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2 days ago | 
nrcolumbus.com | Bill Thompson
We Americans will pay a lot to be entertained. If you’ve looked at the price of tickets for any sporting event or concert lately, you would have to assume that we really value those things. Being the cheapskate that I am, I tend to look for less expensive ways to enjoy my leisure. I have often mentioned those occasions when I’ve retired to the shade of the crape myrtle tree in my back yard.
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1 month ago | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
CARBON: The Book of Life. By Paul Hawken. Viking. 256 pages. $28. Who is best equipped to survive a global cataclysm? The answer, not surprisingly, are the most “primitive” peoples. Those who have mastered the age-old skills all but lost to modern humanity: oneness with the land, comprehensive knowledge of natural medicines, resource conservation, the fostering of genuine community, and the capacity to read the manifest signs the Earth and its creatures abundantly provide.
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1 month ago | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
OUTMANEUVERED: America’s Tragic Encounter with Warfare from Vietnam to Afghanistan. By James A. Warren. Scribner. 336 pages. $29.99. Blithely ignoring the truism that “insurgents never stop” has led to many disastrous U.S. policy decisions, and horrendous, unnecessary loss of life. In his brilliant analysis, “Outmaneuvered,” historian and foreign policy analyst James A.
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2 months ago | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
SWEET NOTHINGS: Confessions of a Candy Lover. By Sarah Perry. Mariner Books. 304 pages. $29.99. Can Twizzlers people and Red Vines people marry? Can Milk Duds and Rolos devotees find détente? Or is it the Hatfields and the McCoys all over again? In “Sweet Nothings,” essays on a lifetime of candy consumption, Sarah Perry surveys the most popular candies from around the world, from Andes to Zero, providing her own extensive tasting notes, some psychological insights, and admitting to her addictions.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
THE MEMORY PALACE: True Short Stories of the Past. By Nate DiMeo. Random House. 336 pages. $33. Taking a page from the late Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story,” Nate DiMeo is likewise a collector of curiosities, providing many of his true tales with an ironic or surprise ending.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
THE BROTHERS GRIMM: A Biography. By Amy Schmiesing. Yale University Press. 360 pages. $35. If not for German academics Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and their devotion to popularizing fairy tales, we may have never heard of “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White.” Not to mention hundreds of other folktales famous today largely due to the Grimms’ tireless efforts.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
nrcolumbus.com | Bill Thompson
About 25 years ago I wrote my first book, “Sweet Tea, Fried Chicken and Lazy Dogs.” I included a chapter titled “On the Road.” Traveling has sure changed a lot since then. I have always been a traveler, but I really began to spend a lot of time on the highways by myself when I went to work for Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina. I began to think about this while preparing to participate in Boys & Girls Home’s 70th anniversary celebration this year. kAmq24< :?
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
THE HEART OF THE WILD: Essays on Nature, Conservation, and the Human Future. Edited by Ben A. Minteer and Jonathan B. Losos. Princeton University Press. 280 pages $26.95. To define the word “wild” as meaning humanity plays no part in it, or to see “wilderness” as something that by its very nature excludes all human activity are misguided notions that rarely ever squared with reality.
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Sep 15, 2024 | 
nrcolumbus.com | Bill Thompson
Author’s note: Perhaps no seasonal change is noted more in My South than summer to autumn. This year we got a small promise of fall a little early, and it made me think of the lady at my church who asked me to send her a copy of a column I’d written a few years ago. She wanted to send it to her daughter in California. She said she hoped it made her daughter homesick. I looked it up and thought maybe other folks might like it. So here it is again. I write about small Southern towns.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
postandcourier.com | Bill Thompson
BECOMING EARTH: How Our Planet Came to Life. By Ferris Jabr. Random House. 304 pages. $30. Life does not simply exist on Earth. It is Earth. Life is the anatomy, the physiology, the very breath of the planet. So argues Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. He demonstrates that over billion-year time frames, life has sculpted continents, transfigured the oceans, and created our atmosphere.
