Multiple Souths
In the final pages of Southbound, Anjali Enjeti’s collection of essays on identity, race, and Southern politics, the author poses one simple but thorny question that looms like a ghost over much of the work: “Who am I?”
Book Reviews
A Modern Mother’s Surprising Secret
Growing up, Justine Cowan struggled with her demanding, ambitious mother, Eileen, a talented pianist who claimed noble Welsh ancestry. In her memoir, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, Cowan explores the grim truth of her mother’s origins and comes to understand their fraught relationship.
She Found Ways to Be Fascinating
Natalie Standiford’s Astrid Sees All follows Phoebe, a naïve young woman under the sway of an intoxicating friendship, into the perilous, glamorous world of early 1980s New York City. Standiford will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 20.
The Full Story
Americana artist Brandi Carlile disarms us with her earnestness in Broken Horses, a candid rendering of her personal story and her ascent to Grammy-winning fame.
Noir Way Out
Willy Vlautin’s latest novel, The Night Always Comes, delves into the dark underbelly of American cities and sheds light on individuals caught up in the systemic web of poverty.
Repercussions
Stewart Lewis’ young adult thriller One Stupid Thing is one part I Know What You Did Last Summer and one part Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. His teen protagonists struggle with life and relationships as they try to solve a mystery and exonerate themselves for a prank gone horribly wrong.
