Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Advice from a True Believer

Mary Karr celebrates the examined life in The Art of Memoir

By Maria Browning | February 1, 2016

February 1, 2016 Mary Karr, one of the contemporary masters of memoir, is a true believer in the transformative power of the form. In The Art of Memoir, she offers a short course in the joys and challenges of writing the story of your own life. She will appear in discussion with songwriter Rodney Crowell at the Green Door Gourmet in Nashville on February 6, 2016. The event is a benefit for The Porch Writers’ Collective.

Unsung Heroes of a Neglected Region

Michael E. Birdwell and W. Calvin Dickinson have collected fifteen essays on the history of the Upper Cumberland

By Ralph Bowden | January 28, 2016

January 28, 2016 The Upper Cumberland region—i.e. the watershed counties of the upstream half of the Cumberland River in Kentucky and Tennessee—was relatively isolated for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; as a result, it was neglected by historians. Its history is rich and worth investigating, however, as editors Michael E. Birdwell and W. Calvin Dickinson prove with People of the Upper Cumberland.

Carrying Disaster on Their Backs

Ruta Sepetys’s new YA novel returns to the ravaged landscape—and people—of World War II

By Jennie Fields | January 27, 2016

January 27, 2016 In Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys—Nashville-based author of the chillingly beautiful 2011 novel, Between Shades of Gray, about a Lithuanian family sent to a Soviet work camp—tells another tale of displacement and tragedy at the end of World War II as the Red Army advances on Prussia. Sepetys will celebrate the book’s launch at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 2, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

The Desperate Housewives of Hong Kong

In Janice Y. K. Lee’s The Expatriates, Americans abroad learn to persevere

By Sean Kinch | January 25, 2016

January 25, 2016 Janice Y. K. Lee’s new novel, The Expatriates, depicts the intersecting lives of three women in Hong Kong. When their world of privilege is thrown into disarray, they learn how to overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. Janice Y. K. Lee will read from The Expatriates at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 26, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

A Hidden Mission and Adventure

Karen Spears Zacharias’s newest novel, Burdy, is a sequel to Mother of Rain

By Ralph Bowden | January 22, 2016

January 22, 2016 Burdy is Karen Spears Zacharias’ second novel based on Christian Bend, “a way-back place” in the mountains of East Tennessee. It features Burdy, one of the vividly-drawn characters of that tiny community, as she tracks down a townsman presumed dead after the Normandy invasion.

Longings so Large

A woman considers her troubled childhood in Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton

By Maria Browning | January 19, 2016

January 19, 2016 In My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout takes readers into the mind and heart of a woman who has survived a troubled childhood, revealing a spirit that is both beautiful and deeply wounded. Strout will appear at the Nashville Public Library on January 21, 2016.

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