Book Reviews | Chapter 16

A Painful History Hidden in Plain Sight

Kristen Green’s new memoir tells the shameful story of Prince Edward County’s response to integration

By Clay Risen | August 25, 2015

August 25, 2015 Kristen Green’s new book is a hybrid approach—part personal history and part scholarly research—to the decision to block integration in Prince Edward County, Virginia, by shutting down the school system. Green will discuss Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

Forgotten But Not Gone

A psychologist is forced to reckon with a past she thought she’d escaped in Jenny Milchman’s As Night Falls

By Kathryn Justice Leache | August 21, 2015

August 21, 2015 Jenny Milchman’s latest psychological thriller, As Night Falls, explores the boundaries of culpability as the victim of childhood trauma tries to save her family from a sadistic figure from her past. Milchman will discuss her novel at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on August 29, 2015, at 2 p.m.

Women of the Past Come Alive

Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times sheds new light on the history of the Volunteer State

By Brenda Jackson-Abernathy | August 20, 2015

August 20, 2015 With the second volume of Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times, editors Beverly Greene Bond and Sarah Wilkerson Freeman have published the highly-anticipated companion to their first book by the same title, which appeared in 2009. Bond and Freeman will discuss Tennessee Women at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Turning Prayer Into Action

Jena Lee Nardella’s memoir tells the story of her work, with the Christian rock band Jars of Clay, to bring clean water and blood to tens of thousands of Africans affected by HIV

By Sarah Norris | August 18, 2015

August 18, 2015 Jena Lee Nardella’s memoir, One Thousand Wells, tells the story of how she—along with members of the Christian rock band Jars of Clay—founded Blood:Water, a nonprofit organization that advocates for AIDS clinics and clean water in African communities. On August 24, 2015, at 6:15 p.m. Nardella will appear at the Nashville Public Library in conversation with Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of Jars of Clay. She will also appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville, on August 26, 2015, at 6 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Tracing the Shadow of a Tragedy

Nancy Reisman’s Trompe L’Oeil is the story of a family’s life after loss

By Maria Browning | August 17, 2015

August 17, 2015 In Nancy Reisman’s novel Trompe L’Oeil, the horror that befalls an unexceptional, upper-middle-class clan pervades every family member’s consciousness and ripples down the years, creating pain and existential uncertainty even in those not yet born when it happened. Reisman will give three public readings in Nashville: at Parnassus Books on August 20, at Vanderbilt University on September 10, and at the Southern Festival of Books, held October 9-11, 2015.

After the Flood

The characters in Tiffany Quay Tyson’s Three Rivers search for redemption as the floodwaters subside

By Kathryn Justice Leache | August 14, 2015

August 14, 2015 In Three Rivers, Tiffany Quay Tyson plumbs the tension between consequence and chance in the lives of three central characters as they struggle to survive a terrible flood in the Mississippi Delta. Tyson will discuss her debut novel at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on August 20, 2015 at 6:30 p.m.

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