Nashville native Florence Dore’s Novel Sounds explores early rock and roll’s influence on postwar Southern fiction, zeroing in on the use of the ballads and blues traditions. Dore will discuss Novel Sounds alongside Nashville musician Kevin Gordon at Vanderbilt University’s First Amendment Center Auditorium on April 11.
Mothers and Strangers, edited by Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith, features explorations of what Serageldin calls the “most intimate of strangers, the women who raised us.” Serageldin and Smith will discuss the essay collection at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 12. Smith will also appear with Jill McCorkle, Marshall Chapman, and Matraca Berg in a performance of Good Ol’ Girls at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville on April 11.
As Aram Goudsouzian makes clear in The Men and the Moment: The Election of 1968 and the Rise of Partisan Politics in America, the tensions that animated the 1968 election still dominate public discourse today. Goudsouzian will discuss his new book at Novel in Memphis on April 10.
Barbara Brown Taylor’s Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others, a brief survey of world religions, is the next logical step in her own spiritual journey. Taylor will appear at First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville on April 8, at Novel in Memphis on April 9, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 16.
In Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations, Nashville science writer Stephen Ornes sets out to survey the remarkable breadth of contemporary art that’s fueled by a fascination with math. Ornes will appear at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on April 4.
Michael Knight’s new novel, At Briarwood School for Girls, juxtaposes teen pregnancy, boarding- school intrigue, an ill-fated attempt to build a Disney theme park next to a Civil War battlefield, and a visitation of spirits. Knight will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 4.
