Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "Nashville", sorted by average review score:
Goin' Someplace Special
Published in Hardcover by Atheneum (01 September, 2001)
Average review score: 
The door to freedom
A Powerful Story.....'Tricia Ann is going to her favorite spot..."Someplace Special", and today she's going all by herself for the very first time. As she skips out the door, her grandma, Mama Frances, calls after her, "And no matter what, hold yo' head up and act like you b'long to somebody." Wise words 'Tricia Ann will need as she faces the indignities and humiliation of the Jim Crow laws during the 1950s. She has to ride in the back of the bus, behind the Colored Section sign. Her grandfather was a stonemason on the beautiful fountain in the park, yet she can't sit and enjoy watching it, because the park benches are for whites only. She can't eat in Monroe's Restaurant, or enter the Southland Hotel's lobby, "No colored people are allowed!" And if she wants to see a movie, 'Tricia Ann has to use the back door, and sit upstairs in the "Buzzard's Roost" But there is one place she can go, her "Someplace Special", and it has a message she loves to read, chiseled in the stone across the front of the building...Public Library: All Are Welcome..... Drawing from her own life as a young girl in Nashville, Tennessee, Patricia McKissack has written a quiet, poignant, yet very powerful story, detailing and explaining what life was like for African Americans, during the Jim Crow era. Her simple and evocative text is complemented by award winning illustrator, Jerry Pinkney's beautifully expressive, watercolor artwork, and together, they transport readers back to the hurtful and unfair world of the 1950s segregated south. An Author's Note at the end, completes and enriches the story, and can be a starting point for further lessons and/or discussions. Perfect for youngsters 5 and older, Goin' Someplace Special is a thoughtful and engaging story of both injustice, and the triumph of the human spirit.
The Nashville Number System
Published in Spiral-bound by Nashville Number System ()
Average review score:
A Nashville Cat Who Knows the Nashville Technique!Charles does it right ... if you want to understand the Nashville Number System, in plain simple english, this is the book I recommend in my tutorial at GuitarNotes.Com and at my site.
~~Alan Horvath
An excellent resource for an excellent tool!So, what happens is, you're playin' with a bunch of Nashville dudes, see? They're cuttin' this song, and the big-shot says, "progression is 1, 4, 5 ... the chorus goes: 4, 5, 6minor - three times; fourth time, it goes 4, 5, 1." What do you do? You go, "what key is it in?" 'Course, you should be able to figure that out by a quick listen, and a tap or two on your guitar ... but even if you don't, someone's bound to think you're just lazy, and blurt out, "It's in G, man!" So, okay ... big deal. You can count! You know the song goes G, C, D ... exept in the chorus, which goes C, D, Em - three times, and then C, D, G the fourth time. The cool thing about it, is when the vocalist arrives and he/she can't sing in the key of G! ... it has to be in the key of D! Nothing changes. The progression is still 1, 4, 5, etc. -- only now you're starting from D as #1 and counting. So, now we're gonna play D, G, A ... and the chorus goes G, A, Bm - three times; fourth time is G, A, D. Pretty simple, huh? Everybody can do their private math, quietly, and, in ten minutes when the tape starts to roll, everybody sounds like they knew what was up all the time. The vocalist is very impressed! And, most of all, the guy cutting the checks is smiling.
Nashville: The Pilgrims of Guitar Town
Published in Hardcover by Stewart, Tabori & Chang (July, 2000)
Average review score:
Nashville Photo AlbumHigh marks for Michel Arnaud's photographic tour of Nashville. It seems to me that his (mostly) black and white portraits capture the essence of a generation - that host of Country and Western aspirants who flocked to Opreyville like the budding movie stars flocking to Hollywood. A few succeeded; many failed. There is less pulchritude in Michel Arnaud's book than if he had chosen to point his camera around Los Angeles, but many more characterful faces. He is a portraitist of the enthusiast, evoking the drink-fuelled abandon of the busking has-beens; the relaxed humanity of the established old-timers; the bounce of the new populists. They all come across as natural and relaxed: Alan Jackson lounging in split jeans on one of the floats of his private seaplane; Ray Wylie Hubbard peering cheerfully at the camera through steel-rimmed specs; wiry Chet Atkins, absorbed in tuning his guitar. The Roots win hands down for me, but there is something for everyone in this evocative album, which shows the Nashville that still retains its vitality underneath the publicised image.
A Visual Ballad of DreamsAt first glance I thought this book was going to be just another "picture" book about famous country stars; I was happily and totally mistaken. While Arnaud and Hicks have captured some beautiful images and descriptions of the Nashville scene's legendary greats, the unique quality of this book is the fact that it also depicts the "stars" of Nashville whose lights have yet to shine, or whose lights may never shine. I found this book to be a wonderful tribute, not necessarily to those who have "made it," but more to the "pilgrimage" of those brave souls who journey to Nashville seeking to "make it" in the music business.
Although I am not a big fan of country music, nor am I musically inclined, as I gazed at the faces in this book, some recognizable, but many not, I felt a connection with them. That connection being the subject of hope and dreams.
The common thread among the people photographed in this book is not only their journey to Nashville, but their hopes and dreams of acquiring success in the music business. Arnaud and Hicks have incredibly captured the visual and written theme of this pursuit of success. I applaud Arnaud and Hicks for not just honoring and capitalizing on the images of those who have "made it," but for honoring the image of the journey and those "pilgrims" still on its path in Nashville.
Wild Hearts
Published in Paperback by Simon Pulse (February, 1994)
Average review score:
great!i love this series i can't wait to read the fourth book. This book shows you how the real world works and what can go wrong. it makes it seem like you are actually there. later
Incredible seriesI love this series. I read it when I was younger and even though I'm 20 years old I still read these books when I'm home over break. It's a great book for teenage and young girls to read. I would recommend this series to anyone.
The Bottom Line Is Money: A Comprehensive Guide to Songwriting and the Nashville Music Industry
Published in Hardcover by Bold Strummer Ltd (December, 1994)
Average review score:
"Bottom Line" is on the moneyI keep my coffee stained,dog-eared copy of Jennifer's book "The Bottom Line is Money" close by as a permanent part of my library on songwriting. I have read it now so many times and gone back using it as a reference, that the cover looks terrible..I've retreived it from the trash bin when my wife has tried to throw out(thinking it was ready to discard) I think that if you aspire to write songs this is a have to have tool and guide to follow. I'm adding all of Jennifer Ember Pierce's books to my list,and I'd like to thank her for such a thoughtful & complete effort for the sake of the love & craft of songwriting. Michael Harris Watson
City Smart: Nashville
Published in Paperback by Avalon Travel Publishing (May, 1999)
Average review score:
Help for relocation or traveling!I purchased this book before moving to Nashville and it was a tremendous help. The City Smart series breaks down a town into sections or even communities and then tells the reader what is available in that immediate area in a number of categories: entertainment, food, lodging, tourist attractions and more. All the places with in the book have been rated according to the author's personal criteria but when she said Brown's Diner has the best burger in Nashville, she wasn't kidding. Her rating scale is fair and very accurate. Easy to read maps are included in each section, with a larger one at the back which makes learning and navigating a new town a cinch! I found this book to be an invaluable resource for my relocation to Nashville. I tend to have lots of friends and family visit and it's been a fabulous tool for that. I've purchased other books in the City Smart series as well and was quite pleased with them, also. Even though I lived in Kansas City for 30 years, I found things in the City Smart Kansas City book I was completely unaware of. I am certain the City Smart Nashville book has increased my pleasure of living in Nashville. If you are visiting Nashville, looking into one of Nashville's fine colleges or moving here, you NEED this book!
Coming of Age at the Y: Delores Lovelady's Hilarious Adventures in Nashville's Opryland
Published in Hardcover by Portals Press (December, 1984)
Average review score:
The funniest book I've ever read.If you like to laugh, you'll love this book.
Create Your Own Class Newspaper: A Complete Guide for Planning, Writing, and Publishing a Newspaper (Ip (Nashville, Tenn.), 11-8.)
Published in Paperback by Incentive Pubns (December, 1995)
Average review score:
This book is not just for teachers and students.Have you ever thought about creating your own newspaper? Are you a journalism student who wants the nitty gritty without having to wade through long boring tomes on journalism? Are you a teacher who has to teach a journalism class but you just don't have a lot of preparation time? Are you just someone who wants to get ideas to write about?
Yes, you're pretty bright. How did you know I was going to recommend this book? Anyway, this book is a great resource to have. It's aimed towards middle school teachers who will help students create a student newspaper. I'm not a middle school teacher and the last time I checked, I've already been through puberty. However, I like to write and I like to get new ideas and approaches to writing. This is a nice little book to have around and it's so cheap.
The Fourth Corner
Published in Hardcover by Gefen Books (August, 2001)
Average review score:
informative take on the south and jewsMy Aunt wrote this book and I was so excited to read it. It lived up to my expectations and was very interesting. Even though I am a little biased, I would recommend this book to anyone who has ties to the South or has Jewish roots, or who just want to find out more about this subject matter.
The Golden Shores of Heaven
Published in Hardcover by Harpercollins Juvenile Books (March, 1976)
Average review score:
Storyline ....Since Amazon didn't post an editorial review, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "Nashville -- it's the 'Golden Shores of Heaven' to a country singer and heaven itself is the chance to sing. Eighteen-year-old Mary Curlew landed in Nashville with a fine old Gibson guitar and a fierce amount of ambition. She was going to make it. Perform on the 'Grand Ole Opry.' Sing her heart out. Be a star. But first she had to find somebody who would listen."
But as the author explains in her endnote, the board of Nashville's public library in the late 1950s voted to fully integrate, and opened the main downtown branch fully to all. Like Andrew Carnegie, whose wealth helped to build it, her grandmother considered the library more exciting, interesting, informative than any place else. Her grandmother made it into a "doorway to freedom."
This is a fictionalized story of the author's youth--an afternoon on which 'Tricia Ann took a bus ride from her home to reach the downtown public library. While she encountered much hatred en route, she encountered more love. She gladly gave her seat to her mother's friend, Mrs. Granell, on the bus when the rear section was full, who called after her "Carry yo'self proud."
Her friend Jimmy Lee instructed her, "Don't let those signs steal yo' happiness," Mr. John Willis at the Southland Hotel said she resembled an angel from heaven, and she was encouraged by a kindly white gardener, Blooming Mary, to recall the lessons her deceased grandmother had taught her. "You are somebody, a human being," her grandmother had said. "Getting someplace special is not an easy route. But don't study on quittin', just keep walking straight ahead---and you'll make it."
Patricia McKissack's grandmother was right: Libraries give that kind of gift. Alyssa A. Lappen