Book Reviews

June 6, 2012 Istanbul, with its striking beauty and complicated history as the meeting point between two continents, has long served as an excellent backdrop for mysteries. During World War II, because of its location and neutral stance, the city gained notoriety as a nexus of espionage. Joseph Kanon’s newest noir thriller, Istanbul Passage, is a fast-paced, dialogue-driven whodunit that taps into this history with a story that’s rife with action, drama, and a splash of romance. Kanon will discuss Istanbul Passage at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 11 at 6:30 p.m., and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood on June 12 at 6 p.m.

May 31, 2012 Debut novelist Daniel Friedman’s Don’t Ever Get Old received starred reviews from all four of the pre-publication literary tastemakers (Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist), which happens about as often as newspapers announce they’re expanding their book coverage. Friedman’s hilarious protagonist is eighty-seven-year-old “Buck” Schatz, a legendary Memphis ex-cop who spends his days on the couch, watching Fox News and anticipating his next bowel movement, until he’s inconveniently distracted from it all and must hunt down an escaped Nazi war criminal who nearly killed him. On June 7 at 6 p.m., Friedman will discuss Don’t Ever Get Old at the Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

May 29, 2012 In his new novel, A Blaze of Glory, Jeff Shaara tells a story centered on the Battle of Shiloh, the most famous battle ever fought in Tennessee. Following the format established by his Pulitzer Prize-winning father, Michael Shaara, and honed over a series of novels chronicling America’s major wars, Shaara once again treads the ground where he started his own writing career—the Civil War. Jeff Shaara will discuss A Blaze of Glory at the Nashville Public Library on June 5 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series.

May 24, 2012 Any woman of a certain age who has ever walked through a busy high-school hallway without a plate of cupcakes in her hands knows what it feels like to be completely invisible. Jeanne Ray’s new novel, Calling Invisible Women, is a modern fable about showing up—literally and metaphorically—for your own life, even under the pressure of other people’s incessant expectations. Ray, who is the mother of novelist Ann Patchett, will read from her new novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 31 at 6:30 p.m.