A Recipe for Disaster

By Tina LoTufo

April 27, 2012

April 27, 2012 Teeny Templeton is back in the soup, and it’s not one of her own quirky recipes, like I’m-Scared-to-Try-New-Things Tilapia with Orange-You-Glad-You-Took-a-Risk Marinade. Teeny has witnessed a murder—or at least thinks she has—and now must solve the crime before the police pin it on her, again. A Teeny Bit of Trouble follows Michael Lee West’s hapless heroine from Charleston, South Carolina, to Bonaventure, Georgia, in search of the truth—and the perfect peach pie (recipe included). West will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 5 at 6 p.m.

The Hunger in Our Souls

By Tina LoTufo

April 26, 2012

April 26, 2012 Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that includes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and other highly imaginative genres, often incorporating a supernatural bent. Christian writer Bill Myers is a bestselling, award-winning, and highly prolific author of such stories for young adults. Along with Heather Burch, author of Halflings, and Jill Williamson, author of Replication: The Jason Experiment, Myers will make three stops in Middle Tennessee next week: on April 27, he will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood at 6 p.m.; on April 28, they will be at Lifeway Christian Store in Murfreesboro at noon, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville at 4 p.m. These events, designed especially for teen readers, will include interaction with the authors, scavenger hunts, and the chance to win a Nook or Kindle e-reader.

Setting Out for the Promised Land

By Tina LoTufo

April 3, 2012

April 3, 2012 On February 1, 1968, Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed to death when a loose shovel fell into the mechanism of the garbage truck in which they were riding. Eleven days later, nearly one thousand sanitation, sewer, and roadway workers in Memphis began a city-wide strike for safer and more humane working conditions, higher and more consistent wages, and the right to have a voice in their own treatment. Two months after that, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on a motel balcony. Marching to the Mountaintop, Ann Bausum’s careful and thorough portrayal of this pivotal period, shows young readers how one event can set in motion forces powerful enough to change a city, a state, a nation—and maybe even the history of the world. Bausum will appear in Memphis at The Booksellers at Laurelwood on April 5 at 6 p.m.

Twenty Million and Counting

By Tina LoTufo

March 30, 2012

March 30, 2012 Nashville novelist Karen Kingsbury has more than twenty million books in print and boasts a quarter of a million Facebook fans who look forward to the latest installment in her series fiction, stand-alone titles, and children’s books. Kingsbury’s newest offering, Loving, is the fourth and final book in the Bailey Flanigan series. She recently answered questions from Chapter 16 via email.

Showing Up for Life

By Tina LoTufo

March 28, 2012

March 28, 2012 “On Memorial Day 2002 I woke up and decided to leave my husband,” begins Margaret Overton’s memoir, Good in a Crisis. Her husband of twenty years, a surgeon, does not object to the divorce as it gives him more time to spend with his young girlfriend. As if this situation were not stressful enough, Overton, a Chicago anesthesiologist with two teenaged daughters, suffers a brain aneurysm a few months later. Good in a Crisis is the story of how she survives the dissolution of her marriage and a life-threatening illness at the same time—with the help of her family and friends and a healthy sense of humor—and all the lessons she learns (mostly the hard way) in the process. Margaret Overton will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 4 at 6:30 p.m.

The Constancy of Goodness

By Tina LoTufo

March 8, 2012

March 8, 2012 Robert Goolrick’s forthcoming second novel, Heading Out to Wonderful, begins with the arrival of a mysterious stranger, Charlie Beale, in a quiet Virginia town during the summer of 1948. Beale brings with him two suitcases—the first filled with knives and the second with money—and a powerful desire that “things would finally turn out better, and that this would be the place he could feel at home.” The book isn’t due in stores until June, but Goolrick will read from it on March 15 at 6 p.m. as part of Algonquin Book Club Night at Parnassus Books in Nashville.