Lisa Howorth’s Flying Shoes blends dark humor and grief in a character-driven story about the consequences of murder
June 16, 2014 In Lisa Howorth’s debut novel, Flying Shoes, Mary Byrd Thornton’s eccentric small-town world is disrupted by a call that unearths memories her family would rather forget. Howorth will discuss Flying Shoes at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 19, 2014, at 6:30 p.m., and at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on July 10, 2014.
The Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden in Nashville offers a picturesque setting for a reading series
June 9, 2014 Each summer Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art offers a colorful addition to Nashville’s literary landscape with a reading series called Annotations. Local authors discuss their work surrounded by the stunning atmosphere of the Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden. Beginning on June 13, 2014, with novelist Victoria Schwab, the events will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the second Friday of each month during the summer.
Writers grapple with their most memorable foibles in the new essay collection, Southern Sin
May 12, 2014 Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly, an essay collection edited by Lee Gutkind and Beth Ann Fennelly, is about blowing it, betraying loved ones, sleeping with the wrong people, breaking the law, and, most importantly, having the nerve to fess up. In the South, this is not as easy as it may seem.
Tupelo Honey Cafe pays delicious tribute to food—and life—in the Mountain South
May 8, 2014 Tupelo Honey Cafe made a name for itself in Asheville, North Carolina, by bringing a spirit of adventure to a range of traditional Appalachian recipes. Now that Tupelo Honey has expanded throughout the Mountain South—including several Tennessee locations—head chef Brian Sonoskus has partnered with writer Elizabeth Sims to create a collection of recipes and stories that highlight regional dishes. Sonoskus will sign copies of Tupelo Honey Cafe at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 16, 2014, at 5 p.m.
In Tova Mirvis’s Visible City, entangled neighbors catch startling glimpses into each other’s lives
March 28, 2013 The characters in Tova Mirvis’s novel Visible City dwell in the glittering flux of New York, constantly exposed to moments of potential clash and change. They play their official roles—stay-at-home mother, lawyer, therapist, art historian—as seamlessly as they can manage, but inside they seek routes of escape. Mirvis, a Memphis native, will discuss Visible City at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on April 2, 2014, at 6 p.m.
In Charles McNair’s Pickett’s Charge, a century of Southern history unfolds as the last Confederate soldier sets out on a fantastical quest
January 28, 2014 Threadgill Pickett, the 114-year-old protagonist of Charles McNair’s novel Pickett’s Charge, is the last surviving Confederate soldier. Roused from his Alabama rest home by a mysterious visitation from his long-dead brother, Threadgill sets out on a long trek to Bangor, Maine, where he plans to kill the last surviving Union solider. Absurdity and tragedy follow Threadgill wherever he goes, and revenge begins to seem a tougher, stranger business than he’d anticipated. McNair will appear at Howlin’ Books in Nashville on January 30, 2014, at 6 p.m.
