March 30, 2012 When Ada Howard opens an invitation to her twenty-fifth college reunion, a year away, she is moved to step on a scale for the first time in as long as she can remember. Shocked to find that she’s ballooned to 220 pounds and inspired by the prospect of bumping into her former boyfriend, the five-foot-two-inch Ada sets out on a quest to shed a hundred pounds in twelve months. She starts by writing a list of fifty-three rules. Number one on the list: “Don’t keep doing what you’ve always been doing.” Alice Randall will read from and discuss Ada’s Rules at two Nashville events: Parnassus Books on May 8 at 6:30 p.m. and at Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt on May 19 at 2 p.m.

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.