Military Mysteries
May 1, 2014 It was not unusual for Ann Burkhalter to stay at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters (B.O.Q.) when she returned to Camp Lejeune for a visit. But when Burkhalter is found floating in the New River, Fran Setliff, the only female NCIS officer at Camp Lejeune, must discover whether the drowning is a tragic accident, a suicide, or foul play. N P. Simpson, who spent part of her childhood in Memphis, sets her mystery novel debut, B.O.Q., in the insular world of a military base—and in the process offers a new take on the police procedural.
October 10, 2013 In Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan recounts her battle against a rare neurological disorder that threatened her life and her very identity. Having no memory of this period, Cahalan used her skills as a journalist to recreate the effects the disease had on her and her loved ones.
September 23, 2013 Daniel Kirk continues his popular picture-book series with Library Mouse: Home Sweet Home, a story in which Sam and Sarah look for a new place to live while their library home is undergoing renovations. Today Kirk talks with Chapter 16 prior to his Nashville appearance at the Southern Festival of Books October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 30, 2013 Just when the American dream seems within reach for fourteen-year-old Lucia, her mother’s old demons threaten their new life. Knoxvillian Pamela Schoenewaldt will discuss the immigrant experience and her latest novel, Swimming in the Moon, at the Laurel Theater in Knoxville on September 5, 2013, and at the 25th annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13.
July 1, 2013 John Hunter is the inventor of the World Peace Game, a classroom activity in which students take on the roles of national leadership in all its complexities and conflicts. Along the way, they learn problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, how to work together, and how to handle a bully. And, yes, maintain world peace. John Hunter will discuss his new book, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, at 
June 24, 2013 Anna Rosenthal is a thirty-five-year-old widow who can’t seem to move on with her life. Enter her estranged grandmother, Goldie, who demands that Anna drive her across country to return a set of Japanese prints that have been in her possession since World War II. The resulting journey could take the form of either farce or tragedy, but Dana Sachs makes The Secret of the Nightingale Palace a much more nuanced look at love, loss, and the secrets every life holds.