Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Defining a Life Through Books

By Faye Jones

August 29, 2012

August 29, 2012 Perhaps all avid readers mark their lives by the books they’ve read and by the way those books have influenced them. Frye Gaillard certainly does, and as a journalist he also has a strong sense of how books show us pictures of the world at a certain time and place. More than just a memoir, The Books That Mattered is a fascinating blend of personal, cultural, and literary history. Gaillard takes readers to a segregated courtroom in Alabama, a prison in Argentina, the dust bowl of Oklahoma, and a small attic hideout in Europe. As disparate as those books and places are, they all live on in Gaillard, who will appear at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Football Frivolity

By Michael Ray Taylor

August 27, 2012

August 27, 2012 With Love’s Winning Plays, Knoxville native Inman Majors has written one of the finest, funniest, and most uniquely Southern novels ever to consider the game of football, especially college football as it played, hyped, and overhyped in the Southeastern Conference. Majors will read from Love’s Winning Plays at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 20 and at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

All Woke Up and Nowhere to Go

By Tina LoTufo

August 24, 2012

August, 24, 2012 One of the characters in Padgett Powell’s new novel, You & Me, points out that some of the objects in the room in which they sit are crooked: “Should we straighten everything?” His friend answers, “I think not. I don’t think us capable, one, but I see no reason to undo the charm of things leaning. Things are finally getting in tune with us.” Readers who enjoy the “charm of things leaning” will find much to ponder in this hilarious, disturbing, poignant, and altogether perplexing volume from the author of recent cult favorite The Interrogative Mood and National Book Award nominee Edisto. Powell will discuss You & Me at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Catching the Playhouse Killer

By Lyda Phillips

August 23, 2012

August 23, 2012 Jeff Crook spins up a maelstrom of exotic characters and macabre events in The Sleeping and the Dead, the first in what looks to be a powerful paranormal mystery series. Crook will read from The Sleeping and the Dead on August 30 at 6 p.m. at The Booksellers in Laurelwood in Memphis.

A Father’s Journey

By Michael Ray Taylor

August 22, 2012

August 22, 2012 In Buzz Bissinger’s Father’s Day: A Journey into the Mind & Heart of My Extraordinary Son a ten-day road trip across America is the backdrop for a haunting and brutally honest account of a father’s struggle to understand the adult his special-needs child has become. Bissinger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Friday Night Lights, presents an unforgettable portrait of his son Zach, a cognitively disabled man in his mid-twenties who speaks in nonstop non sequiturs, can name and give the birthday of every person he has ever met, and memorizes maps so accurately that his family refers to him as a “human GPS.” Bissinger will discuss Father’s Day at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

A Human Thing of Mystery

By Lyda Phillips

August 21, 2012

August 21, 2012 Daniel Woodrell, the acclaimed author of Winter’s Bone, Tomato Red, and The Death of Sweet Mister, has published a slim volume of short stories every bit as gritty and searing as his longer work. Woodrell will read from and discuss The Outlaw Album at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

“The highlight of the book is Fields’ animal characters. Whether happy, nervous, or sad, their expressive faces are easy to read, and their feelings will be familiar to young tots. … A tender book to help little ones make sense of the emotions around prayer.”

~Kirkus Reviews