January 9, 2015 Barbara Barnes Sims spent three years witnessing rock’n’roll history from the ground level, working at the legendary Sun Records label in the late 1950s. Her fascinating memories of that time are collected in The Next Elvis: Searching for Stardom at Sun Records.
January 8, 2015 In The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone, Scott Samuelson brings together a broad range of philosophical writings, poetry, stories from his students, and the occasional folk song. It is an approachable book full of insight and wonder. Samuelson will appear at Rhodes College in Memphis on January 15, 2015, at 6 p.m.
January 6, 2015 Christopher Scotton’s debut novel, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, is both contemporary and old-fashioned, addressing present-day issues in a novelistic form that harks back to the nineteenth century. Scotton will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 13, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
December 11, 2014 Gil Scott-Heron’s rise to prominence and inexorable fall into addiction seem to echo an old and oft-repeated story in the music world, but Marcus Baram’s Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man delves deeply into the artist’s life and psyche, offering insight into why this particular man went down that sad road.
December 9, 2014 Film critic Gene Siskel once asked Oprah Winfrey what she knew “for sure.” The Tennessee State University alum calls this “the central question of my life,” and her new book takes its title from Siskel’s query. A small, attractively bound volume, perfect for gift-giving, What I Know For Sure will undoubtedly delight Winfrey’s many fans.
December 8, 2014 Poems of the American South, edited by David Biespiel, displays the rich poetic tradition of the South. From race to rattlesnakes, each poem reveals complicated truths about this region of the United States.
