781.636 ACC (In Adult Nonfiction Section) Fans expecting a darker, seedier counterpart to The Beatles Anthology may be surprised by According to the Rolling Stones, a colorfully illustrated group autobiography in which the Fab Four’s edgier 1960s rivals look back on half a century as “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” The Stones' story features a revolving cast of characters, to whom mainstays Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood pay affectionate tribute. Founding guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, who drowned in 1968, is lauded for his "color" work on the group's early studio recordings, while Mick Taylor, who replaced Jones until his own departure in 1975, wins praise for his evocative leads on Sticky Fingers and other classic albums. Even bassist Bill Wyman, who published his own tell-all book after retiring from the group in 1993, is remembered fondly (if not especially often). There is darkness in the Stones story, to be sure, and According to… does not gloss over it. There are deaths. There are drug busts. There are epic battles with addiction. There is legendary feuding of "Glimmer Twins" Jagger and Richards, which nearly sank the band during the 1980s. But the emphasis is on camaraderie rather than conflict. "The Rolling Stones could have imploded many times, especially with everybody being such different personalities," Ron Wood explains. "But one reason the band has never completely fallen apart is that we don't spend enormous amounts of time sitting around asking too many questions." Lucky for us fans. --Brian Corrigan
Adult Nonfiction You may have seen the words “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” plastered on bumper stickers, t-shirts, and other paraphernalia. It has been used to describe rebellious women in history who broke through barriers and defied the rules regardless of what it cost them. Laurel Ulrich’s Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History addresses the issue of how history is made and how otherwise obscure women have made history just by doing what they do best. The book makes it clear that all women can make history, whether by achieving notoriety and fame or by simply writing in a diary about daily routines. Ulrich begins the book with a brief introduction of three women: Christine de Pizan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Virginia Woolf. In the course of the book, Ulrich expands upon their ideas and demonstrates how all women, regardless of rank or culture, can make history. This inspiring and witty text sheds light on the growing field of women’s history and how the stories of many women from centuries past are still unknown. We make history every day, but it is our job to leave some sort of record of our lives today in order to become the history of tomorrow.
Call Number: 305.42 ULR (In Adult Nonfiction Section)
--Kristen Tippett Briggs
Adult Nonfiction -Luke Hannah
Call Number: 796 Lar (In Nonfiction New Arrivals Section)
After bringing home Alabama’s first National Championship in almost twenty years, it was safe to say that Nick Saban did what he was hired to do – rebuild the Crimson Tide. Little did he know that a few years later, he would soon be aiding his team, his city, the Crimson Nation, and the entire state of Alabama on another rebuilding effort. The Storm and the Tide is an excellent record of the Crimson Tide’s journey from tornadoes to (national) titles. The stories from Saban, Carson Tinker, and Shannon Brown, among others, really put the events of 2011 into a different perspective. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Bama fan, a fan of football, or a fan of that other team on the Plains, this book will be hard to put down. Oh yeah, ROLL TIDE!
Adult Nonfiction From first glance to the very last page, I was in love with this book. During what seems like a mid-life crisis, Suzanne Morrison makes the decision to travel to Bali in search of love, a sense of self, and a deepening of her seemingly nonexistent spirituality. She has high hopes of being transformed from an anxiety-ridden, cigarette-smoking duckling into a peaceful swan like her yoga teacher. Upon arrival in Bali, many challenges await her and many of her expectations fall through the floor. Suzanne’s beloved yoga teacher reveals an usual habit--urine drinking--that Suzanne must now adopt. Yoga Bitch chronicles Suzanne’s misadventures from cynical atheist to aspiring yogi, with side splitting humor and a healthy dose of realism. A skeptical yogi myself, my worst fears about yoga retreats, spiritual scams, and cult-like behavior are confirmed in this book. However, I learned a valuable lesson from Suzanne: being a yogi is not so much about being able to balance on your head, but being able to balance the good and bad in life. Sometimes we set our expectations too high, sometimes our worst fears are confirmed, and sometimes everything we know falls apart. These essential experiences teach us to get back up when we’ve fallen, and what could be more yogi than that? -Hali Black
Call Number: 204.3 MOR (In Nonfiction New Arrivals Section)
Adult Nonfiction Bob Thompson’s Born on a Mountaintop traces the footprints of legendary frontiersman David Crockett from the battlefield of King’s Mountain (where Crockett’s father supposedly fought the British in the Revolutionary War), to the halls of Congress (where David fought for the rights of the poor as a representative), to the walls of the Alamo (the site of Crockett’s final battle), to the Disney-inspired Crockett Craze of the 1950s, when Fess Parker helped immortalize Crockett for a generation.
Call Number: 976.8 THO (In Adult Nonfiction Section)
Along the way, Thompson also spends a day just north of Florence in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, where Crockett’s political career was born. Along the way, in true road-trip-biography style, Thompson chronicles the thoughts and attitudes of the devoted and often-eccentric legion of ‘Crockettologists’ he meets across Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. And his extensive bibliography proves that Mountaintop is not just a joyride. Thompson prefaced his road trip with serious historical research and met with some of the nation’s top Crockett historians.
Sharply-written and full of humor, Mountaintop is a good book for Fess Parker fans and serious researchers, alike. Put on your coonskin cap and settle in; Thompson will keep you turning the pages of Crockett’s legendary life until the smoke finally clears at the Alamo.
--Clint Alley
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