Hell is Other People (and Other Ghosts)
August 28, 2014 Lauren Oliver, internationally bestselling author of young-adult novels, makes her debut for adults with Rooms, a ghost story. In the novel, Richard Walker’s death brings home his bitter ex-wife and estranged children, and memories associated with the house add to tensions between them. But they are not the only ones trapped by memories of this house: Alice and Sandra, now ghosts who once lived and died there, have their secrets, too. Lauren Oliver will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 10-12. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 14, 2014 Martha Woodroof’s debut novel, Small Blessings, features a collection of eccentrics at a small women’s college in Virginia and examines the heartaches and hopes beneath their quirks. Woodroof will discuss Small Blessings at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 24, 2014, at 2 p.m., and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 25, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
August 7, 2014 In her new novel, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin celebrates books and those who read them. Based loosely on the hero of George Eliot’s Silas Marner, that high-school standard, A.J. Fikry is a sad man whose life is changed when a baby is left in his store. Gabrielle Zevin will discuss the novel at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.
July 3, 2014 In her latest novel, The Stories We Tell, Patti Callahan Henry offers a protagonist who has it all: a busy social life, a gorgeous house, a beautiful daughter, and a fulfilling career. But when her husband and sister are involved in a car accident and different stories emerge, she must search out the truth, no matter the cost. On July 11, 2014, Patti Callahan Henry will discuss The Stories We Tell at Union Avenue Books in Knoxville at noon and at Parnassus Books in Nashville at 5:30 p.m.
June 25, 2014 Middle-aged Grace Conley shakes up her life and her family when she suddenly decides to buy a bed-and-breakfast in East Tennessee. In Lin Stepp’s sixth Smoky Mountain novel, Down By the River, Grace learns to follow her own dreams while discovering a reinvigorated religious faith and perhaps even romance. Lin Stepp will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on June 28, 2014, at 1 p.m.
May 15, 2914 Jennifer Chiaverini continues her portraits of Civil War women in her latest novel, Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival, which features Kate Chase Sprague, the daughter of Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury. Chiaverini will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 22, 2014, at 6 p.m.