Friday, August 14, 2009

Jim Noles

James L. “Jim” Noles, Jr., is a partner in the Environmental & Natural Resources Section of Balch & Bingham, LLP, in Birmingham, Alabama. An Army brat and former Army officer, he is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of Texas School of Law. To date, his books have covered a variety of non-fiction subjects and his articles have appeared in such diverse publications as the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Smithsonian Air & Space, Preservation, Urban Land, Continental, Thicket, Portico, Executive Traveler, Alabama Heritage, Mental Floss, America’s Civil War, and the Birmingham News.

His new book is Mighty by Sacrifice: The Destruction of an American Bomber Squadron, August 29, 1944.

Earlier this week I asked him what he was reading. His reply:
I'm currently about seventy-five pages into Chip Brantley's The Perfect Fruit: Good Breeding, Bad Seeds, and the Search for the Elusive Pluot. What is a pluout, you ask? That is just one of the many questions answered in Chip's book, which has just been released by Bloomsbury. He had me hooked from his first sentence: "It was midsummer then, and I was twenty-seven, and over the course of one month I fell in love twice." To quote my wife, "Why can't you write like that, Jim?" Hey -- we all play the cards we were dealt. Anyway, I digress. Chip's book is great. After reading it, you'll take your next stroll down the fruit and produce aisle in your grocery with a newfound appreciation of the bounty surrounding you.

I'm also just started reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone aloud to my seven-year-old. I guess I am officially the last person on the planet to read a Harry Potter book. My apologies and kudos to you, Ms. Rowling. We have, by the way, battled for two years trying to get James to take to reading. Now, thanks to Harry Potter, he sees the point behind the whole concept of the written word and he jumps into bed every night enthusiastic about the next half chapter or so. So nicely done, Ms. Rowling! If you had seen James as I read about Harry's encounter with the snake (completely entranced, lips parted slightly, eyes wide open, gap in his missing front tooth) you'd know what I was talking about. Good stuff.
Visit Jim Noles' website.

--Marshal Zeringue