Category: Contemporary Nonfiction

  • A real American baseball hero

    Paul O’Connor, Briar Patch Books contributing editor, is on the road this summer. He’s had a little time to read and reflect on the national pastime, his own particular passion for the St. Louis Cardinals, the greatest Cardinal of them all – and life in America. By Paul T. O’Connor STAN MUSIAL: AN AMERICAN LIFE.…

  • Food for thought

    Paul O’Connor is on the road this summer, sampling high-quality beers, but avoiding meat. Before he headed west, he left some food for thought for the rest of us. Do not read this review close to mealtime if you still indulge in animal flesh. By Paul T. O’Connor EATING ANIMALS. By Jonathan Safran Foer. Back…

  • Puritans: Authoritarians, reformers?

    Briar Patch Books presents a new reviewer, Chuck McGathy. The Rev. Dr. Charles McGathy, a retired Navy chaplain, is the pastor of the church where I am a member. Lately, he’s been leading thought-provoking seminars on the history of religion in America, based on the PBS series “God in America” as well as other sources.…

  • Families, friends, lovers

    I am becoming so addicted to listening to books on CD when I drive alone that I find is distressing when I don’t have an audio book with me. Elizabeth Berg is the author of a number of best-selling novels, but I had never read any of her books before I listened to her latest…

  • A strange and haunting place

    Mick Scott brings our attention to an intriguing book published in 2010 to considerable acclaim. By Mick Scott DOGTOWN: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town. By Elyssa East. Simon and Schuster. 304 pages. $15, paperback. SAVE. BE CLEAN. USE YOUR HEAD. GET A JOB. These are but a few of the 24…

  • The power of faith unites a power couple

    Residents of the Piedmont Triad take note: The authors of this book will be coming to Winston-Salem Saturday, April 2, for a “conversation” sponsored by the BookMarks organization, with support from Centenary United Methodist Church.  Expect a lively exchange about politics from the view of two people in the know, as well as about marriage…

  • Praise for a History of Christianity

    Stephen Wishnevsky of Winston-Salem weighs in on a weighty book. He hasn’t quite finished the book – it’s long – but his review is worthwhile nonetheless. By Stephen Wishnevsky CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS. By Diarmaid MacCulloch. Viking Press.  2010. 1016 pages. $45. As much as I hate to review a book that I…

  • The Hare With Amber Eyes

    Here’s our latest review, by Robert Moyer of Winston-Salem, whose interests are as wide-ranging as his talents. By Robert Moyer THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss. By Edmund De Waal, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 351 pages. $26. In the London hallway of potter and author Edmund De Waal, a brass…