Chapter 16 - Part 128

“Self-Portrait as Getting Drunk Dialed by God”

Book Excerpt: I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World

By Kendra DeColo | April 21, 2021

Kendra DeColo is the author of two previous poetry collections, My Dinner with Ron Jeremy (2016) and Thieves in the Afterlife (2014). She is a recipient of a 2019 Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and has taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Vanderbilt University. She’ll discuss I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 23.

A Modern Mother’s Surprising Secret

In The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, a daughter confronts her mother’s Dickensian childhood

By Jane Marcellus | April 20, 2021

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 charts the course of a young friendship in early 1980s New York City

By Emily Choate | April 19, 2021

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

Brandi Carlile pens a frank, vulnerable memoir

By Jacqueline Zeisloft | April 16, 2021

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 combines suspense and social commentary in The Night Always Comes

By Lauren Turner | April 15, 2021

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

Teens grapple with secret guilt in Stewart Lewis’ YA thriller

By Sara Beth West | April 14, 2021

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.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker