Briefly Noted

The real Nashville is last revealed in the pages of Literary Nashville through portraits of the city by 40 writers, including such vignettes as the William Price Fox story that inspired Robert Altman’s classic, Nashville; John Berendt’s portrait of the city’s famous blue-blooded cross-dresser; Langston Hughes’s telling of his first-ever reading in the South at Fisk University, Ann Patchett’s memories of the Swan Ball, the country music tales of Bland Simpson and Lee Smith, the poetry of Nikki Giovanni and James Dickey, and much more.

The grocery business began as a complicated service industry. Random pricing, inconsistent quantities and prescriptive salesmen made grocery shopping burdensome. It took one brash Memphian with uncommon vision and unbridled ambition to change everything. Clarence Saunders worked his way out of poverty and obscurity to found Piggly Wiggly in 1916. Yet just as the final bricks of Pink Palace–his garish marble mansion–were being laid, Saunders went bankrupt, and he was forced to sell Piggly Wiggly. Memphis historian Mike Freeman tracks the remarkable life of this retail visionary.

Twenty-six bestselling authors return to the teenage bedrooms, school hallways and college dorms of their youth to share passionate essays of love lost and found and lessons learned along the way. Whether heartbreaking or hilarious, their soul-baring honesty reminds us to keep reaching for true love wherever we can find it and for as long as it takes. Their intimate reflections will fascinate and move any reader who remembers her first love.

During the Civil War, Tennessee was perhaps the most conflicted state in the Confederacy. Allegiance to either side could mean life or death, as Union militia captain and longtime Tennessee native William K. Byrd discovered in the fall of 1861 when he and his men were ambushed by a band of Confederate sympathizers and infantrymen. This unauthorized raid led to the arrest of thirty-five men and the death of several others. Details of this mysterious skirmish have remained buried in archives and personal accounts for years. Now, for the first time, A Unionist in East Tennessee uncovers a dramatic yet forgotten chapter of Civil War history.

Have you ever felt caught between the tension of a day job and a dream job? That gap between what you have to do and what you d love to do?

“Engaging and accessible for nonspecialists and thought provoking for scholars, this well-written, feisty book offers cutting-edge historiography, tools for teachers, and insights for all of us. It is a must read for anyone interested in the freedom struggle and in a just, democratic society.”