Chapter 16 - Part 571

Salvation, Chick-Lit Style

In Tamara Leigh’s new novel, a former mean girl finds redemption and love in her hometown

By Faye Jones | May 27, 2010

May 27, 2010 Nowhere, Carolina is the second novel in Tamara Leigh’s bestselling Southern Discomfort series, and while the book is overtly Christian in nature, more secular readers will enjoy the novel’s appealing and very human characters. Readers of chick-lit novels will see early on exactly where this book is going, and Christian chick lit is no different, except that it has less sex. Still, Tamara Leigh is able to throw in some curve balls and the story, while hopeful, is anything but pat.

A Poet's Prize

Jeff Daniel Marion is named Writer in Residence by the University of Tennessee Libraries

By Margaret Renkl | May 27, 2010

May 27, 2010 For the academic year 2010-2011, Rogersville native Jeff Daniel Marion will serve as the University of Tennessee Libraries’ Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence. His responsibilities will include meeting with creative-writing students and organizing a series of public readings by regional writers.

Sherlock Holmes: The Fifth Generation

Tracy Barrett introduces kids to the descendants of the world’s greatest detective

By Chris Scott | May 26, 2010

May 26, 2010 What if Sherlock Holmes had married? And what if that union had produced children, who produced more children, until there were two great-great-great-grandchildren who had inherited their famous ancestor’s detective skills? The siblings would star in a series of detective stories, of course. Welcome to The Sherlock Files by Nashvillian Tracy Barrett.

Killer Contest

Killer Nashville’s contest deadline extended to June 1

By Margaret Renkl | May 26, 2010

May 26, 2010 Aspiring mystery novelists, take note: the deadline for the Claymore Award, a contest sponsored by Killer Nashville, has been extended to June 1, and the list of genres now open for consideration has been expanded, as well. Up to ten manuscripts will be considered for publication by Five Star/Tekno Books. Read contest details here.

Writeous

Online auction “Do the Write Thing” brings in $75,000 for Tennessee flood relief

By Margaret Renkl | May 25, 2010

May 25, 2010 The waters finally receded, but as the news reports got grimmer and grimmer and the photographs got more and more heartbreaking, three Nashville novelists decided to do something about the flood. As thousands of citizens fanned out across the region to help their neighbors drag saturated carpet and drywall to the street, Myra McEntire, Amanda Morgan, and Victoria Schwab tried to think of a way to use their connections as writers to help.

The Good Books

What if all you ever wanted was a kid who loves books, and your daughter turns out to have bad taste in literature?

By Susannah Felts | May 24, 2010

May 24, 2010 My daughter was born, grew, sat up, ate mush, and all the while I was happy with the books I’d carefully selected for her. Thalia, however, seemed not so terribly interested. I began to wonder if, horror of horrors, my squirmy kid was not going to like reading. But she grew some more, and I watched her reading enthusiasm grow, too. Only it was growing for books I didn’t choose—books I considered problematic.

Isabel and the Invisible World

By Alan Lightman, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
MIT Kids Press
40 pages
$18.99

“In simple, engaging language, complemented by luminous artwork from best-selling illustrator Ramona Kaulitzki, author and physicist Alan Lightman unveils the hidden world of light waves—the ones you can see and the ones you can’t.”

~ the publisher