Michael Sims investigates the very real origins of the greatest fictional detective
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.
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Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf demystify a founding father
Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf explores the ideas, times, and misconceptions about a founding father often described as indecipherable. Gordon-Reed will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
James Lee McDonough exposes the many contradictions of William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life is James Lee McDonough’s detailed look at a brilliant, multi-faceted soldier who never hesitated to visit the hell of war on his enemies. McDonough will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
French patriots fight Nazi occupation in Alan Furst’s new spy thriller
May 31, 2016 Alan Furst’s new novel, A Hero of France, portrays the dangers faced by the brave souls who elected to fight the Nazi occupation of France from the inside, where enemies were many and friends could not always be trusted. Furst will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 6, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
With his fifth novel, John Hart proves once again that “literary thriller” is not an oxymoron
May 12, 2016 Redemption Road proves once again that John Hart is a master of the literary thriller. His flawed and haunted characters must work in the shadows of modern-day North Carolina to find their way to salvation. Hart will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 19, 2016, at 6:30 pm.
Jon Meacham traces the political roots of George H. W. Bush
December 2, 2015 Distrusted by liberals who saw him as Reagan’s lap dog and by conservatives who thought him too soft, George H. W. Bush is generally viewed as a genial but inconsequential president. But, as Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham points out in Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, that dismissal is wrong. Meacham will discuss the book at three different Tennessee events in December.
