May 28, 2010 So hoary is the tradition of novels about writers that it’s impossible to attend a graduate writing program without being warned against the shopworn trope of writing about being a writer. Nonetheless, with said programs popping up on seemingly every campus, a new breed of books about writers—specifically, MFA candidates and graduates—has emerged. Husband and Wife, the new novel from Leah Stewart (a Vanderbilt graduate and former visiting professor at both Vanderbilt and Sewanee), takes up the task with keen insight and subtle wit. But it also has, significantly, a broader sweep in its intelligent portrayal of modern motherhood and the challenge of creative productivity in a two-breadwinner world.

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.