bono met his wife in high school, P
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