In Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930, Benjamin René Jordan describes how the Boy Scouts of America adapted older ideals of manhood to fit a modern nation, making adolescent boys better corporate citizens and leaders. Jordan will discuss his research at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on September 24 at 2 p.m.
In Kids of Appetite, David Arnold creates a narrator whose capacity for dizzying wordplay brings to life a cast of characters so bizarre and yet so basically decent that readers can’t help but cheer them on in their crazy mission. Arnold will discuss Kids of Appetite at Parnassus Books on September 19 and at the Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16.
Jacob Bloch, the central character in Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel, Here I Am, suffers from existential uncertainty. The heart of this ambitious work of fiction depicts Jacob’s attempt to deserve “the privilege of being alive.” Jonathan Safran Foer will discuss Here I Am at the Nashville Public Library on September 15, 2016, at 6:15 p.m. The event, part of the Salon@615 series, is free and open to the public.
In Imagine Me Gone, Adam Haslett uses multiple points of view to limn the collateral consequences of a father’s suicide and a tight-knit family’s history of depression. Haslett will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. Festival events are free and open to the public.
In The Orphan Mother, Robert Hicks revisits the setting and characters of his debut novel, The Widow of the South, at the dawn of Reconstruction. During the next month, Hicks will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville, Books-a-Million in Mt. Juliet, The Franklin Theatre in Franklin, The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, and the Southern Festival of Books.
Ann Patchett’s new novel, Commonwealth, asks a question to keep you up at night, a question to trouble your soul under certain moons: What if? Patchett will read from Commonwealth at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on September 12, 2016, at 6:15 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Both events are free and open to the public.
