Chapter 16 - Part 7

Fighting Against War

Lawrence Wright takes readers behind the rancorous scenes of the Camp David Accords

By Chris Scott | September 23, 2014

September 23, 2014 In 1978, Jimmy Carter brought Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to Camp David in one of the highest-stakes diplomatic moves ever made by a U.S. president. The talks, as chronicled by Lawrence Wright in his new book, Thirteen Days in September, were a struggle of faith and personality that resulted in a triumph of peace over war. Wright will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Defending the Homeland—Harvath Style

Brad Thor’s latest thriller pits his super-agent against a Chinese plot to destroy the U.S.

By Chris Scott | July 14, 2014

July 14, 2014 Among bestselling authors of thrillers, one of the biggest names is Brad Thor. With Act of War, Thor has proven once again why he is a favorite of the genre—and of American political conservatives. The fictional exploits of super-agent Scot Harvath provide a thought-provoking look at how far the U.S. should go to protect itself. Thor will sign copies of Act of War at the Brentwood Costco on July 19, 2014, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm.

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Andrew Gross’s latest thriller captures the moral dilemmas that arise during calamity

By Chris Scott | April 22, 2014

April 22, 2014 In Andrew Gross’s Everything to Lose, Hilary Cantor makes one wrong decision that turns her financially desperate life into a fight for survival. A New York City cop whose life is equally upside down joins her in a battle through a landscape still struggling to recover from the twin disasters of the Great Recession and Superstorm Sandy. Andrew Gross will discuss Everything to Lose at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Cool Springs on April 28, 2014, at 7 p.m.

Missing

A family’s heartbreak drives Laura Lippman’s new mystery

By Chris Scott | February 10, 2014

February 10, 2014 A story of love, betrayal, and the gaping hole left in a family by the unresolved disappearance of a loved one, Laura Lippman’s After I’m Gone is a reminder that a well-done mystery novel is as great a work of art as any piece of literature. Lippman will discuss After I’m Gone at the Nashville Public Library on February 12, 2014, at 6:15 p.m., as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

Rage Against the Machines

Doris Kearns Goodwin explores politics and journalism during the progressive era

By Chris Scott | December 9, 2013

December 9, 2013 In The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, Pulitzer Prize-winner Doris Kearns Goodwin has produced an enlightening, timely account of not one but two of America’s most important peacetime presidents and the social and political revolution they engineered. Goodwin will discuss The Bully Pulpit as part of the Salon@615 series in the Paschall Theater at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on December 12, 2013, at 6:15 p.m.

Out of Many, One

Simon Winchester pays homage to the Americans who built this country’s infrastructure

By Chris Scott | October 29, 2013

October 29, 2013 In The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible, Simon Winchester lauds those who physically united a nation. The inventions and public works he describes have served to bring – and hold – together one of the largest and most diverse countries on the planet. Winchester will discuss The Men Who United the States at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 7, 2013, at 6:30 p.m.

Distant Sons

Tim Johnston
Algonquin Books
400 pages
$29

“Tim Johnston has once again raised the bar for the literary thriller. Distant Sons is elegant and edgy, refined and complex. It excavates the truth from the darkest recesses of the past and shines a light towards the possibility of a redemptive future.”

~ Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women and Sing Her Down