A dime-store scrapbook preserves priceless seventy-year-old memories
“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.
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Daniel L. Mallock finds timely lessons in the friendship of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
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.
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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.
