The Water Women, a novel by Bonnie Blaylock, tells the decades-long story of a fictional family of women dedicated to the historical harvesting of “byssus,” long keratin fibers produced by a particular type of mollusk found in abundance around the Italian island of Sardinia, where the story takes place. Blaylock will appear at Reading Rock Books in Dickson on April 2.
Nashville poet Donovan McAbee’s first full-length collection, Holy the Body, brims with depictions of the spiritual life that refuse dogma or sentimental cliché. McAbee will discuss Holy the Body at a book launch event at Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville on March 24, with featured guests including Ciona Rouse, Thomm Jutz, Mark Jarman, and Mary Gauthier.
In About, Above, Around: 50 Prepositions, Mark Mayer toys with the meanings of an overlooked part of speech to explore the dark corners and rarefied summits of human existence. Mayer will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on March 30.
In Ruby Falls, the latest novel by Gin Phillips, eight people enter a Tennessee cave for a publicity stunt that does not go according to plan, and one winds up dead. Who among them is the murderer?
Howdy!: The Minnie Pearl Story explores the life and career of one of country music’s most fondly remembered performers. Authors Mary Ellen Pethel and Don Cusic will discuss the book at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on March 7.
Susan Finch’s linked short story collection, Dear Second Husband, takes readers on a layered journey through the lives of Nashvillians facing a range of emotional entanglements and predicaments. Susan Finch will appear at The Porch in Nashville on March 3 and Vanderbilt Bookstore in Nashville on April 7.
