Michael Sims investigates the very real origins of the greatest fictional detective
With The Story of Charlotte’s Web and The Adventures of Henry Thoreau, Michael Sims invented what amounts to a new genre: the biography of a particular book. In Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes, he follows literary and historical clues to identify the origins of the most famous fictional detective in the world.
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In The Second Mrs. Hockaday, Susan Rivers has created an original Civil War tale
Loosely based on a real incident, The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers is the tale of a pampered seventeen-year-old daughter of a South Carolina plantation owner who marries a widowed Confederate major. Rivers will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 25 at 6:30 p.m.
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In Perfect Little World, Kevin Wilson depicts an experiment in communal parenting
In Kevin Wilson’s Perfect Little World, a child psychologist’s Infinite Family Project brings ten newborns and their parents to a compound outside Nashville, where they will live and grow together, their every need met. Wilson will discuss his second novel at Bounty on Broad in Memphis on January 24 at 6 p.m., and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 26 at 6:30 p.m.
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Tim Gautreaux’s new story collection draws tentative hope out of modern malaise
Tim Gautreaux’s wide-ranging new collection, Signals, expertly examines a variety of broken lives, speaking plainly of suffering but also offering glimpses of hope and redemption. He will discuss Signals at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on January 19, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 1.
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Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, is a tale of two Tennessee horse traders during World War I
In Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, a pair of itinerant horse traders is drawn into a web of mystery, love, and opportunity as WWI throws the country into turmoil. Peelle will read from the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 16, Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 21, and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 10. At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the era.
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Book excerpt: The Midnight Cool
Nashville writer Lydia Peelle will launch her first novel, The Midnight Cool, on a book tour beginning January 6 at Parnassus Books in Nashville and continuing with stops in Memphis (at The Booksellers at Laurelwood on January 16) and Knoxville (at Union Ave. Books on February 10). At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the World War I era, in which the book is set. Today Chapter 16 presents an excerpt from The Midnight Cool.
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