Chapter 16 - Part 170

Fake It Till You Make It

A junior entrepreneur and a budding drag queen set their sights on stardom

By Tracy Barrett | February 5, 2020

In Greg Howard’s second middle-grade novel, Middle School’s a Drag: You Better Werk!, entrepreneurial pre-teen Mikey Pruitt thinks his new talent agency can’t miss, now that he’s representing an eighth-grade aspiring drag queen. Readers won’t be surprised to find out that things don’t go as smoothly as Mikey anticipates. Howard will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 11, at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 13, and at the SE-YA Book Fest in Murfreesboro on March 12-14.

The Ghost Hunter

Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell cracks cold cases from the civil rights movement

By Aram Goudsouzian | February 4, 2020

Race Against Time, written in the gripping style of a crime thriller, describes how crusading investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell helped to deliver justice in long-ago murders of civil rights activists. Mitchell will speak about his book at Novel in Memphis on February 12 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 24

Pitching for a Level Field

In The Resisters, Gish Jen depicts an eerily plausible near-future dystopia

By Ed Tarkington | February 3, 2020

Gish Jen’s fifth novel, The Resisters, imagines a world where the poor struggle to survive on houseboats buffeted by swollen seas, the rich live comfortably on high ground, and a young woman’s talent for baseball can lead to revolution. Gish Jen will appear in conversation with Ann Patchett to discuss The Resisters at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 12.

Designing an Interior Life

Co-founder of Blackberry Farm Kreis Beall recounts her journey toward authenticity

By Beth Waltemath | January 30, 2020

In The Great Blue Hills of God, hospitality entrepreneur Kreis Beall describes how she embraced simplicity and renovated her soul.

Seeing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

William Eggleston’s photographs illuminate Southern spaces in surprising ways

By Peter Kuryla | January 29, 2020

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, collects 55 of the artist’s works from the 1960s through the 1980s. Primarily everyday scenes from the South during a transitional period in the region’s history, Eggleston’s photographs make the ordinary extraordinary or even dreamlike, capturing time and place but not without significant historical allusions.

Delights, Not Dollars

Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s second novel in her New York Public Library series considers the true value of stories

By Tina Chambers | January 28, 2020

The Story Seeker, the second entry in Nashville writer Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s New York Public Library series for middle school readers, takes place in early 1929. Its protagonist, a vivacious 11-year-old named Viviani, is a lover of stories — and a mystery-solving sleuth. Tubb will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 30 and at Barnes & Noble at Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga on March 24.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly