A pleasing, succulent mix of storytelling and mouthwatering recipes.
A celebration of Black Appalachian cuisine and folkways.
“People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia,” writes Wilkinson, former poet laureate of Kentucky. Indeed, she adds, Appalachia is widely thought of as the domain of Scots-Irish immigrants who “were mostly poor and therefore couldn’t own slaves”—a view that’s incorrect in several dimensions. Following emancipation, some Black Appalachians took up industrial work, but most remained smallholder farmers. While no strangers to scarcity, the author’s family had access to the wild game and plants of the mountains and the abundant fruit trees and berry bushes that grew around their homes. From the rusty metal recipe box that she calls “my finest family heirloom,” Wilkinson “conjures up the kitchen ghosts of my rural homeland.” That recipe box serves as an inspiration and gentle guide, but its recipes aren’t heavy on ironclad, inviolable instructions. Writing about cooked greens, Wilkinson notes that while they so often tend to be boiled down to mushiness, she prefers some crispness to them—as do many aficionados of traditional Southern cuisine. There was even a time, she allows, when she decided that she was going to be a vegetarian and thus rejected the pork-laced greens and casseroles from her grandmother’s kitchen. “A little bit of meat ain’t gonna hurt you,” her bewildered grandmother urged. It took decades for pork to return to the author’s table, however—and now that it has, readers will want to rush to cook her husband’s recipe for pulled pork (“he’s the meat man”). Other highlights include a tasty plate of pinto beans, a perfectly delicate angel food cake, green beans with new potatoes, plus chicken and dumplings and “a mess o’ greens”—the list goes on, a font of inspiration.
A pleasing, succulent mix of storytelling and mouthwatering recipes.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593236512
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Everything about Sabathia is larger than life, yet he tells his story with honesty and humility.
One of the best pitchers of his generation—and often the only Black man on his team—shares an extraordinary life in baseball.
A high school star in several sports, Sabathia was being furiously recruited by both colleges and professional teams when the death of his grandmother, whose Social Security checks supported the family, meant that he couldn't go to college even with a full scholarship. He recounts how he learned he had been drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the first round over the PA system at his high school. In 2001, after three seasons in the minor leagues, Sabathia became the youngest player in MLB (age 20). His career took off from there, and in 2008, he signed with the New York Yankees for seven years and $161 million, at the time the largest contract ever for a pitcher. With the help of Vanity Fair contributor Smith, Sabathia tells the entertaining story of his 19 seasons on and off the field. The first 14 ran in tandem with a poorly hidden alcohol problem and a propensity for destructive bar brawls. His high school sweetheart, Amber, who became his wife and the mother of his children, did her best to help him manage his repressed fury and grief about the deaths of two beloved cousins and his father, but Sabathia pursued drinking with the same "till the end" mentality as everything else. Finally, a series of disasters led to a month of rehab in 2015. Leading a sober life was necessary, but it did not tame Sabathia's trademark feistiness. He continued to fiercely rile his opponents and foment the fighting spirit in his teammates until debilitating injuries to his knees and pitching arm led to his retirement in 2019. This book represents an excellent launching point for Jay-Z’s new imprint, Roc Lit 101.
Everything about Sabathia is larger than life, yet he tells his story with honesty and humility.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13375-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roc Lit 101
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
A smart if sometimes overheated journey into high-level music-making.
A veteran bass player considers the wide-ranging history of rhythm, alongside his own story.
An eclectic musician, Gibbs has performed with jazz legend Sonny Sharrock, the pioneering alt-funk act Defunkt, the punk-metal ensemble Rollins Band, Brazilian-inflected experimental groups led by Arto Lindsay, and more. Each genre has made its own demands on his skills, and while the book’s title is a bit of a misnomer—it’s not a history as such—he thoughtfully explores how most popular music styles are rooted in African and African American approaches to rhythm. Each chapter is a kind of clinic on each style, featuring an anecdote from his own history as a musician—discovering Afro-Cuban music growing up in New York City, weathering an intimidating audition with experimental-jazz legend Ornette Coleman, touring the world with the demanding and hyperphysical punk veteran Henry Rollins—before exploring the fine points of a genre’s history and structure. To do so, he uses a “frame,” a clock-like image to visualize how each genre approaches multilayered beats. One point he stresses is that the concept of syncopation, in its Western definition of being “off-beat,” is a fundamentally Western concept that treats many Black-rooted genres as “wrong.” Many of the examples he shares of that are engrossing, particularly the “ring shout” and Pattin’ Juba, a cappella styles developed by enslaved people who had their instruments stripped of them. (Another theme Gibbs returns to is that Black musicians have often had to do more with less, prompting innovative approaches.) Sometimes this gets messy—his discussion of various rhythmic frames can get convoluted, and his use of scientific (especially genetic) metaphors feels like overreaching. But his passion comes through consistently, and his discussion of his own versatility is winning and never boastful.
A smart if sometimes overheated journey into high-level music-making.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781541603240
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
