Book Reviews

The Ragin’ Cajun: Memoir of a Louisiana Man tells Doug Kershaw’s life story from his birth on a houseboat in southern Louisiana to international stardom. The legendary musician and his co-author, novelist Cathie Pelletier, will appear at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

In The Years That Matter Most, journalist Paul Tough offers a bracing assessment of the state of higher education in America, focusing on the ways colleges replicate social divisions. Tough will discuss The Years That Matter Most at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.  

In her debut novel, The Affairs of the Falcóns, Melissa Rivero creates an indelible protagonist in undocumented, Peruvian-born Ana, whose life as a mother and wife in mid-1990s New York is a constant, tenuous gauntlet. Melissa Rivero will discuss The Affairs of the Falcóns at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, held on October 11-13.

Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House traces the complex and often torturous history of a pair of siblings and the alluring mansion they called home, once upon a time. 

In Staff Picks, George Singleton continues his exploration of frailty and optimism through the lens of comic absurdity. Singleton will appear at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.