Faye Jones

May 5, 2011 In The Dashwood Sisters Tell All, the third Jane Austen-themed novel by Nashvillian Beth Pattillo, estranged sisters Ellen and Mimi Dodge take a Jane Austen walking tour to scatter their mother’s ashes. It is clear, even to them, that their mother’s final wish was designed to bring them closer together. The sisters doubt her plan will work, but as the week proceeds, they learn more about themselves, each other, their mother, and even some secrets about Jane Austen herself. Beth Pattillo will read from The Dashwood Sisters Tell All at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on May 6 at 7 p.m.

March 16, 2011 The Victorians were a resourceful group: once they realized how absolutely engrossing readers found crime stories, they invented lady detectives, though the actual gumshoes of the age were uniformly male. In The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, Michael Sims has collected a fascinating group of Victorian stories featuring female detectives and offers an intriguing analysis of these ancestors of Miss Marple. Sims will discuss The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime on March 19 at 1 p.m. at BookMan/BookWoman in Nashville.

February 9, 2011 In her first novel, When We Were Strangers, Knoxvillian Pamela Schoenewaldt tells the story of Irma Vitale, a young Italian woman who comes to America, as all immigrants do, in the hope of making a better life for herself. The book is a vivid account of not only Irma’s own story but also that of America itself. Pamela Schoenewaldt will discuss When We Were Strangers at 7 p.m. on February 10 at Borders Books in Nashville.

December 14, 2010 After a day of fighting mall crowds in search of this year’s must-have gizmo, there may be no better holiday treat than settling down with a cup of coffee and a Santa cookie and spending a few hours in Second Creek, Mississippi, with Robert Dalby’s A Piggly Wiggly Christmas. Dalby will read from and sign copies of the book this week at public libraries in Crossville, Murfreesboro, Collierville, and Clarksville. Check Chapter 16’s events section for details.

November 15, 2010 if you’re a former Miss Alabama, and you’re determined to do away with yourself with as little attention and mess as possible, you have quite a bit of planning to do. And though a suicide attempt might not seem like the best foundation for a comic novel, in Fannie Flagg’s newest, the ever-present humor is neither mocking nor unsympathetic. Flagg will discuss and sign I Still Dream about You at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on November 16 at 7 p.m.