Chapter 16 - Part 286

Pulling the Curtain Back on Literary Wizardry

The burgeoning field of Cormac McCarthy scholarship offers surprising insights

By Ed Tarkington | January 5, 2017

To writers and scholars who have followed his career for decades, Cormac McCarthy is as notorious for his perceived reclusiveness as for his astonishing body of work. With Cormac McCarthy’s Literary Evolution, Daniel Robert King takes a deep dive into the McCarthy Archive at Texas State University and emerges with a lucid account of McCarthy’s transition from Tennessee to the Southwest.

Love and Money in Wartime

Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, is a tale of two Tennessee horse traders during World War I

By Maria Browning | January 4, 2017

In Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, a pair of itinerant horse traders is drawn into a web of mystery, love, and opportunity as WWI throws the country into turmoil. Peelle will read from the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 16, Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 21, and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 10. At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the era.

Milagro

Book excerpt: The Heronry

By Mark Jarman | December 16, 2016

The Heronry is the eleventh collection of poems by celebrated Nashville poet Mark Jarman. The book will be released on January 10, and Jarman will give a public reading from it at Vanderbilt University on February 23. Here’s an early look: two poems.

An Artificial Village

Book excerpt: Perfect Little World

By Kevin Wilson | December 15, 2016

Kevin Wilson’s second novel, Perfect Little World, will be released on January 24, and he will give readings from it at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 24 and Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 26. In this excerpt, Dr. Preston Grind meets a wealthy benefactor with an idea for a research experiment to prove the truth of the old adage that it takes a village to raise a child.

Crime Capital of the World

Book excerpt: City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and The First Police Chief of Paris

By Holly Tucker | December 14, 2016

Holly Tucker’s most recent nonfiction title, Blood Work, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. The Nashville author’s new work of nonfiction, City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, will be released on March 21. Today we bring you the book’s opening pages.

The Prettiest Horse Ever Drew Breath

Book excerpt: The Midnight Cool

By Lydia Peelle | December 13, 2016

Nashville writer Lydia Peelle will launch her first novel, The Midnight Cool, on a book tour beginning January 6 at Parnassus Books in Nashville and continuing with stops in Memphis (at The Booksellers at Laurelwood on January 16) and Knoxville (at Union Ave. Books on February 10). At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the World War I era, in which the book is set. Today Chapter 16 presents an excerpt from The Midnight Cool.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker