A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Indians, Cattle, and Oil

June 19, 2013 Philipp Meyer’s novel The Son ranges across Texas history from the years of the Republic to the oil boom of the 1980s, from the Comanches of the West to the Mexican ranches in the South, portraying a state steeped in violence and injustice. Focused on three generations of a single family, the novel punctures myths of the independent cowboy and the virtuous Native American, but it also provides a nostalgic view of a beautiful land all-too-quickly destroyed by commercial exploitation. Meyer will discuss The Son at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 25 at 6:30 p.m.

Once More from the Lake

June 18, 2013 In Liminal Zones: Where Lakes End and Rivers Begin Kim Trevathan chronicles his kayak and canoe journeys upstream from flatwater, current-less lakes and reservoirs to places where rivers rise above the flooding and come alive. In this book that is both narrative and meditative, Trevathan samples rivers from Massachusetts to California to South Carolina, but he keeps returning to the rivers of Tennessee and Kentucky, his homeland.

The Epiphany of the Holy and the Absurd

June 12, 2013 Early in his new memoir, Nashville author J.M. Blaine responds with humor when asked about his job as a late-night crisis counselor: “I’ve made tens of dollars in mental health,” he says, pointing to his battered Saturn. But the truth is more complex, and Midnight, Jesus & Me is a powerful work of creative nonfiction that describes Blaine’s own unusual spiritual journey.

A Murdered Brother, Lost and Found

June 11, 2013 Run, Brother, Run traces the split arcs of two brothers’ lives: one a celebrated trial attorney, the other murdered in 1968 by a hired assassin. David Berg will discuss his memoir at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 15, 2013, at 2 p.m.

An Act of Gratitude

June 10, 2013 The aptly titled Appalachian Gateway: An Anthology of Contemporary Stories and Poetry is meant to be less an exhaustive representation of the region’s great talents than an introduction that will draw more readers into the field. With a diverse and prize-winning group of writers including Nikki Giovanni, Barbara Kingsolver, Jeff Daniel Marion, Sharyn McCrumb, Ron Rash, Lee Smith, and Charles Wright, the collection will no doubt do that and more.

Tempest in a Murder Plot

June 4, 2013 Tibbedah County Sheriff Quinn Colson doesn’t much like his little sister’s new boyfriend, Jamey Dixon, a convicted killer mysteriously pardoned by the Mississippi governor. It’s of little comfort that he is now a self-redeemed preacher, and things become even more concerning when the preacher’s former prison buddies escape and come to town. Ace Atkins will read from and sign The Broken Places, his third Quinn Colson mystery, at 6 p.m. on June 5, 2013, at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

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