Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Crazy in Mississippi

Jamie Kornegay’s Soil introduces a Faulknerian character stuck in a world of Internet conspiracies and noisy four-wheelers

By Michael Ray Taylor | March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015 What would happen if the grandson of a Snopes studied sustainable agriculture and Internet-fueled apocalypse scenarios? Nothing good, as Jamie Kornegay suggests in Soil, his beautifully written debut novel. Kornegay will read at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 17, 2015, and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on March 18, 2015. Both events will take place at 6:30 p.m.

Show Business

In The Tennessee Theatre journalist Jack Neely celebrates Knoxville’s landmark movie palace

By Tristan Charles | March 6, 2015

March 6, 2015 What really matters to a city’s identity are the places that maintain a singular character over decades of change and still find a way to coexist with their contemporary neighbors. In Knoxville, as journalist Jack Neely points out in The Tennessee Theatre, that distinctive personality is formed by its surviving movie palace.

Where the Half-Truths Live

In Monday’s Lie by Jamie Mason, a secret agent’s daughter finally confronts her past

By Kathryn Justice Leache | March 5, 2015

March 5, 2015 Dee Aldrich, protagonist of Jamie Mason’s new thriller, Monday’s Lie, struggles to decrypt her late mother’s mysterious past and connect it with a present-day crisis. Jamie Mason will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 12, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

Ethnic Identity Theft

In Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, cyber-stalking leads to personal revelation

By Sean Kinch | March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015 The new novel by Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, tells the story of a Manhattan dentist, Paul O’Rourke, whose practice is in perfect working order but whose personal life is an unqualified mess. Ferris will appear at Salon@615 at 6:15 p.m. at the Nashville Public Library on March 10, 2015. The salon is a free, ticketed event.

Terror in Tuscaloosa

In What Stands in a Storm, Kim Cross recounts the deadly tornado outbreak of 2011

By Michael Ray Taylor | March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015 With all the drama and heroism of a Hollywood action thriller, journalist Kim Cross follows the unrelenting march of a line of killer tornados that crossed the American South on April 27, 2011, killing 324 people. Cross will discuss What Stands in a Storm at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 13, 2015, at 6:30 p.m. and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on March 14, 2015, at 3 p.m.

Students of Reinvention

In Holly LeCraw’s The Half Brother, a Southern teacher seeks reinvention in a New England boarding school

By Emily Choate | March 2, 2015

March 2, 2015 In Holly LeCraw’s The Half Brother, Atlanta-raised Charlie Garrett arrives at his teaching post in a wealthy New England boarding school seeking reinvention. When he falls into a powerful entanglement with his school’s chaplain, Charlie finds himself pulled closer into the strong orbit of his own past. Holly LeCraw will discuss The Half Brother at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 9, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly