Chapter 16 - Part 477

Can You See Me Now?

With her fifth and most ambitious novel, novelist Jeanne Ray has written a marvelous meditation on middle-aged obscurity

By Tina LoTufo | May 24, 2012

May 24, 2012 Any woman of a certain age who has ever walked through a busy high-school hallway without a plate of cupcakes in her hands knows what it feels like to be completely invisible. Jeanne Ray’s new novel, Calling Invisible Women, is a modern fable about showing up—literally and metaphorically—for your own life, even under the pressure of other people’s incessant expectations. Ray, who is the mother of novelist Ann Patchett, will read from her new novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 31 at 6:30 p.m.

General Advice

Colin Powell’s new book highlights a lifetime in leadership—and a few mistakes

By Chris Scott | May 23, 2012

May 23, 2012 Colin Powell has spent over a half century as a leader. Now he wants to share the lessons he learned in all those years of working to inspire and manage people. In his latest book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, Powell passes along words of wisdom that would normally be handed down in private conversations between mentor and protégé. In providing examples both small and large, including those involving the controversies surrounding the war with Iraq, Powell has created a hybrid that is part memoir and part how-to book. Powell will appear in an onstage conversation with former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham on May 30 at 7 p.m. at Belmont University’s Massey Concert Hall. The event is part of the Salon@615 series.

“Lily” and “October 13, 2006”

An unusual joint appearance at Nashville’s Scarritt-Bennett Center features paired poems—one each by Mitzi Cross and Malcolm Glass—on the same subject

By Cross and Glass | May 22, 2012

May 22, 2012 Mitzi Cross and Malcolm Glass are married poets living in Clarksville, Tennessee. Cross is an award-winning poet, playwright, and photographer, whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals, art galleries, and juried exhibits across the mid-South. Glass is a writer and photographer who has published five books of poems and several textbooks, including Bone Love, In the Shadow of the Gourd, and Important Words. The two will appear together on May 24 at Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville at 7 p.m.

Out of the Park

Thanks to his new memoir, MLB knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey has the literary press watching, too

By Margaret Renkl | May 22, 2012

May 22, 2012 As professional baseball’s only starting knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, the New York Mets pitcher, is no stranger to the nation’s sports pages, but this spring he’s showing up on the book pages, too, thanks to his new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball (written with New York Daily News sportswriter Wayne Coffey).

Are You My Father?

In her new novel, Sybil Baker explores the bonds of family and the nature of belonging

By Sarah Norris | May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012 Into This World, the new novel by Chattanooga author Sybil Baker, is rife with characters whose lives have not unfolded according to plan. Baker’s enthralling story follows a family caught in a web of secrets that must come unraveled before everyone involved can make the changes necessary to move forward. Sybil Baker will read from Into This World on May 23 at Winder Binder Gallery and Bookstore in Chattanooga at 7 p.m. Wine and light refreshments will be provided. The event is free and open to the public.

Home Again

Abraham Verghese heads for his homeland—and tells the story in a new essay for The New York Times

By Margaret Renkl | May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012 Abraham Verghese is a Renaissance man for our multicultural age: an American citizen born in Ethiopia to Indian parents from the Kerala region, he is a physician who trained in New York and Tennessee (and practiced in Texas and California), an author who studied at the legendary Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a Syrian Christian whose Hindu ancestors were converted to the faith by the evangelizing of St. Thomas himself. In most ways, this fluid sense of identity has served Verghese well, informing a vast array of essays, memoirs, and journal articles, as well as one sweeping novel, Cutting for Stone, that spans several continents and has a page-turning plot most often compared to the work of John Irving.

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