Editor's Note
Memphis native Alan Lightman has been guiding his readers through the realm of science for four decades, exploring ideas about the universe through essays, inventive fiction, and even children’s books. In The Shape of Wonder, Lightman and fellow scientist Martin Rees team up to counter popular skepticism about science by explaining what scientists actually do, what drives them, and how they see the goals of their work. Noting the book’s “lucid and humane approach,” reviewer Whitney Bryant writes that “The Shape of Wonder will be a fascinating and enlightening read for anyone who maintains that fundamentally human trait of curiosity.”
The protagonist of Eliana Ramage’s debut novel, To the Moon and Back, is driven by curiosity as well as ambition: She desperately wants to become an astronaut, a desire that stretches her relationship with her loved ones and her Cherokee identity. The story, reviewer Amy Lyons writes, is “not only about one woman’s ambitions, but about the fallout of those ambitions on a community of women.”
In his review of James Wade’s latest novel, Narrow the Road, Michael Ray Taylor describes the story as “a classic coming-of-age tale where unforgettable characters struggle through a damaged land.” Set in Depression-era East Texas, the novel follows a 15-year-old boy’s search for his absent father through scenes that “evoke Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Ray Bradbury, and Cormac McCarthy.”
ICYMI: Individual tickets are now on sale for 2025 Authors in the Round dinner, a fundraiser for the annual Southern Festival of Books. This year’s dinner will be held at Marathon Music Works in Nashville and is co-chaired by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams.
News Roundup
- A poem by Lisa Dordal was published in The Christian Century.
- Ann Patchett was interviewed for WAMC’s Person Place Thing.
- Linda Leaming has become a columnist for Buddhistdoor.
- Silas House discussed his new poetry collection with WUKY’s Accents.
- Susan Gregg Gilmore was interviewed for WUTC’s Scenic Roots.
- Scott Newstok’s essay about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was published in Smart City Memphis.
