Blood Oranges
The Vanishing Birds
“Star Epiphany”
"In Praise of Winter Trees"
The Edge of Breath
Chapter 16
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Rage Against the Machines

Doris Kearns Goodwin explores politics and journalism during the progressive era

By Chris Scott |

December 9, 2013 In The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, Pulitzer Prize-winner Doris Kearns Goodwin has produced an enlightening, timely account of not one but two of America’s most important peacetime presidents and the social and political revolution they engineered. Goodwin will discuss The Bully Pulpit as part of the Salon@615 series in the Paschall Theater at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on December 12, 2013, at 6:15 p.m.

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Free to a Good Bookshelf

Madison Smartt Bell’s publisher is giving away his new book—but there’s a wonderful catch

By Margaret Renkl |

December 6, 2013 Madison Smartt Bell’s new book, a collection of short stories called Zig Zag Wanderer, sounds like vintage MSB: “Stretching from New York to Haiti and beyond, these luminous stories reveal Bell’s sharp eye and deep empathy for his characters—punks, hustlers, mixed figures, and lost souls of all ages, backgrounds, and denominations,” according to the book’s publisher, Concord Free Press.

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Remembering John

Friends and colleagues recall John Egerton, Nashville’s beloved writer, activist, and mentor

By Margaret Renkl |

December 5, 2013 As soon as news spread of John Egerton’s death, people who loved and admired him began to share recollections of his lasting impact on the world. In advance of a public celebration of Egerton’s life that will be held at the Nashville Public Library on December 8 at 2:30 p.m., we have gathered together some reminiscences from friends and colleagues in Nashville, as well as excerpts from the many obituaries and essays about John in the national media that have appeared during the last two weeks.

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Fire and Hurt

Robert Hilburn captures a music icon in his rich new biography of Johnny Cash

By Michael Ray Taylor |

December 4, 2013 From 1954, when he performed alongside the teenaged Elvis Presley, to his 2003 rendition of “Hurt,” recorded in Nashville months before his death, Johnny Cash held a unique power over audiences and those who knew him. Robert Hilburn, who spent more than thirty years as the chief music critic of The Los Angeles Times, has captured the roots of that power in Johnny Cash: The Life, a rich and thorough new biography.

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Authentic Appalachia

In a new historical novel, Karen Spears Zacharias conveys a complex drama set during a supposedly simpler time and place

By Ralph Bowden |

December 3, 2013 Karen Spears Zacharias is a veteran author of nonfiction, but her new book, Mother of Rain, is a foray into historical fiction. Set during the Depression and World War II in a close-knit community in East Tennessee, the story centers on a troubled young woman, her first baby, and their Appalachian neighbors’ good-hearted efforts to save them both.

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Beyond Shock and Awe

Radley Balko rethinks America’s militarized police forces

By Paul V. Griffith |

December 2, 2013 In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko argues that America’s police forces are growing increasingly dependent on military tools and training, even though most suspects are accused of non-violent crimes. “These policies,” he says, “have given us an increasingly paranoid, increasingly aggressive police force in America, and a public shielded from knowing the consequences of it all.”

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