And Nothing but the Tooth

Whether attending decidedly awkward dinner parties or hayseed weddings complete with karaoke and inebriated attendants, or risking life and limb to aid the impoverished in Belize and Peru (with near-drastic results of misspoken Spanish), there’s a story for everyone in this third installment of Dr. Carroll James’s series of rollicking and touching memoirs.

And Nothing but the Tooth offers up a continuation of bizarre episodes during Dr. James’s forty-plus years of dental practice—including perhaps the worst hires in employment history. On the personal side, we catch a glimpse of some questionable family lineage, a hilarious first ski trip, amateur sheep herding, and a soggy camping trip sure to test a marriage. As always, we get to tag along with young Carroll as he gets into summer mischief with his cousins at his grandparents’ home in the backwoods of Nealy Ridge, VA, this time toying with a treasure chest of found explosives and almost—but not quite—getting away with it.