Book Reviews

October 11, 2011 Erin Morgenstern, the debut author of one of this fall’s most anticipated novels, is drawing widespread comparisons to both J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. With The Night Circus, the thirty-three-year-old multimedia artist has not only crafted a story of epic proportions but also turned her own life into a fairy tale, replete with what looks to be a very happy ending.

October 7, 2011 As Bernard Malamud and W.P. Kinsella did before him, in The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach has reinvented baseball within a universe of his own creation, a place that is not quite the world as we know it, but a world as it might exist within the infinite lines stretching outward from home through first and third base. Harbach will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

October 4, 2011 Taylor Stevens grew up on four different continents as part of a religious cult, escaping only in her twenties. Now a novelist living in Texas, she used her unusual experience to create the fierce heroine of The Informationist, who flouts West Africa’s vicious power brokers to rescue a Texas oil heiress. Stevens will discuss The Informationist at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

September 30, 2011 Based loosely on historical figures, Michael Parker’s new novel, The Watery Part of the World, focuses on the last three remaining residents of tiny Yaupon Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where the people are shaped and worn by the fierce forces of nature. The novel dazzles in its lyrical evocation of the harsh truths and beauties of the Outer Banks and in its piercing exploration of its characters’ hearts. Michael Parker will discuss The Watery Part of the World at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

September 28, 2011 “The Ballad of Tom Dooley,” a megahit for the Kingston Trio back in 1958, tells a tale of love gone wrong. It is a sad story but a straightforward one: man meets woman; man kills woman; man hangs. In fact, the story is so straightforward that Sharyn McCrumb at first resisted using the song as the foundation for her next novel based on Appalachian ballads. Then she did some research. The resulting book, The Ballad of Tom Dooley, takes readers on a dark journey of love, betrayal, and irrational hatred that is worthy of Emily Bronte. Or the Coen brothers. Sharyn McCrumb is on an extensive book tour that includes seven appearances in Tennessee; click here for details.

September 27, 2011 Like a crumb trail through a deep, dark forest, skillfully sprinkled clues keep the reader enthralled as Alex Bledsoe spins an eerie tale in The Hum and the Shiver. Both romantic and harsh, the novel is about the strength of family ties and the power of music, as well as the coarseness and brutality of evil men. Balanced on the thin edge between dreams and reality, The Hum and the Shiver captures the subtle magic of childhood’s landscape, the pull of desire against destiny, and the way life can turn in an instant, suddenly revealing that pivotal moment no one ever sees coming.