Nashville writer and musician Rob Rufus examines the anger and fear of American youth in 1968
In The Vinyl Underground, a young adult novel by Nashville writer and musician Rob Rufus, 17-year-old Ronnie Bingham is reeling from the death of his beloved older brother in Vietnam and terrified of following in his footsteps.
Read more
In Karen Salyer McElmurray’s Wanting Radiance, a daughter searches for her own buried origins
Fortune telling — through tarot cards, palm readings, or other means of divination — was a way of life for Miracelle and her mother, whose bond forms the heart of Karen Salyer McElmurray’s novel, Wanting Radiance. After years on her own, Miracelle sets her sights on the past, including her mother’s unsolved murder.
Read more
W.M. Akers returns to his mythical Jazz Age New York City, where time is out of joint
In W.M. Akers’ Westside Saints, set in an alternative version of 1920s New York, detective Gilda Carr must solve mysteries surrounding the appearance of the dead, including her late mother.
Read more
Mike Maden hits another bullseye with Tom Clancy Firing Point
Trouble has a way of finding President Jack Ryan and his son, Jack Jr., the legendary heroes of the late Tom Clancy’s clandestine spy thrillers who are back for another go in Tom Clancy Firing Point by Knoxville’s Mike Maden. The author will hold a virtual discussion about the book with Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 14.
Read more
Lisa Alther’s Swan Song sends its grief-stricken 60-something heroine on a cruise
Swan Song: An Odyssey, the eighth novel by Kingsport native Lisa Alther, is a witty meditation on loss and longing in late-middle age.
Read more
Jessica Pearce Rotondi explores her family’s grief in What We Inherit
The journalist Jessica Pearce Rotondi was 8 years old before she heard her mother speak the name of her uncle, Jack Pearce, who vanished when his plane was shot down over Laos in March 1972. In her propulsive memoir, What We Inherit, Rotondi probes her family’s agonized search for truth across three generations.
Read more
