My! Bama: A Mom-Noir

by Joseph (JoHo) Hornsby

Joe "JoHo" Hornsby's journey with the University of Alabama began at the ripe old age of five when he began going to Bama football games and other activities, and ended with his 2019 retirement as a University faculty member. During his college years, he earned three degrees at a BA in English, an MA in English and a JD in Law. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto where he wrote a dissertation on Chaucer and Medieval Law. Going back to Alabama as a faculty member, Joe's specialty was Medieval English literature, with an emphasis on Chaucer, and he also taught courses in legal writing and the Delta Blues of Robert Johnson.

340 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2022

Reviews

[Timothy Hoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful memoir. Joe remembers my weeping in the classroom quite correctly. It happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Hijacked commercial aircraft had been flown into the New York World Trade Center twin towers. The administration of the University of Alabama did nothing to interrupt its usual course of business, insensitively expecting classes to proceed as scheduled. I attempted to teach my morning class in accordance with my contractual duty. I was emotionally incapable of doing that. When I was in law school at Tulane in 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated just after noon on Friday, November 22. Classes were not suspended, and my class in Contracts met at 10 am, as normally scheduled the following morning, Saturday, November 23. In my experience university administrators are emotionally vacuous.

[Dania Margarita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I apologize in advance for the brief review since this book deserves so much more conversation and admiration than this. As I told JoHo when I met him during out Blount convocation, "I wish I could be as interesting as you one day." Well, the words still stand, but I feel so much more inspired, especially since the words, "I came to appreciate that being in the world is good enough without having to be the world" really spoke to me. As Whiting said, this man writes beautifully, and I am so glad to have picked up this book! This is a must-read for any current Blount student. This made me feel so connected to the roots of the Blount Scholars Program and I found it especially funny how the descriptions of past Blount students still stand today.

[Liam Schäpers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the early days of the Blount program at the university of Alabama and the development of an interesting author and academic.