August 7, 2013 Art teacher and Nashville resident Jessica Young’s debut picture book for children encourages young readers to look at familiar colors in a new way, urging them to define the world around them according to their own experience. Young will discuss My Blue is Happy at Parnassus Books on August 13, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., and at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. Both events are free and open to the public.
July 31, 2013 During the late sixteenth century, the city of Nuremberg was a bustling commercial metropolis at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. As one of the first cities to convert to Lutheranism in the 1520s, it was also on the front lines of the Reformation. In The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century, Vanderbilt historian Joel Harrington considers this world as it is revealed in the extensive diary of Frantz Schmidt, the city’s public executioner for more than forty years. Harrington will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.
July 24, 2013 Andrew Hudgins is a distinguished poet and scholar, and he’s also a lifelong, inveterate teller of jokes. In his memoir, The Joker, he tells the story of his life through the jokes that marked its passages. Today he talks with Chapter 16 about what makes a great joke and why we need to look at the ugly side of humor. Hudgins will appear on July 27, 2013, at 4:15 p.m. at the Bairnwick Women’s Center on the campus of The University of the South in Sewanee. The event, part of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, is free and open to the public.
July 17, 2013 Kevin West’s Saving the Season is an extraordinary achievement, a gorgeous and thorough compendium on the subject of canning, pickling, and preserving all manner of fruits and vegetables. And if you’re less an aspiring chef than someone who likes to devour good writing about food, there are bountiful literary treats tucked into these pages, too. West will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 24, 2013, at 6:30 p.m.
July 1, 2013 John Hunter is the inventor of the World Peace Game, a classroom activity in which students take on the roles of national leadership in all its complexities and conflicts. Along the way, they learn problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, how to work together, and how to handle a bully. And, yes, maintain world peace. John Hunter will discuss his new book, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 11 at 6:30 p.m.
June 17, 2013 In his new book Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville, Michael Streissguth provides an in-depth look at the rise of the outlaw movement, how it changed Nashville, and the formidable talents who led the way. Streissguth will discuss Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 20 at 6:30 p.m.
