Chapter 16 - Part 509

Catching Up

The Grumpy Bookpeddler has Murfreesboro readers smiling

By Margaret Renkl | October 17, 2011

October 17, 2011 Maybe the tide is finally turning: after losing six bookstores across the state last winter and spring, Tennessee has four new stores open or on the way this fall: Union Ave. Books in Knoxville, Parnassus Books and Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt in Nashville, and now The Grumpy Bookpeddler in Murfreesboro. The Daily News Journal has the story of Alan and Carol Wollard, an Illinois couple who followed their dream to own a bookstore to Middle Tennessee. Read more about them and The Grumpy Bookpeddler here.

Language and Love

As Humanities Tennessee kicks off another Southern Festival of Books, an English professor explains why such celebrations really matter

By Randy Mackin | October 14, 2011

October 14, 2011 We’re coming to the Southern Festival of Books to spend time with people who create for us worlds only they can imagine, or who make us see in a more brilliant light the world we are forced to occupy. We’ll be there because we choose to inhabit their worlds, ethereal worlds that hang somewhere between language and love. We want to see these writers face to face, to learn the color of their eyes, check out their mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, confirm our suspicions, shake their hands, and have them read to us. The 2011 Southern Festival of Books will be held this weekend, October 14-16, at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Spooky Smart

Chris Bohjalian’s literary ghost story transcends genre, just in time for Halloween

By Michael Ray Taylor | October 13, 2011

October 13, 2011 Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Secrets of Eden and Midwives, discusses the genesis of his latest novel, The Night Strangers, a delightfully creepy New England ghost story. Bohjalian will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Another Book for Skloot

The mega-bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is ready for Round Two

By Margaret Renkl | October 13, 2011

October 12, 2011 Thanks to her almost preternaturally canny use of social media, conventional media, and real-live human connections, Rebecca Skloot had a bestseller on her hands the very day The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks hit shelves last year. The book has since gone on to make the former University of Memphis science writer virtually a household name, and today a press release from Random House explains why:

The Pain of What Might Have Been

In a compelling new history, Candice Millard retells the tragedy of the Garfield assassination

By Chris Scott | October 12, 2011

October 12, 2011 Charles Guiteau did much more than kill James Garfield. As Candice Millard explains in Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, the deranged Guiteau deprived America of a potentially great president. Even in death Garfield inspired much of the reform that he advocated in his too-short term of office. His murder, Millard writes, “brought tremendous change to the country he loved—change that, had it come earlier, almost certainly would have spared his life.” Millard will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Right Before Your Very Eyes

Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, is a spellbinding read

By Sarah Norris | October 11, 2011

October 11, 2011 Erin Morgenstern, the debut author of one of this fall’s most anticipated novels, is drawing widespread comparisons to both J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. With The Night Circus, the thirty-three-year-old multimedia artist has not only crafted a story of epic proportions but also turned her own life into a fairy tale, replete with what looks to be a very happy ending.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher