Book Review | Chapter 16

Unspoken Prayers

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips weaves a transcendent tapestry of stories in Sleepovers

By Lauren Turner | September 4, 2020

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips’ debut story collection, Sleepovers, is set in the rural northeast corner of North Carolina where she was born and raised. Steeped in the specificities of place, her characters display plainspoken charm and a desperate sense of longing. Phillips will discuss Sleepovers with George Singleton at a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 28; will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11; and will participate in the Mirror House Reading Series, a virtual event hosted by The Porch in Nashville, on November 11.

Fascinated, Not Afraid

Erica Wright takes a sympathetic look at serpents in Snake

By Bradley Sides | September 1, 2020

“The more reptile facilities I’ve visited and festivals I’ve attended, the more photos I’ve browsed online, the more I’ve become fascinated rather than afraid,” says Erica Wright in Snake. She shows the reptiles some love in this deeply personal and highly readable essay collection.

Among Family

A neglected girl finds a home in Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War I Finally Won

By Tracy Barrett | April 19, 2018

The War I Finally Won is the eagerly awaited sequel to Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Newbery Honor-winning middle-grade novel, The War That Saved My Life. Bradley will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 30.

What Truths We Can Stomach

The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist tells the story of two flawed trial experts

By Emily Choate | March 5, 2018

In The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington delve into the tangled history of two scientific “experts” in the Mississippi court system. Balko and Carrington will discuss The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 10 at 2 p.m.

Welcome to the Machine

Characters come of age in the secret city of Oak Ridge in Janet Beard’s The Atomic City Girls

By Michael Ray Taylor | February 5, 2018

The Atomic City Girls by East Tennessee native Janet Beard is set within the top-secret “instant city” of Oak Ridge during World War II. Beard will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 13 and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 14.

To Call Forth By Noticing

For Nashville poet Lisa Dordal, paying attention is a kind of prayer

By Bobby C. Rogers | February 1, 2018

It’s difficult to make a poetics out of forgiveness, but that’s what Lisa Dordal accomplishes in her new collection, Mosaic of the Dark. Dordal will give three Nashville readings: at The Post on February 6, at Atmalogy on February 9, and at the First Unitarian Universalist Church on February 21.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher