FRONTReviews > Readers and patrons of the business journal are invited to submit reviews (along with an optional photo) to news@vbFRONT.com. We’ve expanded our reviews to include books, music, art, performances, culinary—with a preference for local productions. Reviews must be original, include the author’s name and location, and should be brief, under 350 words.
Straighten up And fly right. It sounds glib to recall that song title when reading this book of letters from inmates. The subject—so heavy. The warnings—so dire. The advice—so poignant. The stories—so heartbreaking. And yet that song is indeed the essence of our valuable teachings. The book, a local production entitled Insights from Inside (Blackwell Press; 2013) is a mission in print. A collaboration by people who care, spearheaded by Thomas Gerdy (who refused to take any authorship), what you get is a simple compilation of short letters (most are around a page and a half). Directed to all, but specifically to young people, you’re going to want to read each contribution… grammatical errors and all. “Insights” indeed. From short timers (if you consider a year of your life no big deal) to five, ten, twenty, forty years to life, here are voices worth listening to. The words slip through bars like vapors escaping a container. Although I heard familiar warnings, two recurring lessons leapt out letter after letter. One, do whatever you can to NOT come here (in prison). It is hell; and whatever you think about prison, it is a thousand times worse. So many inmates extol education and avoiding the street, whose attraction is utterly worthless. Two, I am amazed and reminded how early one’s path to incarceration begins. Almost all our admonitions are for teenagers. I keep thinking 14-year-olds. Think before you act, our letters constantly beg. You’re one bad decision away, we hear time and time again. I want to share so many thoughts from our 18 letters; the loneliness, the despair, the evil, and the wish from every single writer that he or she could take it all back. But you should read it from the source.
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Flying right starts with a proper takeoff. Can we watch out and help 14-year-olds stepping on the runway? ( Get this book at www.insightsfrominside.com ) —Tom Field
A detailed trip down memory lane Many of the history-based books former Roanoke City Mayor Nelson Harris has authored about days gone by in the Roanoke Valley (more than a dozen) are thinner volumes heavy on old photos dug out of archives or even borrowed from local residents and then captioned. But The Roanoke Valley in the 1940’s is different, a 600 page-plus more academic volume that makes a good reference source for the era. It was published this month (Arcadia Publishing and The History Press) and Harris has related events planned at several venues including the Salem Museum in March. It took Harris six years to assemble the book – he read every issue the Roanoke Times printed in the 1940’s on a microfiche reader in his basement that was borrowed from the Virginia Room at the Roanoke Public Library. Flipping open to one random page in the middle of the book: In 1945 Roanoke City Council approved an annual budget of just over 3 million dollars for the next fiscal year; city employees would receive a five-dollar monthly wage hike. Truly a different world. Harris has called the 1940’s “a dynamic period in the Roanoke Valley.” Woodrum Field (now Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport) came online; there was a boom in downtown development. Carvins Cove
