A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Book Reviews

The Persistence of Memory

By Tina LoTufo

April 16, 2013 When Georgy Daniilovich Jachmenev impulsively steps in front of a bullet meant for the Tsar’s cousin, he is rewarded by being whisked from his miserable existence in the squalid village of Kashin to the glorious Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas II during the last days of the centuries-old Romanov dynasty. John Boyne will discuss The House of Special Purpose—a novel of love, regret, and nearly unbearable loss—at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Wild Whodunit

By Liz Garrigan

April 12, 2013 When Sidney Marsh gets a plum assignment at the travel agency where she works—a long “familiarization” trip to Africa—she thinks she’s in for nothing but spa luxury, open bars, and quality time with her colleague and best friend. Then a leopard dines on a fellow traveler. Moore, a Memphis resident, will discuss Game Drive at 6 p.m. on April 15 at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

No Holding Back

By Beth Waltemath

April 9, 2013 Cheryl Strayed’s ability to tell her story while inviting others to ask questions of their own lives has attracted the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who made Wild the first pick in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, and Reese Witherspoon, who will produce and star in the film version of the book. With Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things appearing within months of each other last year—and with both shooting straight to The New York Times bestseller list—Strayed’s success seems nothing less than meteoric. She will appear at the Nashville Public Library on April 18 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

Hymns to Passion

By Maria Browning

April 8, 2013 Dante, Beatrice, and Baudelaire help Marilyn Kallet explore modern love in her new poetry collection, The Love That Moves Me. In connection with the book’s launch, Kallet will give several readings in Knoxville: on April 10 in the Goins Buidling Auditorium at Pellissippi State Community College, on April 15 at the Hodges Library Auditorium on the University of Tennessee campus, and on April 21 at Union Ave. Books. Kallet will share the PSCC and UT readings with poet Arthur Smith. Click here for event details.

Diverse Voices

By Maria Browning

April 5, 2013 Debut collections from two acclaimed Tennessee poets display a healthy diversity of sensibilities in contemporary American poetry. Will Schutt’s Westerly and Joshua Robbins’s Praise Nothing deliver elegantly crafted verse and moving insight, but their perspectives are vastly different. Joshua Robbins will appear at Union Ave Books in Knoxville on April 7 at 3 p.m. He and Will Schutt will appear together at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 13 at 2 p.m.

Twisted Tales

By Michael Ray Taylor

April 2, 2013 There is little danger that Jamie Quatro’s stunning debut collection, I Want to Show You More will ever be shelved with science fiction. The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, and many other publications have hailed Quatro as a significant new voice in American literature and rightly so. Yet her odd and beautiful stories are built on the devices of science fiction: a couple who sleep in a bed divided by the decomposing corpse of the wife’s distant lover, a runner who must carry a heavy government-provided trophy through a marathon, a young athlete with a whirlpool in his heart. On April 11 at 6:30 p.m., Jamie Quatro will discuss I Want to Show You More at Parnassus Books in Nashville, where she will appear with Jessica Francis Kane, author of This Close. Quatro will also appear on April 18 at the Chattanooga Public Library on April 18 at 9 a.m. as part of the Celebration of Southern Literature, and on April 27 at 2 p.m. at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville.

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