Historian James Carl Nelson follows a young Tennessee soldier on the front lines of World War I
In I Will Hold, James Carl Nelson tells the story of Clifton Cates, a University of Tennessee law-school graduate who joined the Marines just as the U.S. entered the Great War. The young soldier’s amazing luck and bravery during the carnage made him a him a hero.
Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is the death-bed memoir of a fictional Jewish scientist
In Michael Chabon’s new novel, Moonglow, a dying man summons his grandson and reveals his life story, including picaresque adventure, tragic romance, and stellar ambition—and the lingering psycho-social damage inflicted by the Holocaust. Chabon will discuss Moonglow at the Nashville Public Library on December 4 at 3 p.m.
Maria Semple’s latest anti-heroine struggles to turn over a new leaf
Spending a day in the mind of Eleanor Flood in Maria Semple’s third novel, Today Will Be Different, is a little like spinning around and around until you fall down—only funnier. Semple will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 17 at 6:30 p.m.
The third volume of John Lewis’s memoir of the civil-rights movement may be the best yet
On November 18 and 19, Congressman John Lewis will be in Nashville to receive the Nashville Public Library Literary Award. The new graphic memoir, March: Book Three, chronicles Lewis’s role in the civil-rights movement. Lewis will give a free public lecture about March: Book Three at Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School in Nashville on November 19 at 10 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.
For Trae Crowder and his co-authors, “liberal redneck” isn’t an oxymoron
In The Liberal Redneck Manifesto, Trae Crowder, Corey Ryan Forrester, and Drew Morgan tackle the stereotypes of poor white Southerners, mostly “fellers,” from drunk-as-skunk-on-Saturday-night to singing-hymns-at-church-on-Sunday-morning, all delivered in a hick accent. The trio will perform at Zanies Comedy Night Club in Nashville on November 13.
The new novel by James E. Cherry is a thriller with the soul of poetry
In Edge of the Wind, a compelling and disturbing new novel, poet James E. Cherry explores the connection between jazz and poetry—and between racism and mental illness.
