Bookwatch Blog

2009-05-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Latest Season of North Carolina Bookwatch Announced
Bookwatch Bloggers get an exclusive look at the first 10 authors in this year's lineup!

Sundays at 5 PM, spice up your summer reading with the 12th season of North Carolina Bookwatch ! In affable host D.G. Martin’s illuminating interviews, the Tar Heel State’s best and brightest writers shed light on their lives, works and the indelible imprint that our state leaves on their writing.

Don't miss the premiere, Sunday, July 5, at 5 PM.

July 5
John Shelton and Dale Volberg Reed Holy Smoke

July 12
Justin Catanoso
My Cousin the Saint

July 19
Todd Johnson
The Sweet By and By

July 26
Michael Walden
North Carolina in the Connected Age

Aug 2
Barbara Fredrickson
Positivity

Aug 9
Michael Davis
Street Gang

Aug 16
Dan Ariely
Predictably Irrational

Aug 23
Howard Lee
The Courage to Lead

Aug 30
Marianne Gingher
Adventures in Pen Land

Sept 6
Dan Barefoot
Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices

2009-04-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

A NOTE FROM A COUPLE OF 'BEWITCHED' BOOKWATCH FANS:

Dear Mr. Martin,

We have noticed unusual similarities between Bookwatch and Bewitched. We are curious as to whether you realize that the font for "Bookwatch," Exhibit A, is virtually the same as Bewitched, Exhibit B.

Also, there is only one letter's difference between witch and watch . And, the two words are close enough to be phonetic first cousins. Say this out loud — B ook-watch Bee-witched Book-watch Bee-witched. See what we mean?

Then there's the passing resemblance between you, Exhibit C, and the second Darrin, Exhibit D (see photo).

The same tilt of the head to your right, the same hairline*, the same smile. Hmm. WCHL says that you can talk about anything. Well, let's talk about these curious parallels. What's going on here? Is this intentional or subconscious? Inquiring minds want to know.

*For the record, your hair is much more attractive than Darrin's.

Sincerely,

Evie Good and Louise Neaves
_____________________________________________________________________________________

What a great comparison! I have always thought that Bookwatch had a lot of magic, but maybe there is a little bewitchment involved, too. And many thanks for the comparison to Darin II (Dick Sargent). I wish I looked that good.

Bewitched, bothered, and bookwatched,

- D.G. Martin

2009-04-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

A Note From Former Duke University President Keith Brodie

DG:

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to share my praise for you and Bookwatch with UNC-TV for public dissemination. You are a superb interviewer, and you radiate such enthusiasm for authors and their work, as to create a show which allows them to open to your audience with insight and personal material which I doubt they have shared with others. Many authors are shy and find it very difficult to talk to a TV public. You do such an extraordinary job of putting these people at ease, challenging them to disclose their innermost feelings while at the same time creating an atmosphere of trust which enables them to share their personal reflections. We have studied your interview skills, and find especially effective your use of non-verbal technique. In summary, I delight in your extraordinary show, and deeply appreciate that we here in North Carolina are afforded the opportunity to understand the contributions made by so many North Carolina authors thanks to your superb interview skill informed by your impeccable preparation. May you continue to enlighten us for many years to come.

Keith

Note: Duke University has used tapes of the North Carolina Bookwatch series to illustrate interviewing techniques in connection with training in the area of psychiatry, which is Dr. Brodie's field.

H. Keith H. Brodie (b. August 24, 1939, New Canaan, Connecticut) is an American psychiatrist, educator, and president emeritus of Duke University.

Click here to learn more about Mr. Brodie.

2009-03-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

HEALTH CARE REFORM:
Discussion with Dr. Nortin Hadler
Dr. Hadler, author of "Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America," will lead a discussion about his book and the prospects for health care reform in a new presidential administration.

The Regulator Bookshop
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
7-8 PM
Durham, NC

Click here for more information.

At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary.

Each chapter of "Worried Sick" is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment, such as mammography, colorectal screening, statin drugs, or coronary stents. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique.

According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.

Dr. Hadler was a recent guest on North Carolina Bookwatch.
Click here to view his interview online.

2009-02-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

North Carolina Bookwatch Drives Traffic to Conrad and Hinkle

"Conrad & Hinkle featured in documentary"
The Dispatch
Davidson County's News Source

When Mike Lassiter returned to his hometown of Statesville several years ago to practice law with his father, he was struck by the changes in the heart of downtown — two longtime corner drug stores were gone as well as the town’s hardware store.

Mike Lassiter, author of the 2006 book 'Our Vanishing Americana,' browses inside Conrad & Hinkle Food Market on Tuesday morning during a break in filming in the store for a documentary based on his book.
Donnie Roberts/The Dispatch

“I felt that was probably happening everywhere and decided I wanted to capture that before it was gone,” said Lassiter, a photographer who embarked upon a six-year quest to document a disappearing way of life in small towns across North Carolina.

The result was “Our Vanishing Americana: A North Carolina Portrait,” published in 2006, a 244-page coffee table book featuring old hardware stores, drug stores, barber shops, blue-plate diners and hot dog stands, grocers and single-screen theaters that are fading from the state’s landscape.

Lassiter traveled to all 100 counties to complete the book, which has more than 550 photographs. While continuing to practice law and attending his children’s ball games on weekends, Lassiter carved out time to hit the road and document the longtime family businesses still in operation.

“I wanted to examine what’s happening to Main Street, in the general sense,” he said, “and why it’s important to preserve it.”

When Lassiter drove into downtown Lexington several years ago, he found a place he wanted to include in his book — Conrad & Hinkle Food Market.

“I knew instantly, just from the storefront, that this was a place I’d enjoy spending some time,” said Lassiter, who lives in the small town of Davidson.

The book has several photos of Conrad & Hinkle and a narrative of the history of the business, which has been selling its famous pimento cheese, as well as fresh local produce and handcut meats, for the past 90 years in the same location on the Square.

On Tuesday, Lassiter was back at the old-fashioned Lexington grocer with a film crew. He is now producing a documentary based on his travels and the people he met while producing the book for WTVI, the PBS affiliate in Charlotte.

“I wanted to bring the book to life and be able to introduce the people I met doing the book to a wider audience,” Lassiter said.

That includes people such as Lee and Jim Hinkle, the grandsons of the founders of the store who still run it today. Lassiter said the multigenerational family business is one of about a dozen of his favorite places in the book that he is including in the documentary.

“This is a little bit of a success story here — they’ve been able to find their niche,” Lassiter said, noting that many longtime businesses close when the owners retire or die and there’s no one to carry it on.

Scott Galloway, the director of the documentary, said he was drawn to the project because it will allow the viewers to see a part of the state’s cultural history.

“It’s an opportunity to tell stories,” said Galloway, also of Davidson, who has made documentaries for nearly 20 years. “It’s more than bricks and mortars, it’s the people who work there and the investment they’ve made.”

The cameraman of the four-man crew, Randy Fulp of Charlotte, said being back in Lexington on Tuesday was a little bit of a homecoming. The Wallburg native and 1979 Ledford High School graduate said he had been to Conrad & Hinkle years ago. The Appalachian State University graduate has been with WTVI for nearly 25 years.

Jim and Lee Hinkle said they have been pleased with the recognition the book has given the store.

“We had a couple in here from Raleigh last week, and they had the book and wanted me to sign it,” Jim told Lassiter. “They were going across the state to see the places in the book.”

When Lassiter’s book was featured on UNC-TV's “North Carolina Bookwatch” in October 2007, Lee said there was an increase in out-of-town visitors.

“We had a lot of response right after that,” Lee said, noting that most visitors were day-trippers from the Triad and Charlotte areas.

He said he hopes the documentary will also bring in some new customers: “Like everybody else, we need all the help we can get.”

Click here to read more.

2009-01-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

The mission of the Green Press Initiative is to work with book and newspaper industry stakeholders to conserve natural resources, preserve endangered forests, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize impacts on indigenous communities.

ATTENTION PUBLISHERS:

The recently announced Green Press Initiative membership program provides benefits and resources for individuals and companies interested in reducing the social and environmental impacts of publishing. Currently corporate membership is only available to companies in the book industry, though a membership program for the newspaper industry is in development.

Joining Green Press Initiative is a simple way to demonstrate your environmental commitment, gain access to valuable tools and resources, and support the efforts of a pioneering organization. The Green Press Initiative (GPI) provides its members with the expertise and resources to design, implement and evaluate successful, socially responsible business policies and practices.

Click here to get started.

2009-01-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

HOME EXPERT WILLIAM HIRSCH SHARES NEW HOME DESIGN BOOK

Get expert advice on designing your own home when William Hirsch presents his new book DESIGNING YOUR PERFECT HOUSE: LESSONS FROM AN ARCHITECT. He’ll be at Quail Ridge Books on Sunday, January 11, at 3 p.m.

Architectural guru Sarah Susanka calls it "an excellent guide for anyone wanting to design the house of their dreams."

Click here to find out more.

2008-12-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Scott Huler Shares His Book, No-Man’s Lands On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, January 2, at 9:30 PM

When NPR contributor Scott Huler made one more attempt to get through James Joyce’s Ulysses, he had no idea it would launch an obsession with the book’s inspiration: the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey and the lonely homebound journey of its Everyman hero, Odysseus.

No-Man’s Lands is Huler’s funny and touching exploration of the life lessons embedded within The Odyssey, a legendary tale of wandering and longing that could be read as a veritable guidebook for middle-aged men everywhere. At age forty-four, with his first child on the way, Huler felt an instant bond with Odysseus, who fought for some twenty years against formidable difficulties to return home to his beloved wife and son. In reading The Odyssey, Huler saw the chance to experience a great vicarious adventure as well as the opportunity to assess the man he had become and embrace the imminent arrival of both middle age and parenthood.

But Huler realized that it wasn’t enough to simply read the words on the page—he needed to live Odysseus’s odyssey, to visit the exotic destinations that make Homer’s story so timeless. And so an ambitious pilgrimage was born . . . traveling the entire length of Odysseus’s two-decade journey. In six months.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, January 2, at 9:30 PM, Huler shares his new book—part travelogue, part memoir, and part critical reading of the greatest adventure epic ever written—and explores its extraordinary description of two journeys—one ancient, one contemporary— revealing what The Odyssey can teach us about being better bosses, better teachers, better parents, and better people.

2008-12-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

The Woodwright Shop’s Roy Underhill Shares His Latest Book, The Woodwright’s Guide on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 26, at 9:30 PM

For thirty years, Roy Underhill's PBS program, The Woodwright's Shop, has brought classic hand-tool craftsmanship to UNC-TV audiences and viewers across America. Now, in his seventh book, Roy shows how to engage the mysteries of the splitting wedge and the cutting edge to shape wood from forest to furniture.

Beginning with the standing tree, each chapter of The Woodwright's Guide explores one of nine trades of woodcraft: faller, countryman and cleaver, hewer, log-builder, sawyer, carpenter, joiner, turner, and cabinetmaker. Each trade brings new tools and techniques; each trade uses a different character of material; but all are united by the grain in the wood and the enduring mastery of muscle and steel.

Hundreds of detailed drawings by Eleanor Underhill (Roy's daughter) illustrate the hand tools and processes for shaping and joining wood. A special concluding section contains detailed plans for making your own foot-powered lathes, workbenches, shaving horses, and taps and dies for wooden screws.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, December 26, at 9:30 PM, the former master craftsman at Colonial Williamsburg and public television personality takes viewers on a personal journey through a legacy of off-the-grid, self-reliant craftsmanship—a toolbox filled with insight and technique as well as wisdom and confidence for the artisan in all of us.

2008-12-16T07:39:00.001-08:00

Nina de Gramont Shares Her Book, Gossip of the Starlings on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 19, at 9:30 PM

In Nina De Gramont's chilling novel Gossip of the Starlings is a portrait of an adolescent girl so thoroughly seduced by a peer that she willingly follows her to ruin.

When Gossip’s Catherine Morrow is admitted to the Esther Percy School for Girls, it's on the condition that she reform her ways. But that's before the charismatic and beautiful Skye Butterfield, daughter of the famous Senator Butterfield, chooses Catherine for her best friend. Skye is a young woman hell-bent on a trajectory of self-destruction, and she doesn't care who is taken down with her. No matter the transgression—a stolen credit card, a cocaine binge, an affair with a teacher, an accident that precipitates the end of Catherine's promising riding career—Catherine can neither resist Skye's spell nor stop her downward spiral.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, December 19, at 9:30 PM, de Gramont reveals her engrossing tale of a world that is both appealing and astonishing, full of young women with the minds of teenagers: willful, selfish, daring, and cruel—all the while believing they're utterly indestructible.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Nina de Gramont on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 19, at 9:30 PM, with an encore Sunday, December 21, at 5 PM.

2008-12-08T14:01:00.001-08:00

William Link Shares Righteous Warrior on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 12, at 9:30 PM

Historian William Link’s latest Righteous Warrior examines the life of Senator Jesse Helms, one of the most important American politicians of the late twentieth century, and the important role that he played in the rise of modern conservatism. Born in Monroe, North Carolina, in his early years, Helms worked as a newspaperman, a radio commentator and a magazine editor. Early on, Helms realized the power of television, and, on tiny black and white screens across North Carolina in the 1960s he battled the civil rights movement, campus radicalism, and the sexual revolution.

Link identifies race and sexuality as central issues for Helms, using it at every turn to solidify his base and, in some cases, to mobilize political support. Link reveals how Helms, as a U.S. Senator, became a national conservative leader and spokesman for the revitalized American Right, playing a prominent role in the Reagan Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s and the rising tide of Republicanism of the 1990s.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, December 12, at 9:30 PM, Link reveals Righteous Warrior, sharing the story of one of the most powerful Americans of the twentieth century and the conservative mark he left on the American political landscape.

2008-12-01T05:25:00.001-08:00

Martin Clark Shares His Book, The Legal Limit on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 5, at 9:30 PM

Martin Clark’s most remarkable novel yet is the gripping, complex story of a murder cover-up that wreaks widespread havoc even as it redefines the concept of justice—a relentlessly entertaining saga that delves deeply into matters at once ambiguous and essential.

While Gates Hunt chose to fight his abusive father head-on, his younger brother, Mason, eventually escaped their bitter, impoverished circumstances by earning a free ride to college and law school. And while Gates became an intransigent, compulsive felon, Mason met and married the love of his life, had a spitfire daughter, and returned to his rural hometown as the commonwealth’s attorney. But Mason’s idyll is abruptly pierced by a wicked tragedy, and soon afterward his life further unravels when Gates, convinced that his brother’s legal influence should spring him from prison, attempts to force his cooperation by means of a secret they’d both sworn to take with them to the grave. And with his closest friend and staunch ally suddenly threatened by secrets of his own, Mason ultimately finds himself facing complete ruin and desperately defending everything and everyone he holds dear.

Intricately plotted and shot through with authenticity, The Legal Limit is a roller coaster of moral relevance. In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, December 5, at 9:30 PM, Martin Clark shares his new book, exploring the decisions facing his protagonist when family loyalty challenges personal integrity, when the letter of the law defies its spirit, and when fate plays dice with our best endeavors.

Martin Clark’s first novel, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Stephen Crane First Fiction Award. His second novel, Plain Heathen Mischief, prompted The Charlotte Observer to call him “a rising star in American Letters.” A circuit court judge, he lives in Stuart, Virginia, with his wife, Deana.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Martin Clark on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, December 5, at 9:30 PM.

2008-10-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tony Earley Shares His Book, The Blue Star on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, October 24, at 9:30 PM

Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious ten-year-old at the heart of Tony Earley's bestseller Jim the Boy. Now a teenager, Jim returns in another tender and wise story of young love on the eve of World War Two. Jim Glass has fallen in love, as only a teenage boy can fall in love, with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw's girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the Navy on the eve of war. Jim vows to win Chrissie's heart in his absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven, and gives a young man's emotions a grown man's gravity.

With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made Jim the Boy a favorite novel for thousands of readers, Tony Earley has fashioned another nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time--making it again even realer than our own day.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, October 24, at 9:30 PM, Earley discusses The Blue Star, this timeless and moving story of discovery, loss and growing up.

2008-10-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

Nortin Hadler Shares His Book, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, October 17, at 9:30 PM

At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy.

Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary.

Each chapter of Hadler’s book, Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment, such as mammography, colorectal screening, statin drugs, or coronary stents. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, October 17, at 9:30 PM, Hadler shares Worried Sick, and reflects on what he perceives to be the major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States—the very concept of what constitutes good health.

2008-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Watch North Carolina Bookwatch Online!

Missed an episode of UNC-TV's local literary series? Never fear. Simply visit the North Carolina Bookwatch Web site and click on any episode for the latest interviews with the state's best and brightest authors!

2008-09-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

BOOKMARKS Presents...
Garrison Keillor

With Support from Wake Forest University/Hosted by NC Bookwatch's Own D.G. Martin

Monday, September 29, 2008,
Doors open: 9:00 am
Musical Prelude: Polecat Creek, 9:45 am
Event Begins: 10:00 am
Event Concludes: 11:15 am
Brendle Recital Hall, Wake Forest University

The bestselling author will share his insights in one of only two North Carolina appearances on his national tour for Viking’s release of LIBERTY: A Novel of Lake Wobegon.

The event will be held in Brendle Recital Hall and emceed by D. G Martin, host of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch. In LIBERTY: A Novel of Lake Wobegon renowned storyteller Garrison Keillor spins yet another tale that is fresh and funny and will further cement his reputation as a writer that makes “the ordinary extraordinary” (Chicago Tribune). LIBERTY is, in the author’s words, “Lake Wobegon as you imagined it – good loving people who drive each other crazy.” With his trained comic eye for the absurd and ear for small town dialogue, Keillor has once again brought Lake Wobegon to life. All the memorable characters that keep us returning to the beloved fictional Minnesota town are here: Pastor Ingqvist, the Sons of Knute, Sister Arvonne of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and her ocarina band, the Norwegian bachelor farmers, Dorothy and the Chatterbox Café, Wally in the Sidetrack tap.

Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion, and the author of seventeen books, including the New York Times bestselling Lake Wobegon novels, Homegrown Democrat and Daddy’s Girl. He is the editor of two anthologies of poetry, Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times. He wrote and was part of an all-star ensemble cast for the feature film, A Prairie Home Companion, directed by Robert Altman. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and New York City.

Prior to Mr. Keillor’s reading and talk, Polecat Creek principals Laurelyn Dossett and Kari Sickenberger share selections of their music at 9:45 a.m. Polecat Creek started small, much like the piedmont North Carolina stream that bears its name. In the mid 1990’s Kari Sickenberger and Laurelyn Dossett, both natives of the south, were living in the Greensboro area. Through some mutual friends they ended up in a book club together. A guitar standing in the corner of Kari’s apartment led to an evening of harmony singing – Carter Family songs and some early Gillian Welch. They haven’t stopped singing since.A booksigning will follow the program for all ticketholders. Books will be on sale at the event.

For Tickets:

To reserve and/or charge (VISA, MASTER CARD) tickets, call the Wake Forest University College Book Store at 336-758-5145. Voice mail is available twenty-four hours a day.

$95 – Premier Breakfast with Garrison Keillor This private reception with Mr. ( $55 is tax deductible).    

$25 – General Admission

$15 – Student and Senior (65 and up) with ID, General Admission.

All proceeds benefit BOOKMARKS Festival of Books, in presenting our annual book festival. Please note, tickets are non-refundable.

2008-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Anna R. Hayes Shares Her Book, Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM

The first woman judge in the state of North Carolina and the first woman in the United States to be elected chief justice of a state supreme court, Susie Marshall Sharp (1907-1996) broke new ground for women in the legal profession. When she retired in 1979, she left a legacy burnished by her tireless pursuit of lucidity in the law, honesty in judges, and humane conditions in prisons.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM, author Anna Hayes shares her new biography Without Precedent—profiling Sharp's career as an attorney, distinguished judge, and politician within the context of the social mores, the legal profession, and the political battles of her day, illuminated by a careful and revealing examination of Sharp's family background, private life, and personality.

Judge Sharp was viewed by contemporaries as the quintessential spinster, who had sacrificed marriage and family life for a successful career. The letters and journals she wrote throughout her life, however, reveal that Sharp led a rich private life in which her love affairs occupied a major place, unsuspected by the public or even her closest friends and family.

With unrestricted access to Sharp's abundant journals, papers, and notes, Anna Hayes uncovers the story of a brilliant woman who transcended the limits of her times, who opened the way for women who followed her, and who improved the quality of justice for the citizens of her state. In this episode, Hayes shares her book, Without Precedent, the story of a complicated woman, at once deeply conservative and startlingly modern, whose intriguing self-contradictions reflect the complexity of human nature.

Anna R. Hayes is a former partner in the Raleigh, North Carolina, law firm of Manning, Fulton, and Skinner, P.A. She divides her time between Paris and Chapel Hill.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Anna Hayes on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 28, at 5 PM.

2008-09-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Renowned Historian Joseph T. Glatthaar Shares His Latest, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse, on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM

"You would be surprised to see what men we have in the ranks," Virginia cavalryman Thomas Rowland informed his mother in May 1861, just after joining the Army of Northern Virginia. His army—General Robert E. Lee's army—was a surprise to almost everyone: With daring early victories and an invasion into the North, they nearly managed to convince the North to give up the fight. Even in 1865, facing certain defeat after the loss of 30,000 men, a Louisiana private fighting in Lee's army still had hope. "I must not despair," he scribbled in his diary. "Lee will bring order out of chaos, and with the help of our Heavenly Father, all will be well."

Astonishingly, after 10 years of scholarship, there are still some major surprises about the Army of Northern Virginia. In General Lee's Army, renowned historian Joseph T. Glatthaar draws on an impressive range of sources assembled over two decades--from letters and diaries, to official war records, to a new, definitive database of statistics—to rewrite the history of the Civil War's most important army and, indeed, of the war itself.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM, Glatthaar shares General Lee's Army—a masterpiece of scholarship and vivid storytelling, narrated as much as possible in the words of the enlisted men and their officers.

In General Lee's Army, Glatthaar takes readers from the home front to the heart of the most famous battles of the war: Manassas, the Peninsula campaign, Antietam, Gettysburg, all the way to the final surrender at Appomattox. General Lee's Army penetrates headquarters tents and winter shanties, eliciting the officers' plans, wishes, and prayers; it portrays a world of life, death, healing, and hardship; it investigates the South's commitment to the war and its gradual erosion; and it depicts and analyzes Lee's men in triumph and defeat.

Through Glatthaar’s work, the history of Lee's army becomes a powerful lens on the entire war. The fate of Lee's army explains why the South almost won -- and why it lost. The story of his men -- their reasons for fighting, their cohesion, mounting casualties, diseases, supply problems, and discipline problems -- tells it all. Glatthaar's definitive account settles many historical arguments. The Rebels were fighting above all to defend slavery. More than half of Lee's men were killed, wounded, or captured -- a staggering statistic. Their leader, Robert E. Lee, though far from perfect, held an exalted place in his men's eyes despite a number of mistakes and despite a range of problems among some of his key lieutenants.

Joseph T. Glatthaar received a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, an M.A. in history from Rice University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Military Academy, and the University of Houston. He is currently the Stephenson Distinguished Professor of History and chair of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Joseph T. Glatthaar on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 21, at 5 PM.

2008-09-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

Therese Fowler Shares Her First Book, Souvenir, on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM

Therese Fowler’s book Souvenir features protagonists Meg Powell and Carson McKay, who grew up side by side on their families’ farms, joined by an ever-deepening love. Everyone in their small rural community in northern Florida expected that Meg and Carson would always be together. But then, at twenty-one, Meg was confronted with a marriage proposal she could not refuse, and her life changed forever. Seventeen years later, Meg’s marriage has slipped into routine as she juggles the demands of her medical practice, the needs of her widowed father, and the whims of her rebellious teenage daughter, Savannah. Meanwhile, after a long time away, Carson is returning home to prepare for his wedding to a younger woman. As Carson tries to determine where his heart and future lie, Meg makes a shocking discovery that will upset the balance of everyone around her.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM, Fowler shares her unforgettable story that illuminates the possibility of second chances, the naive choices of youth, the tensions within families, and the transforming power of love.

Therese Fowler holds an MFA in creative writing. She grew up in Illinois, and now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and two sons. This is her first novel.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Therese Fowler on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 14, at 5 PM.

2008-09-04T11:12:00.001-07:00

Jean Anderson Shares Her Latest, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM

Part culinary love letter and part cookbook, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking takes the reader “back-roading” as Jean Anderson shares some 40 years of traveling about the South. In these pages, moreover, she assembles more than 200 of the best southern recipes she has collected both at home and on the road – the classic, the contemporary, the homespun, and the haute. She also introduces the characters she’s met along the way, the cranky as well as the comical, and dishes up plenty of chatty tales, bits of folklore, and fascinating back stories about southern cooks and southern cooking. No dose of history was ever easier to swallow.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM, Anderson shares many of the insightful images of the land and the food she captured in her latest offering.

After decades of researching and reveling in the foods of the South, Anderson admits, “My passion for southern cooking shows no sign of cooling, and it’s this passion that I’m eager to share along with a life’s worth of recipes and recollections.”

Interwoven throughout are snapshot biographies of those who have influenced southern cooking, figures like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington Carver, whose peanut research saved southern farmers from ruin after boll weevils had chomped their way through the cotton fields, Mary Randolph, who wrote America’s first cookbook, and Duncan Hines, one of American’s earliest and most respected restaurant reviewers. A Love Affair with Southern Cooking also presents capsule histories of the South’s most famous recipes including Pickled Shrimp, Brunswick Stew, Red-Eye Gravy, Cathead Biscuits, Hush Puppies, Lane and Lady Baltimore Cakes.

Jean Anderson has written more than twenty cookbooks and won five Tastemaker Awards (“cookbook Oscars”). In 1999 she was inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame. She writes for Bon Appétit, Cottage Living, Family Circle, Food & Wine, Gourmet, and More magazines.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Jean Anderson on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 7, at 5 PM.

2008-08-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bernie Harberts Shares His Book, Too Proud to Ride a Cow on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM

After spending almost five years sailing alone around the world on a journey that began and ended in Oriental, NC, Bernie Harberts arrived home a prisoner of the very independence he’d worked so hard to cultivate. Deciding it was time to let people back in his life, Harberts set out by mule from Oriental to San Diego, California. His new book, Too Proud to Ride a Cow, is the account of Bernie's 13-month, 3,500-mile voyage.

Written to explain why and how he crossed the continent with little more than a twenty-year old mule, a tipi and a camera, Too Proud reveals the America Harberts discovered at his 8-mile per day pace. In addition to 9 maps, the 256-page book contains 93 photographs (47 in color) from Harberts’ voyage.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM, Harberts shares how, armed only with simple curiosity and an uncooperative mule, he discovered that most Americans felt the same way he did—that they were adrift in a sea of isolation. The author and modern-day adventurer illustrates the ways he crossed the everyday divide between isolation and companionship on an American bridge of ranchers, lady poachers and ordinary citizens.

Bernie Harberts other works include Woody and Maggie Walk Across America and 65 Days Alone at Sea. Currently Bernie is traveling from Canada to Mexico in a mule wagon, exploring the fossil remains of the Western Interior Seaway, the shallow inland sea that flooded the Great Plains 75 million years ago. A dulcimer player and summa cum laude graduate of NC State University, Bernie found this of little use in his voyaging. When he's not living in a sailboat, tipi or mule wagon, Bernie resides in Southern Pines, NC.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Bernie Harberts on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 31, at 5 PM.

2008-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Theda Perdue Shares Her Book, The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM

All Cherokees once lived in the southern Appalachians. They spoke four, mutually-intelligible dialects of an Iroquoian language. A common culture and bonds of kinship held their far-flung villages together and made them a people. Today, most Cherokees do not live in the Southeast; they live in eastern Oklahoma with only a small remnant remaining in the mountains of western North Carolina.

This relocation of the Cherokees was not by choice. In the early nineteenth century, the United States government forced the Cherokee Nation to surrender its homeland and move west of the Mississippi—a journey forever known as the Trail of Tears. Theda Perdue and long-time collaborator Michael D. Green apply their expertise to a fascinating, and, at times, heartbreaking chapter in American history with their book, The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM, co-author Theda Perdue brings to life The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears and the historic struggles that defined The Trail of Tears as a Cherokee and American tragedy.

Recently appointed to a Guggenheim Fellowship last month, Theda Perdue is a Distinguished Term Professor of History, University of North Carolina, and Chapel Hill. An expert in the field of American Indian history, she also won the Southern Association of Women’s Historians’ Julia Cherry Spruill Award and the Southern Anthropological Society’s James Mooney Prize. She served as President of the American Society for Ethno history and from 2003-4 she was a fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Theda Perdue on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 24, at 5 PM.

2008-08-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Asheville’s Own Wayne Caldwell Shares His First Novel, Cataloochee on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM

Against the breathtaking backdrop of Appalachia comes a rich, multilayered post—Civil War saga of three generations of families—their dreams, their downfalls, and their faith. Wayne Caldwell’s Cataloochee is a slice of southern Americana told in the classic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM, Caldwell brings to life the Cataloochee’s historic struggles and close kinships over a span of six decades.

Full of humor, darkness, beauty, and wisdom, Cataloochee is a classic novel of place and family.

Nestled in the mountains of North Carolina sits Cataloochee. In a time when “where you was born was where God wanted you,” Cataloochee’s Wrights and the Carters, both farming families, travel to the valley to escape the rapid growth of neighboring towns and to have a few hundred acres all to themselves. But progress eventually winds its way to Cataloochee, too, and year after year the population swells as more people come to the valley to stake their fortune.

Never one to pass on opportunity, Ezra Banks, an ambitious young man seeking some land of his own, arrives in Cataloochee in the 1880s. His first order of business is to marry a Carter girl, Hannah, the daughter of the valley’s largest landowner. From there, Ezra’s brood grows, as do those of the Carters and the Wrights.

With hard work and determination, the burgeoning community transforms wilderness into home, to be passed on through generations. But the idyll is not to last, nor to be inherited: The government takes steps to relocate folks to make room for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and tragedy will touch one of the clans in a single, unimaginable act.

Cataloochee author Wayne Caldwell was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Appalachian State University, and Duke University. He began writing fiction in the late 1990s. He has published four short stories and a poem, and won two short story prizes. Caldwell lives near Asheville with his wife, Mary. Cataloochee is his first novel.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Wayne Caldwell on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 17, at 5 PM.

2008-08-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

Author Eric G. Wilson Shares His Book, Against Happiness on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 8, at 9:30 PM

Americans are addicted to happiness. When we’re not popping pills, we leaf through scientific studies that take for granted our quest for happiness, or read self-help books by everyone from armchair philosophers and clinical psychologists to the Dalai Lama on how to achieve a trouble-free life: Stumbling on Happiness; Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment; The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. The titles themselves draw a stark portrait of the war on melancholy. More than any other generation, Americans of today believe in the transformative power of positive thinking. But who says we’re supposed to be happy? Where does it say that in the Bible, or in the Constitution?

In his book Against Happiness, Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation—and that it is the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics. So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let’s embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression is a vital force. Wilson's book suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 8, at 9:30 PM, Wilson, chair of Wake Forest University’s English Department, shares what Publisher’s Weekly calls, “sure-to-be controversial alternative to the recent cottage industry of highbrow happiness books.”

2008-08-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

"North Carolina Bookwatch"
From the blog of Ben Steelman, book editor at the Wilmington Star News

D.G. Martin, the host of North Carolina Bookwatch on UNC-TV, the statewide public television network, has been in Wrightsville Beach this week vacationing with family. He took a break, though, on Thursday (July 31) to drop by the Star-News newsroom to talk about the program and its future.

The son of a former president of Davidson College and a ex-Green Beret, Martin practiced law in Charlotte before holding a long list of executive posts in North Carolina's state university system. In the 1980s, he lost two close races for Congress in North Carolina's 9th District (essentially, the Charlotte metro area) and in 1998 he made a strong bid for U.S. Senate in the Democrat primary. (Somebody named John Edwards ended up winning that one.)

Jack Betts of The Charlotte Observer once described him as a sort of Mister Fix-It of North Carolina public administration; in 2007, for example, he stepped in as interim director of the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

These days, however, Martin is grinning ear to ear about his TV show, now in its 11th season. Martin, who's been the host and moderator since Season 3, has lots of reasons to be pleased: UNC-TV programmers have put Bookwatch in prime time, at 9:30 p.m. Friday nights, with a repeat at 5 p.m. Sundays. Bookwatch's season has just been extended to 26 weeks.

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