In Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, Scott Kelly and Margaret Lazarus Dean describe the making of an astronaut and the almost yearlong mission that made him a living science experiment in extended space flight.
In his new anthology, Frankenstein Dreams: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Science Fiction, Michael Sims explores early science fiction, a genre born during the rapid scientific and technological advances of the nineteenth century. Sims will discuss the book at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.
Nathaniel Philbrick’s Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution is a grand adventure into the darkness of the human heart, the story of a man whose name is synonymous with “traitor.” Philbrick will discuss and sign Valiant Ambition at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on May 16 at 7 p.m.
“Stayed here on our wedding night,” is the first entry in the scrapbook. Accompanying her text is a linen-paper postcard of the Hayes Hotel in Jackson, Michigan. My parents spent an entire month driving to California and back, a lengthy journey even today, and a grand expedition in the 1940s, before the wide availability of air conditioning and the franchising of America.
In Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and a World of Revolution, Nashville writer Daniel L. Mallock details the breakup and later renewal of the friendship between two beloved founders. Mallock will sign Agony and Eloquence at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Cool Springs on February 11 at 1 p.m. and at Books-A-Million in Nashville on March 26 at 3 p.m.
With The Story of Charlotte’s Web and The Adventures of Henry Thoreau, Michael Sims invented what amounts to a new genre: the biography of a particular book. In Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes, he follows literary and historical clues to identify the origins of the most famous fictional detective in the world.
