A Country Boy Can Surmise

I read 36 books this year (not counting the books I read for blurbs, workshops, etc.). Someone told me yesterday that they don't read because they don't have time.  Only a nonreader would think that's a valid excuse.  That person certainly has more time on their hands than I do but I still managed to devour almost forty books (and I'm a pretty slow reader, I think). We readers know that one makes time to read.  It's not a choice.  We're not happy if we're not doing it. Here are twenty-one of my favorites from that pile (in alphabetical order by author's last name).. Books that were published this year have a * by them.  I'm always hesitant to make lists because they're so objective and really only reveal the taste of the reader.  Most of the big magazines and awards failed to recognize many of the books I found the best and lauded several other books that I struggled to finish. Often I see books that are incredibly hyped and realize that I ju

Today I am doing the thirteenth stop on a book tour that is going to end up going to twenty different cities and two countries. Along the way I have often been asked about the influences on this book.  Since most of you out there won't be at my readings on this tour I wanted to share some of the pieces of art that inspired and informed me during the eight or nine years that I was working on Southernmost . One of the major themes of Southernmost is belief--finding it, losing it, desiring it.  The main character, Asher Sharp, struggles with doubt and even losing his faith over the course of the book.  I don't think it gives too much away, however, to tell you that he also has an epiphany in which he realizes that he loves not only everyone he knows, but even the strangers around him.  This scene is directly inspired by an epiphany that was experienced by Thomas Merton at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville.  The entire theology of the book is very influenced by Me

I'm in Knoxville for my third event on the book tour for my new novel, Southernmost .  More about that in a bit.  First, I want to tell you about looking out the window of my hotel and being washed over with a wave of nostalgia. When I check into a hotel, one of the first things I do is examine the view.  Today, I found the Church Street United Methodist Church standing right across from my room and I was drawn back to the summer of 1982, when I was ten years old.  That was the summer the World's Fair came to Appalachia, and I spent months begging my parents to take me to Knoxville to see all of the exhibits and the amazing new Sunsphere that had been built there just for the fair.  I do not have a lot of memories from my childhood.  Snippets here and there. At the World's Fair I mostly remember the food, the traditional costumes that people from different countries were wearing, the cacophony of music and different languages as we wondered through. But the thing I reme

Here are a few recent releases I've been loving lately.  And reasons why. 1.  If I Don't See Ya-Brent Cobb.  Reminds me of summers on the lake when I was in my early twenties, speeding down the lake with a cooler full of beers and half the folks dancing while the other half sang songs or shouted or laughed.  And those are real good memories. 2.  Leave It Alone-Amanda Shires. This is a whole new sound for her but it also makes perfect sense. I love it. 3.  Just a Fool-Jim James.  In my new book, Southernmost (out 6/5), one of the main characters secretly thinks the voice of God must sound like Jim James.  I'm loving this new song of his. 4.  Sky Full of Song-Florence and the Machine.  Florence Welch's voice is just absolutely evocative and mournful and completely beautiful.  Hearing her makes me feel big feelings. 5.  3 Mélodies, Op. 7-Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Gabriel Fauré, and various Orchestra Members.  To me, the best part of the Royal Wedding was knowing abo

A friend recently challenged me to post my ten favorite books on Facebook, one a day, for the next ten days.  I've decided to post them all in one fell swoop here so I can try to articulate my thinking a bit.  Choosing ten favorite books is just about impossible for me.  It's akin to choosing a favorite child.  So instead, I tried to think about the ten books that are really speaking to me today as ones that changed me as a person and a writer. My list of favorites is constantly changing.  So, this is my list of ten favorites today.  It might be different tomorrow. As you'll see if you keep reading, sometimes I've chosen one book by a favorite author simply as a placeholder for many books. I'm listing these in no real particular order but my two favorite writers are Willa Cather and Thomas Hardy, so I'll talk about them first. I absolutely love Cather's My Antonia , O Pioneers! , My Mortal Enemy , and Death Comes For the Archbishop . They are al

My June tour dates. The rest of summer will be announced later. Come see me please, or I’ll be lonesome.  My June tour dates. The rest of summer will be announced later. Come see me please, or I’ll be lonesome. (Missing from this: I’ll be in Abingdon, Virginia on June 30).

[This commentary on the Academy Awards nomination was published on the day the 2018 Oscars Ceremony was broadcast.]  I think that Oscars shouldn't be for favorites but instead for great productions, great filmmaking, a great combination (especially the technical aspects) of all the best things that make movies great: technical aspects, performances, writing, direction, set design, everything. Basically, Best Picture is for a film on which just about everything is working together perfectly.  Five of my favorite movies of the year weren't nominated for Best Picture, and I think they should've been.   The first two of these are   Hostiles  and   Wind River  and what's most interesting to me about these omissions is that they make such nuanced statements about the way Native people have been treated in this country.     In a time when Hollywood and the Twittersphere like to claim that they're "woke" they still don't give a damn about Native Ameri