Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Small and Immense

In a new collection, poet Jeff Hardin explores greatness in artists and in nature

By Erica Wright | August 16, 2017

Jeff Hardin’s latest poetry collection, No Other Kind of World, which won the 2016 X.J. Kennedy Award, examines artists’ capacity for greatness and nature’s talent for humbling us all. Hardin will read from the book at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville on August 24; at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin on August 29; and at the 2017 Southern Festival Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

Finding Roots in Rubble

Preparing for the birth of her first child, Hannah Palmer tries to find her own childhood

By Faye Jones | August 15, 2017

When Hannah Palmer returns to her home town, she finds that Atlanta has been forever changed by the “world’s busiest airport.” Part personal memoir, part investigative journalism, Flight Path is a compelling read for anyone who lives in a rapidly-growing city. Palmer will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Dreams of Happiness

Two generations struggle for love and success in Stephanie Powell Watts’s No One Is Coming to Save Us

By Maria Browning | August 14, 2017

In No One Is Coming to Save Us, Stephanie Powell Watts takes up themes from The Great Gatsby—wealth, social position, the search for love—and explores them through a twenty-first-century African-American family in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Watts will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Booty, Booty, Booty, Booty, Rockin’ Everywhere

Ann Powers examines popular music’s propensity for sexual healing

By Betsy Phillips | August 10, 2017

In her new book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music, Ann Powers details the history of erotic power in American popular music. Powers will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Before Extinction

Claire Cameron’s The Last Neanderthal gives words to a human ancestor who used very few

By Ralph Bowden | August 9, 2017

The Last Neanderthal, Claire Cameron’s third novel, toggles between the life of a fierce Neanderthal woman struggling alone to survive and give birth, and the life of an equally determined scientist struggling to defend her work as she too anticipates the birth of a child. Cameron will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

See Us. Hear Us. Help Us.

In his new middle-grade novel, Alan Gratz illuminates the universal plight of refugees

By Tina Chambers | August 8, 2017

Alan Gratz has distilled the horrors of Nazi Germany, Castro’s Cuba, and the Syrian refugee crisis into a beautifully written, heart-wrenching balancing act between three pre-teen protagonists separated by decades but united by courage. Gratz will discuss Refugee at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker