In C Pam Zhang’s debut novel, orphaned siblings struggle to survive in the unforgiving American West
In C Pam Zhang’s debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Lucy and Sam, orphaned siblings of Chinese laborers, fend for themselves in the barren hills of the American West in the aftermath of the gold rush. Zhang will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books on April 12.
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Author Meg Medina revisits a beloved character
Fans of Meg Medina’s Merci Suárez Changes Gears, winner of the 2019 Newbery Medal, will be thrilled to catch up with the book’s protagonist again in the sequel, Merci Suárez Can’t Dance. Medina will appear at a virtual Salon@615 event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 7.
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Clay McLeod Chapman’s Whisper Down the Lane is a tale of genuine terror
In Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman reimagines the McMartin preschool trials and the “satanic panic” era of the 1980s. Chapman will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on April 8.
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In his debut novel, Dennis McCarthy imagines an alternate fate for history’s most notorious gunslinger
“So here’s the gospel story. Gospel as I know it anyway. Memory’s a funny thing. It’ll fool you.” Thus begins Dennis McCarthy’s reimagining of the legend of Henry McCarty, aka William H. Bonney, aka William Roberts, aka Billy the Kid. The Gospel According to Billy the Kid is at once an unromantic account of the violence and lawlessness of the late 19th-century West and a rollicking good yarn.
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The 10th thriller in the Gray Man series follows news of a Netflix film
In Relentless, Memphis-based author Mark Greaney sends his fictional assassin Court Gentry, aka the Gray Man, to Berlin to protect the woman he loves. A cinematic version of The Gray Man series is in the works, with Ryan Gosling as the title character.
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A white priest’s experience of the civil rights movement in Alabama
Francis X. Walter’s From Preaching to Meddling provides valuable eyewitness testimony to the struggle for civil rights in Alabama. The memoir is an important historical document by a humble man of faith who tried to live what he believed during a dangerously polarizing time.
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