Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Hope is a Jagged Thing

Welcome Home, a collection of short stories by celebrated YA authors, focuses on adoption

By Tina Chambers | September 27, 2017

The stories in Welcome Home: An Anthology on Love and Adoption depict a wide range of themes, but most revolve around a common axis: being torn between two decisions, two families, two versions of oneself. Editor Eric Smith and Tennessee contributors Dave Connis, Helen Dunbar, C.J. Redwine, Courtney C. Stevens, and Jeff Zentner will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 7 at 2 p.m.

To Dream the Improbable Dream

With Frankenstein Dreams, editor Michael Sims presents twenty vintage works of science fiction

By Chris Scott | September 26, 2017

In his new anthology, Frankenstein Dreams: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Science Fiction, Michael Sims explores early science fiction, a genre born during the rapid scientific and technological advances of the nineteenth century. Sims will discuss the book at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Some of Them Burn

Planned community and contested motherhood collide in Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere

By Steve Haruch | September 25, 2017

Set against the backdrop of a planned community, Celeste Ng’s second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, explores motherhood, teenage angst, cultural representation, and the life of the artist. Along with Shanthi Sekaran, author of Lucky Boy, Ng will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Two Nations in Thy Womb

The arrival of mixed-race twins stirs local violence in Eleanor Henderson’s The Twelve-Mile Straight

By Emily Choate | September 22, 2017

The surprising appearance of twin newborns—one dark-skinned, the other pale and freckled—creates upheaval in a Depression-era South Georgia community. Eleanor Henderson will discuss The Twelve-Mile Straight at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15.

The Stench of Slavery

Ben H. Winters creates an alternate history in which the Civil War never took place

By Hamilton Cain | September 21, 2017

In the alternative history Ben H. Winters creates in Underground Airlines, slavery has flourished in the Hard Four—Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and a unified Carolina—because it is essential to the economic prosperity of the plantations. Winters will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15. Festival events are free and open to the public.

Thunder on the Right

Jared Yates Sexton rides the election storm surge in The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore

By Lyda Phillips | September 20, 2017

The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore, an account of Jared Yates Sexton’s year on the 2016 campaign trail, describes Donald Trump’s rise to power and Hillary Clinton’s unexpected crash. Sexton will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker