Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Four Brooklyn Girls

Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn meditates on the nature of friendship, love, and loss

By Erica Ciccarone | August 30, 2016

AnotherBrooklyn HC C With Another Brooklyn, celebrated children’s author Jacqueline Woodson has written her first novel for adult readers in twenty years—the coming-of-age story of four Brooklyn girls determined not to be defined by their family’s tragedies. Woodson will speak at the Nashville Public Library on September 7, 2016, and at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on September 8. Both events are free and open to the public.

Falling from Great Heights

In her debut novel, Sunset City, Melissa Ginsburg offers a fresh take on classic noir

By Erica Wright | August 25, 2016

SunsetCity hc c Melissa Ginsburg’s debut crime novel, Sunset City, unravels the brutal killing of a porn star while exploring some unexpected side effects of grief. Ginsburg will be at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. Festival events are free and open to the public.

A Cruel and Compassionate Hero

James Lee McDonough exposes the many contradictions of William Tecumseh Sherman

By Chris Scott | August 23, 2016

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life is James Lee McDonough’s detailed look at a brilliant, multi-faceted soldier who never hesitated to visit the hell of war on his enemies. McDonough will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.

Parallel Lives

Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, Homegoing portrays the ravages of the slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic

By Sean Kinch | August 17, 2016

Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, Homegoing, follows the story of two half-sisters born in Ghana in the late-eighteenth century. Effia becomes the “African wife” of a British colonial governor, while Esi is captured by a rival tribe and sold into slavery. Gyasi will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.

Still So Far from Safe

A transgender teen struggles to survive high school in Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl

By Tina Chambers | August 16, 2016

If I Was Your Girl_final cover (2) Meredith Russo’s powerful YA novel, If I Was Your Girl, is extraordinary not because of the events it depicts but because of its point of view: that of an emotionally fragile transgender teen struggling to survive the ruthless world of high school. Russo will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.

The World’s Worst Book Tour

Adam O’Fallon Price’s debut novel mixes pathos and humor

By Faye Jones | August 12, 2016

9780385540957 In his debut novel, The Grand Tour, Adam O’ Fallon Price sends the world’s most dysfunctional writer and his greatest (and only) fan on a book tour that is both heartbreaking and hilarious. A former Knoxville resident, Price will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 17, 2016, at 6 p.m.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly