Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers

Any expectations that a memoir by a member of a legendary gospel country duo might be squeaky clean ends on its first pages, with Charlie's foul-mouthed account of kicking his older brother Ira's ass after he drunkenly slighted their mom. The book proceeds from there, a two-fisted tell-all that sometimes reads a little like an Opry version of Motley Crüe's The Dirt but is an eye-opening and compulsively compelling story, full of insights into the desperation of a hardscrabble upbringing, the relentless, road-weary struggle of building a country music career in the '50s and '60s, and the fiery creative collaboration behind the strange, mournful harmonies of the Louvin Brothers.