Suzanne Park’s So We Meet Again combines humor, family, and cooking
In So We Meet Again, Suzanne Park’s second novel for adults, investment banker Jessie Kim is fired suddenly from her Wall Street job and returns home to Nashville to live with her parents and reconnect with childhood friends. Park’s lively rom-com addresses the sexism and racism of the workplace while also delivering sweet and savory dishes with a Korean-American family twist.
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A devoted barbecue fan shares his observations over nearly 30 years of good eating
In On Barbecue, John Shelton Reed considers the history of barbecue, regional differences in recipes, and the importance of traditional cooking methods, with a sharp sense of humor and a strong belief in the sanctity of this delicious American institution. Most of all, it’s a love song to his favorite food. Reed will appear at the SouthWord Literary Festival, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on November 5-6.
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Former governor Bill Haslam discusses the role of faith in government
Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam does a deep dive into the two subjects not fit for polite conversation in Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square. Haslam, also the former mayor of Knoxville, outlines a way of approaching the role of religious faith in the hardball arena of politics. He will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.
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Book Excerpt: Edge of the Echo
KB Ballentine’s seventh collection, Edge of the Echo, launched in May 2021 with Iris Press. Earlier books include The Light Tears Loose; Almost Everything, Almost Nothing; and Gathering Stones. Her work also appears in anthologies including Pandemic Evolution (2021). She lives in Chattanooga.
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Stephen K. Stein discusses the BDSM movement in modern America
In Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States, University of Memphis historian Stephen K. Stein explains how a sexual community organized itself and found wider acceptance.
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Ace Atkins’ Mississippi sheriff chases a teenage TikTok sensation across the South
Cigar-smoking Sheriff Quinn Colson tracks Tibbehah County teens wanted for murder through Memphis, Hot Springs, and New Orleans in The Heathens, the 11th novel in the Mississippi crime series by Ace Atkins.
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