Tennessee Books

We have boated on many rivers but principally the Tennessee and find ourselves referring to this book time and time again. Details regarding marinas, history along the way, locking, etc. cannot be found as well anywhere else. Ask for his other guides to the Tenn-Tom Waterway and Cumberland Rivers. No boating without them.

Having traveled extensively the length and breadth of the Volunteer State, Bob Schatz has collected and published some of his most impressive photographs in Tennessee: Simply Beautiful.

A commercial photographer, Bob Schatz has been based in Nashville for over 25 years. His photographs are part of permanent collections at the Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, the Nashville Public Library and the Tennessee State Museum.

Through the lens of his camera, Schatz has captured images such as the blues clubs of Beale Street in Memphis, the glittering Nashville skyline at night (featuring its latest addition, the "Batman" building), the bridge across the Nickajack Lake (near Chattanooga), the Sunsphere in Knoxville, and the main street of Jonesborough (Tennessee's oldest incorporated city).

One sees the horse farms of the lush Foothills Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains; the wild Ocoee River in the Cherokee National Forest; and Jackson Falls, a natural waterslide just off the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Other photos include Carnton Mansion, which can be seen in the background, behind the 1,481 marked graves of Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Franklin; and the Carter House, also in Franklin, where members of the Carter family huddled in the basement of their home while the battle raged around their house.

One sees the Lynchburg Hardware & General Store ("all goods worth price charged"), where one can still buy a bottled Coke for a dime, and, on a hill above the store, one of the many barrel houses of the Jack Daniel Distillery, oldest in the country, registered in 1866.

Some of the most beautiful photos are of Tennessee's natural beauty, such as Southern yellow wood sorrel spreading across the field of a Williamson County farm; an autumn view of deciduous trees in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains; Falls Creek Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountans; cypress trees on Reelfoot Lake in the northwest corner of the state; and a gorgeous shot, resembling an oil painting, of an old canoe sitting on the bank of a pond on Montpellier Farm near Franklin.

In all, there are 129 full-color pictures culled from 15 years of work.

The photo on the book's cover shows the rusting roof of a barn framed by the spring green of Water Valley, a view that can be found easily at the Water Valley Overlook just off the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In an Introduction, Tipper Gore writes, "Bob Schatz has focused on nature, architecture, history, and culture in his unique portrait of the diversity, raw beauty, and eternal spirit of our state."

One wonders why the photos of this volume weren't grouped in distinct sections reflecting the state's three geographical regions (East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee). And, although Mr. Schatz shows Lake Watauga, in the middle of Centennial Park in Nashville, I was disappointed that he omits The Parthenon.

One easily forgives the author, however, when one views these awesome photographs. Tennessee is indeed a beautiful state . . . and Bob Schatz's photographic celebration of our state is simply beautiful.

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville publishing house. He may be reached at rperry1778@aol.com

oh you sweet sommbish, you wanna wrassle?
Perhaps the final remarks of this southern love story of Helennic proportions is all that need be said. Angelic in prose and wit, James e. Hitt's novel, or shall i say masterpiece, strikes home with a force not usually felt in southern romance novels. But can he do it again?

I bought this book for my "Music of Appalachia" class. It is a fairly thin book but there is so much information contained in it. It has great pictures and stories of the people and places that helped to shape Country music. Instead of showing the typical pictures of people on porches with banjos, this book shows how it really was. The price makes it even more amazing.

James Thor Whitehead is a young boy living in Carter County, Tennessee and growing up with his family's tradition of storytelling. All his life, he has listened to this father's tales about the famous tiger that roams the mountains and valleys of East Tennessee. Thor believes that these stories are true and fears that this legendary beast will one day hunt him down and eat him. Eventually Thor learns of the real "Tennessee Tiger" who was legendary for his killing of 99 bears in his lifetime and the sparing of the 100th bear's life. A combination of folklore and mythology make this book a must. This book should be enjoyed by children of all ages and adults alike. It is especially meaningful when read together as a family. My child enjoys hearing this story over and over again. The colorful pictures are quite unique and very well done. I highly recommend this book!!

This book really illustrates what the Tennessee Titans accomplished in such a short amount of time in their first season in Nashville. The photographs bring back lots of great memories, and brings a smile to my face every time I open it. There's lots more photographs than text, but those photos say it all.

My favorite section is on the Music City Miracle, of course. I still get chills when I look at the frame by frame photographs of that historic play. Incredible! Go Titans!!

I visit Tennessee in the Spring to fish the Park and the tailwaters, and Ian's book has been my sole guide to these waters since its publication. It covers a wide, wide range of rivers and streams, and delivers enough information to get you on the water with a reasonable idea about what's about to happen.

A nice touch is Rutter's listing of alternative fisheries (and drive times); should you arrive at a tailwater and discover the water release schedule has been altered, leaving you with an unfishable mess.

Rutter certainly knows these fisheries like the back of his hand (he's the top guide in the area, and lives on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), and manages to impart a lot of information very quickly.

My only real complaint is that a longer book might be a bit more useful - in places, I'd love to have more information, though the somewhat transient nature of the tailwater fisheries (they live and die based on TVA flow schedules, which can change on a whim) and rapid development around some of the tailwaters (the Clinch being a prime example) would make it difficult to say much with any real precision.

A great & useful guide book.

It's been a while since I read such nice, well written stories. They were easy to read and made me wonder about issues like being an organ donor and how to trust after having endured a broken heart. It's my first book by this author and I'll be looking for more of her books to buy.

This is one of the most informative books I've ever read. Harold Bloom takes you through, close to every piece of literature ever written by Williams, and tears it apart piece by piece, allowing the reader to get to the essence of the writing, and also get some insight from another person. I think it to be very refreshing to find such a tacctful book on literary criticism. It's a fabulous book that I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat!

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams is one of the best plays that I have read in years. First adapted to film in 1951, by Oscar Saul. I must recommend this play to all theatre directors out there and say that this would be a very large hit.

Once again, I say that A Streetcar named desire is one of the best plays I have read.