Rebecca Skloot wins prestigious prize in the U.K.
November 15, 2010 Rebecca Skloot’s debut work of nonfiction has won the Wellcome Trust book prize for the best work of fiction or nonfiction with a medical theme. The award carries a prize of £25,000 (about $40,000).
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David Sedaris talks with Chapter 16 about undecided voters, Loretta Lynn, life on book tour, and his new collection of unconventional animal fables
November 12, 2010 Sedaris’s trademark brand of humor is marked by equal doses of caustic wit and the sweet wistfulness of the true romantic. Sedaris never misses a chance to point out the absolute idiocy of human beings—including, invariably hilariously, his own mistakes and misadventures—but it’s impossible to read his essays and stories without concluding that he secretly enjoys the parade of human foolishness he’s treated to every day. He recently spoke with Chapter 16 prior to his signing of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on November 13 at 3 p.m.
Read moreDiann Blakely appears in Best American Poetry
Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s new middle-grade novel captures another age in turmoil
November 9, 2010 Hope McDaniels, the star of Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s latest middle-grade novel, is a thirteen-year-old magician’s assistant. Hope has crawled inside a box to be sawed in half, stood still while knives were thrown her way, and levitated in front of an awed audience. Selling Hope takes place in 1910, during “the world’s first case of mass hysteria,” when the Earth was due to pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet. Tubb will launch the book at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on November 13 at 2 p.m.
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Homer Hickam’s first mystery uncovers murder—and dinosaurs—in Big Sky Country
November 8, 2010 Homer Hickam, of Rocket Boys fame, has changed literary course. In his new novel, The Dinosaur Hunter, he presents a mystery set in remote east-central Montana, a land full of cattle, cowboys, ranchers, and paleontologists. It’s a mix sure to cause trouble. On the Square C Ranch, a season of bone digging, romantic entanglements, and dreams of fame and fortune is followed closely by murder and mayhem, putting an ex-cop turned cowboy back into the business of gunfights and catching bad guys. Homer Hickam signs The Dinosaur Hunter at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville November 11 at 7 p.m.
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In Lee Sandlin’s eclectic new history, it’s a treat to beat your feet in the Mississippi mud
November 5, 2010 Lee Sandlin’s Wicked River is a wickedly funny new history of the great Mississippi, whose violent, profane, drunken, calamitous, hypocritical character is perhaps an archetype of the American character itself. Sandlin will discuss Wicked River at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on November 9 at 6 p.m.
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