Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Building a Dog

Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut tell the full story of the famous Siberian fox study

By Maria Browning | September 11, 2017

In 1952, a Soviet geneticist named Dmitri Belyaev set out to create tame foxes, with dramatic success. In How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog), Belyaev’s colleague Lyudmila Trut and biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin give a detailed history of the now-famous Siberian fox study and explore its importance in solving a number of scientific mysteries. Dugatkin will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15.

A Castle on a Mountaintop

Denise Kiernan tells the story of building the Biltmore

By Hamilton Cain | September 8, 2017

In The Last Castle Denise Kiernan tells the story of George W. Vanderbilt, who hired famed architect Frederick Law Olmsted to build him the largest private residence in the U.S. Kiernan will discuss The Girls of Atomic City at the Grove Theater in Oak Ridge on September 15 at 6 p.m. as part of the city’s seventy-fifth anniversary celebration. She will discuss The Last Castle at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

Channeling Restless Spirits

Jesmyn Ward returns to familiar Gulf Coast territory in Sing, Unburied, Sing

By Peggy Burch | September 5, 2017

National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward will be in Nashville to talk about her third novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, in which a Mississippi family grapples with drugs, grief, and ghosts. She’ll appear at Parnassus Books on September 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Everyone Fights an American War

Omar El Akkad’s novel imagines a dystopia of partisan political divisions

By Erica Ciccarone | August 31, 2017

In Omar El Akkad’s American War, an environmental crisis leads to a second civil war in the United States. El Akkad will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15.

An Imperfect Union

An ideal marriage falls horrifically apart in J.T. Ellison’s new thriller, Lie To Me

By Sean Kinch | August 30, 2017

The glamorous literary couple at the center of J.T. Ellison’s new domestic noir, Lie To Me, appears to enjoy love, beauty, and success, but when the wife suddenly disappears, darker truths begin to emerge. Nashville novelist J.T. Ellison will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 5 at 6:30 p.m.

The Heart in Ruins

Kristen Radtke’s Imagine Wanting Only This weaves a haunting memoir around abandoned spaces

By Michael Ray Taylor | August 28, 2017

In Imagine Wanting Only This, a graphic work of nonfiction that is part personal memoir and part travelogue of urban ruins, Kristen Radtke combines brilliant comic art with poetic prose. Radtke will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held 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