Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Living in Dangerous Times

In Julianna Baggott’s post-apocalyptic novel, Pure, children struggle to save a world destroyed by adults

By Sarah Norris | August 14, 2012

August 14, 2012 Julianna Baggott’s Pure is a futuristic blend of fairy tale and science fiction reminiscent of George Orwell’s classic 1984. The first in a planned trilogy, this beautiful, startlingly inventive, dystopian novel has been optioned by Fox 2000 and the lead producer of the Twilight movies, and within a few chapters it’s easy to see why. The cinematic setting vividly described in the book’s opening is a post-apocalyptic world charred by detonations. Survivors are divided into two camps: the so-called “Pures,” who have been cherry-picked to live safely within the Dome, a bubble immune to future attacks and disasters, and those left to fend for themselves on the outside. Baggott will discuss Pure at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

The Lord God Bird

John Corey Whaley’s award-winning debut novel features a rare bird, teenaged angst, religious mania, and lost children

By Lyda Phillips | August 7, 2012

August 7, 2012 John Corey Whaley’s Where Things Come Back is a curiously indefinable novel of youth and wonder, fear and loss, and the triumph of unflinching emotional honesty. Whaley will discuss Where Things Come Back at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Carriers, War Birds, and Pilots

Gregory G. Fletcher recreates his father’s experiences before, during, and after the crucial WWII battle that sank the Musashi

By Ralph Bowden | August 6, 2012

August 6, 2012 In Intrepid Aviators, Memphis attorney Gregory G. Fletcher focuses on the Pacific during World War II, providing background details about ships, planes, commanders, and battles. His particular interest, however, is the story of the carrier Intrepid, including a detailed treatment of the torpedo bombers in Squadron 18 and a very personal look at the experiences of his father, Willard Fletcher, one of Squadron 18’s pilots. Will Fletcher launched one of the torpedoes that doomed the huge Musashi battleship. His plane was shot down, and his two crew members were lost, but he managed to survive a harrowing adventure.

Night-Riders Redux

Knoxville historian Kelly J. Baker examines the religious underpinnings of the Klan’s reemergence in the twentieth century

By Clay Risen | August 3, 2012

August 3, 2012 During the nineteenth century, the Ku Klux Klan (founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, after the Civil War) had quickly been suppressed, only to reappear and spread with surprising virulence in 1915. How, asks Kelly J. Baker, a lecturer in religious and American studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and author of Gospel According to the Klan, did an organization we find so reprehensible today come to occupy a place so close to the center of the American mainstream?

The Impoverishment of Truth

Gerald Duff’s memoir explains the nourishment and necessity of lies

By Ralph Bowden | August 2, 2012

August 2, 2012, 2012 Deep East Texas in the 1940s and ’50s was a tough environment for a bookish kid. As Gerald Duff describes in his memoir, Home Truths, growing up there required creative and spontaneous lying to survive. As it turns out, being a skillful liar proved useful throughout his life, as well—personally, professionally, and literarily. Duff will discuss Home Truths at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Goodbye, Good Luck, I Love You All

With Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain delivers the Iraq War novel the literary world has been waiting for

By Ed Tarkington | July 31, 2012

July 31, 2012 As a novelist, Ben Fountain’s intentions are far from subtle. He is going for broke in his new novel, bringing together a variety of pressing contemporary themes in a story that is as emotionally stirring as it is both chastening and bizarrely funny. With Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Fountain has produced what may eventually stand as the definitive American Iraq War novel. Fountain will read from and discuss the book at at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

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