Maria Semple’s latest anti-heroine struggles to turn over a new leaf
Spending a day in the mind of Eleanor Flood in Maria Semple’s third novel, Today Will Be Different, is a little like spinning around and around until you fall down—only funnier. Semple will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 17 at 6:30 p.m.
The third volume of John Lewis’s memoir of the civil-rights movement may be the best yet
On November 18 and 19, Congressman John Lewis will be in Nashville to receive the Nashville Public Library Literary Award. The new graphic memoir, March: Book Three, chronicles Lewis’s role in the civil-rights movement. Lewis will give a free public lecture about March: Book Three at Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School in Nashville on November 19 at 10 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.
For Trae Crowder and his co-authors, “liberal redneck” isn’t an oxymoron
In The Liberal Redneck Manifesto, Trae Crowder, Corey Ryan Forrester, and Drew Morgan tackle the stereotypes of poor white Southerners, mostly “fellers,” from drunk-as-skunk-on-Saturday-night to singing-hymns-at-church-on-Sunday-morning, all delivered in a hick accent. The trio will perform at Zanies Comedy Night Club in Nashville on November 13.
The new novel by James E. Cherry is a thriller with the soul of poetry
In Edge of the Wind, a compelling and disturbing new novel, poet James E. Cherry explores the connection between jazz and poetry—and between racism and mental illness.
James McGrath Morris recovers the life of Ethel Payne, a forgotten crusader in the struggle for black freedom
As a reporter and advocate for racial justice, Ethel Payne shaped American society. James McGrath Morris’s biography of her, Eye on the Struggle, is the winner of the 2015 National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. Morris will speak about the book at 6 p.m. on November 15 at the University of Memphis.
Doug the Pug extends his social-media empire to print
Doug the Pug and his “momager,” Leslie Mosier, will be signing their new book, Doug the Pug: The King of Pop Culture, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 12 at 2 p.m. Prior to the event, Mosier answered a few questions from Chapter 16 about the dog at the center of a social-media empire.
