Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus

Life has taken some interesting turns for Diane Wilson, whose metamorphosis from shrimp boat captain to environmental activist was documented in Texas Gold, a multiple-award-winning documentary based on An Unreasonable Woman, her 2005 memoir. Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus is her irreverent take on the Pentecostal womenfolk and shrimp-fishing menfolk who raised her and their very different perspectives on life in tiny Seadrift, on the Texas Gulf Coast: By night Grandpa Chief would drag nine-year-old Diane out on clandestine boat runs while by day Aunt Silver would exorcise the demon of Anthony Perkins (yes, the actor) from her body. Wilson writes like a correspondent bemused by the strange goings-on in a foreign land, and Holy Roller is the salt-sprayed Rosetta stone that helps her readers understand. Chelsea Green, $24.95