Michael Knight’s new novel, At Briarwood School for Girls, juxtaposes teen pregnancy, boarding- school intrigue, an ill-fated attempt to build a Disney theme park next to a Civil War battlefield, and a visitation of spirits. Knight will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 4.
“My name is Mary Laura, and I am addicted to getting things right.” In I Miss You When I Blink, Mary Laura Philpott, co-host of Nashville Public Television’s A Word on Words and founding editor of Parnassus Books’ digital magazine, Musings, delivers a witty, whimsical, deeply moving meditation on facing down despair and finding joy in imperfection. Philpott will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 1 and at Novel in Memphis on April 17.
In The Weight of a Piano, novelist Chris Cander delivers a tale of generations and continents, a tragic love story, and a powerful meditation on the power of music—and of silence. Cander will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 1.
Nashville’s reputation as the capital of the country-music industry belies the fact that some of the city’s deepest, richest musical veins trace back to Nashville’s African-American community. In Shake Your Hips, Randy Fox describes the canny conversion of art and commerce that led Ernie Young to found Excello Records, tapping into the hidden heartbeat of Music City and broadcasting it to the world.
In Sugar Run, her debut novel, Mesha Maren explores the complications of addiction, obsession, and rural poverty through the lens of an ex-convict’s love affairs with two captivating and self-destructive women. Maren will discuss Sugar Run at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 22.
In That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound, Nashville music journalist Daryl Sanders painstakingly and reverently narrates the making of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, offering a window into the creative process of a genius and the crucial influence of Dylan’s Nashville collaborators in producing a singular work of art.
