Brenda Rickman Vantrease takes readers back to the Civil War—the English one
In Brenda Rickman Vantrease’s new novel, The Queen’s Promise, three women must make dangerous choices as England collapses into civil war. Vantrease will appear at Parnassus Books on August 19, and at the Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14. Both events are in Nashville.
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Joseph Crespino’s Atticus Finch is the biography of an iconic character
In Atticus Finch: The Biography, historian Joseph Crespino explains the construction and evolution of Harper Lee’s famous character. Crespino will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza and the Nashville Public Library. Festival events are free and open to the public.
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In Penelope Lemon: Game On!, Inman Majors summons the comic spirit of P.G. Wodehouse
The hero of Inman Majors’s new comic novel, Penelope Lemon: Game On!, is at a crossroads. Divorced and broke, she must use all her cunning and fortitude to start over—and maybe have some fun along the way. Majors will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 13, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 14, at Novel in Memphis on August 16, and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
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In Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Kevin Wilson plumbs the tragicomic depths of misbegotten lives
A widow welcomes home her drug-addicted son after the demise of his rock band. A single mother tries to talk her son out of dressing up for Halloween as his dead brother. A chain-smoking priest attempts to cure an altar boy who faints during Communion. With the stories in Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Sewanee fiction writer Kevin Wilson continues his tragicomic exploration of the dark side of domesticity.
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The Lost Country, a new posthumously published novel, is classic William Gay
William Gay’s writing doesn’t capture Middle Tennessee; it is Middle Tennessee, as much a part of the landscape as its fields and barns and creeks. Every turn of phrase, every scene describes with effortless perfection the curve of a hill, the angle of an eave, the lilt in a drawl.
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Vince Vawter takes young readers on a road trip to the Mississippi Delta
Copyboy, the new middle-grade novel by Vince Vawter, is a sequel worthy of its exceptional predecessor, Paperboy, a 2014 Newbery Honor Book. Vawter will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on July 31 and at East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 7.
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