February 12, 2016 Mark Greaney’s assassin, Court Gentry, is unremarkable in his physical appearance, and he uses this natural camouflage to his advantage in the fifth installment of the Gray Man series. Greaney will launch Back Blast at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on February 20, 2016, at 2 p.m.
February 9, 2016 John Jeremiah Sullivan’s voice is uniquely equipped to snare readers in lengthy examinations of topics they never considered worthy of much thought. The author most recently of Pulphead, Sullivan is widely considered to be one of the great nonfiction writers of this age. He will give a free public address at the University of the South in Sewanee on February 15, 2016.
February 5, 2016 Peniel Joseph’s Stokely: A Life details the life and importance of revolutionary icon Stokely Carmichael with such skill that it won the National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis. In honor of the award, Joseph will speak at 11 a.m. on February 11, 2016, at the University of Memphis.
February 4, 2016 Only Love Can Break Your Heart wasn’t the debut novel Ed Tarkington had in mind when he first started writing in earnest. But after turning out a very different novel that never found a publisher, Tarkington found his voice by mining his own family’s experiences. He will read from the book at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on February 11, 2016, at 6 p.m.
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January 26, 2016 Working with Tennessee-based author Jane Lorenzi, Today-show host Hoda Kotb tells the stories of ordinary people who discovered their purpose in life. Kotb will discuss Where We Belong: Journeys That Show Us the Way at the Nashville Public Library on January 31, 2016, at 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
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January 20, 2016 Historian of technology Michael Bess talks with Chapter 16 about the human relationship to machines, representations of the future in science fiction, the problem of labor and work in a bioengineered society, and what it will mean to be human in the coming decades. His new book is Our Grandchildren Redesigned: Life in the Bioengineered Society of the Near Future.
