Kevin Wilson’s debut novel tells the tale of a wildly funny dysfunctional family
September 1, 2011 In his funny, whimsical debut novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson creates a familiar family drama with an outrageous twist. Kevin Wilson will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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Preston Lauterbach links an informal network of black-owned “joy businesses” to the birth of rock and roll
August 29, 2011 In The Chitlin’ Circuit: And the Road to Rock and Roll, Memphis music writer Preston Lauterbach takes us back before the days when black music had its way with white teenagers; back to a time when Southern black musicians like B. B. King, Little Richard, and Ray Charles depended for their livelihood on the informal yet influential association of rural nightclubs, big city “strolls,” and gangsters-cum-entrepreneurs known as the chitlin’ circuit. Lauterbach will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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In Georgia Bottoms, Mark Childress delivers a comic sendup of small-town pretensions
August 26, 2011 Already pushing forty, Georgia Bottoms somehow remains the legendary bombshell of Six Points, Alabama, without missing a single Sunday service at the First Baptist Church, and despite a revolving-door cast of gentleman—including the pastor, the sheriff, a prominent judge, and a bank president—all of whom are devoted to her charms and completely unaware that they are not the only “caller” entertained by Miss Georgia in her garage-apartment boudoir. Mark Childress will read from his hilarious new novel, Georgia Bottoms, at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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Barry Kitterman’s From the San Joaquin finds meaning in small, lived moments
August 25, 2011 In Barry Kitterman’s new story collection, From the San Joaquin, ordinary men and women seeking a brighter future—a home, a job, a love affair, a wedding, a child—face defeat as a result of difficult circumstances and their own inadequacies. Often the painful events of the past intrude upon the characters’ lives to change the course of their future, and rarely for the better. Ultimately, though, the author suggests that a meaningful life lies less in the accomplishments of years and more in the significance of each small moment truly lived. Kitterman will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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James Whorton Jr.’s third novel, Angela Sloan, unfolds at breakneck speed
August 24, 2011 With a derelict, fourteen-year-old narrator whose voice is a cross between Holden Caulfield and Ramona Quimby, James Whorton Jr.’s Angela Sloan is structured like an essay on how the eponymous protagonist spent her summer vacation. But instead of a school report, it’s a 200-page letter addressed to the CIA. And instead of recounting Angela’s adventures at sleep-away camp or pedaling a Schwinn ten-speed around the block, it tracks her father’s recent ensnarement in the Watergate burglaries and their decision to hit the road with fake IDs. In fact, it’s more or less the furious story of one crazy-making event after another.
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In his first novel, Carson Morton sends readers to the Louvre in the company of thieves
August 16, 2011 In Stealing Mona Lisa, first-time novelist Carson Morton takes readers to the heart of Belle-Époque Paris to participate in a notorious art heist with a cast of lovable rogues. Morton will read from the book at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on August 18 at 7 p.m. He will also appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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