Mimi Herman’s The Kudzu Queen (Regal House, 2023) is the kind of feel-good story we read to escape from stress and trouble. And don’t you just love a novel that not only entertains but also teaches something new? Most of us know kudzu as a noxious weed, but the plant has a surprising history in […]
“Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia” by Edwina Pendarvis
Ballet is probably not the first kind of dancing people associate with Appalachia, Edwina Pendarvis acknowledges in the introduction to Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia. Yet for the twenty-four women Pendarvis interviews for this engaging book, ballet assumed considerable importance in their lives. The fond memories and photographs of ballet lessons gathered for this […]
“Hell of a Book” by Jason Mott
You’d think it would be easy to write a hell of a book review for a book titled Hell of a Book (Dutton, 2021). It isn’t. Jason Mott pulls off a literary magic trick that’s hard to define. Mott manages to swirl humor, imagination and lyrical language through the grim story of a Black child […]