November 6, 2012 While Grant gathered his forces and defeated Bragg in Chattanooga, Confederate James Longstreet tried to retake Knoxville from Union forces under Ambrose Burnside. The struggle for Knoxville, usually regarded as a sideshow to the more strategically vital Chattanooga battle, has been comparatively understudied, but in The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee, Earl J. Hess has given it the scholarly but readable treatment it deserves. Hess will discuss and sign his book at the Frank H. McClung Museum on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville on November 11 at 2 p.m.

August 6, 2012 In Intrepid Aviators, Memphis attorney Gregory G. Fletcher focuses on the Pacific during World War II, providing background details about ships, planes, commanders, and battles. His particular interest, however, is the story of the carrier Intrepid, including a detailed treatment of the torpedo bombers in Squadron 18 and a very personal look at the experiences of his father, Willard Fletcher, one of Squadron 18’s pilots. Will Fletcher launched one of the torpedoes that doomed the huge Musashi battleship. His plane was shot down, and his two crew members were lost, but he managed to survive a harrowing adventure.

August 2, 2012, 2012 Deep East Texas in the 1940s and ’50s was a tough environment for a bookish kid. As Gerald Duff describes in his memoir, Home Truths, growing up there required creative and spontaneous lying to survive. As it turns out, being a skillful liar proved useful throughout his life, as well—personally, professionally, and literarily. Duff will discuss Home Truths at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

June 5, 2012 In Born to Battle, historian Jack Hurst looks at the Civil War through the commanders of both Confederate and Union forces. The crucial campaigns in the western theater, at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, were bloody and muddled, with leadership errors on both sides, often a result of the egos and ambitions of the generals, and the antagonisms, jealousies, and mini-wars between them. Hurst will discuss Born to Battle at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on June 14 at 5:30 p.m. and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 5 at 2 p.m.